NEWS ROUNDUP
Unions rally | AI | NY Nurses TA
Wednesday, February 11, 2026
STRIKES
► From the City — Nurses at NewYork-Presbyterian Reach Tentative Agreement to End Strike — The New York State Nurses Association and NewYork-Presbyterian reached a tentative agreement on raises, staffing and on-the-job safety to end its strike, the union announced late Tuesday night. The tentative deal at NYP, the last of the three hospital systems where nurses have been on strike since Jan. 12, will likely put an end to the work stoppage that involved 15,000 people.
► From Politico — Teachers strike grips San Francisco — Randi Weingarten, the head of the American Federation of Teachers, spoke at the rally in support of the strike. She later told Playbook that the union’s decision to hold off until after Sunday’s Super Bowl in the Bay Area showed they “believe in the success of the city.” In conversations with the local negotiators, Weingarten said she believes that Lurie is “very involved and taking it seriously.” “I mean, why didn’t that happen over the last 11 months?” Weingarten said. “I got the sense that people are taking it seriously, and I’ve done enough negotiations. Where there is a will, there is a way.”
LOCAL
► From KUOW — Bellevue becomes destination for AI companies — The San Francisco company behind ChatGPT is opening a second home in Bellevue. OpenAI plans to lease 10 new floors of office space in Bellevue’s City Center Plaza, according to GeekWire. And it’s not the only AI company planting a flag on the Eastside. Elon Musks’s xAI is planning to set up camp in the Lincoln Square South building, according to permit filings with the City of Bellevue.
► From the CWU Observer — Faculty Senate members move to authorize vote of no confidence against President Jim Wohlpart — Prior to today’s meeting, 49 faculty members sent a petition to the Faculty Senate Executive Committee (FSEC), on Jan. 20, requesting that the Senate authorize a vote of no confidence against President Wohlpart…The Observer received a copy of the faculty petition in an anonymous email from “concerned CWU faculty.” The petition is a 19 page document that details the reasoning behind the proposed vote of no confidence, with key reasons including, “Interference with faculty long-standing participation in shared governance, interference with the academic mission of the institution in ways that harm faculty, staff and students and fostering a climate of fear, intimidation and mistrust.”
► From NCW Life — Federal cuts force changes to Wenatchee Valley nutrition programs — “We were probably in 60 different classrooms, and we took a series of seven classes to those instructional classrooms and cooperated with the teachers, cooperated with the schools,” Viebrock says. “We’re teaching kids how to appreciate good food, but at the same time, we talk talk to them about reading labels, getting more exercise and just learning basic nutrition.” Congress put an end to the funding source for that program as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill last year.
AEROSPACE
► From the Seattle Times — Boeing will open 737 MAX line in Everett by midsummer — Boeing will open its fourth MAX production line this summer in Everett, setting a timeline that the Everett community has been waiting to hear for two years…That will be the first time Boeing has assembled a narrowbody plane outside of Renton, Ringgold told suppliers at the conference, hosted by the Pacific Northwest Aerospace Alliance.
CONTRACT FIGHTS
► From the Wrap — CBS News 24/7 Staffers Begin 3rd Union Contract Negotiations for AI, Layoff Protections — Writers Guild of America East (WGAE) members at CBS News 24/7 have begun negotiations with CBS and Paramount for their third contract, with a focus on artificial intelligence and layoff protections. According to a Tuesday press release shared with TheWrap, the 60-member bargaining unit is seeking a new agreement that addresses industry changes and includes increased investment by CBS and Paramount in the CBS News 24/7 stream, with compensation to support that growth.
ORGANIZING
► From the Worchester Business Journal — Labor organizers seeking first app-based rideshare driver union — Labor organizers working to create the country’s first app-based rideshare driver union here have just unlocked a trove of information to speed up their work. The Department of Labor Relations determined in December that an aspiring union group — called the App Drivers Union (ADU) — met the threshold to be recognized as the bargaining representative of at least 5% of active rideshare drivers. The ADU is backed by 32BJ SEIU and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers…The unionization effort is unfolding as rideshare drivers face the increasing threat of autonomous vehicles that could put them out of work. Self-driving robotaxi company Waymo last week announced plans to return to Boston for testing and called on the Legislature to legalize fully autonomous vehicles.
NATIONAL
► From the Atlantic — America Isn’t Ready for What AI Will Do to Jobs — In May 2025, Dario Amodei, the CEO of the AI company Anthropic, said that AI could drive unemployment up 10 to 20 percent in the next one to five years and “wipe out half of all entry-level white-collar jobs.” Jim Farley, the CEO of Ford, estimated that it would eliminate “literally half of all white-collar workers” in a decade…Instead of panicking, Shuler said, she talked with the leaders of the AFL-CIO’s unions, representing about 15 million people, and pushed them to use the brief moment before AI is imposed on them to figure out what they want from the technology—and what they might be prepared to trade for that.
► From the AP — Strong hiring in January after hundreds of thousands of job cuts last year — U.S. employers added a surprisingly strong 130,000 jobs last month, but government revisions cut 2024-2025 U.S. payrolls by hundreds of thousands. The unemployment rate fell to 4.3%, the Labor Department said Wednesday. The report included major revisions that reduced the number of jobs created last year to just 181,000, a third the previously reported 584,000 and the weakest since the pandemic year of 2020.
► From Wired — Palantir CEO Alex Karp Recorded a Video About ICE for His Employees — The video did not answer specific questions about Palantir’s product capabilities, however, or how ICE was utilizing Palantir’s products. Instead, the video said workers could sign nondisclosure agreements if they wanted more detailed information…The video came after weeks of internal pressure from workers. Soon after federal agents shot and killed Minneapolis nurse Alex Pretti last month, workers flooded Palantir’s internal Slack questioning the company’s role in the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement, how the products provided work in tandem with ICE’s goals, and whether the company should be involved with the agency at all.
POLITICS & POLICY
► From the Seattle Times — Unions rally for WA ‘millionaires tax’ to fund schools, services — The “Rally for Revenue,” organized by SEIU 775 alongside the Washington Federation of State Employees, the Washington Education Association and the Washington State Labor Council, drew government-funded workers from across the state as lawmakers debate how to address budget shortfalls during the current legislative session…Sunshine Lopez, a full-time SEIU caregiver who drove from Spokane on her only day off, said she works more than 80 hours a week while paying roughly 35% of her income in taxes. “We don’t want cuts to care,” Lopez said. “All care matters.”
► From the Spokesman Review — Hundreds rally for Washington’s proposed millionaires tax at Capitol steps — At the steps of the Capitol, Rep. Natasha Hill, D-Spokane, voiced her full support for the recently pitched tax on Washington’s highest earners. “What I’ve heard and what we’ve heard along the way, when I first started, when I first came in, is that we got to fix our tax code,” the freshman legislator said, speaking to a crowd of more than 500. “We got to make sure that Washingtonians across the state all can share in on the wealth that’s being generated.”
► From People’s World — Young unionists brave cold in march on Congress — Frustrated and upset with an economy that leaves them poorer than their parents, hundreds of young workers—and some not so young—marched on Congress on February 7 to demand a living wage, worker rights, and an economy that works for all, not just the billionaires. The marchers, organized and led by the Government Employees (AFGE), braved subfreezing cold—the high was 15 degrees—gale-force winds and ice-encrusted snow drifts that made marching slippery (or worse) to carry their message that it’s time for a change.
► From the Hill — More than 50 advocacy groups call for Noem’s impeachment — In a letter sent to congressional leaders Monday, the national Hispanic engagement organization and a coalition of other organizations, including the Service Employees International Union, Human Rights Campaign, and United Farm Workers, said they support a formal House resolution introduced by Rep. Robin Kelly (D-Ill.) last month that called for Noem’s impeachment…“Secretary Noem has fundamentally failed to exercise the sound judgment and discretion required of her office,” the letter adds.
► From KOIN — Oregon farmworkers union calls on Congress to deny DHS funding hike for ICE — “To ICE, it doesn’t matter whether you are a citizen or not. This Administration has given this rogue agency permission to harass and detain our neighbors and loved ones simply because of their last name or the color of their skin,” PCUN Executive Director Reyna Lopez said. “ICE has made it unsafe to simply live and work in our neighborhoods. Never should a child fear that, one day, they will return home from school and discover their parents have been taken. Never should someone wonder if they will be safe walking to work or the grocery store.”
► From the AP — CBO: Federal deficits and debt to worsen over next decade — Major developments over the last year are factored into the latest report, released Wednesday, including Republicans’ tax and spending measure known as the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” higher tariffs, and the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration, which includes deporting millions of immigrants from mainland U.S. As a result of these changes, the projected 2026 deficit is about $100 billion higher, and total deficits from 2026 to 2035 are $1.4 trillion larger, while debt held by the public is projected to rise from 101% of GDP to 120% — exceeding historical highs.
► From the Government Executive — Congress paused all federal layoffs for 3 months. That’s set to change this week — During the longer shutdown last fall, a smattering of agencies attempted to cumulatively lay off around 4,000 employees before a judge and Congress paused the efforts. Those RIFs, since rescinded, were set to impact the departments of Commerce, Education, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Treasury, as well as DHS and the Environmental Protection Agency…The Office of Management and Budget did not immediately respond to an inquiry into whether the administration would seek to resume RIFs if the moratorium is lifted.
► From the Washington State Standard — Health care workers want ICE out of hospitals, and blue states are responding — Whether or not ICE presence is actually increasing at health care facilities, it’s clear that people living in the country illegally are being deterred from seeking medical care, said Drishti Pillai, director of immigrant health policy at the health policy research group KFF. A KFF and New York Times survey released last November showed that 43% of respondents identifying as immigrant parents living in the country illegally skipped or delayed health care for their children over a 12-month period because they were concerned about immigration enforcement. Even among lawfully present immigrants,10% said that they avoided seeking medical care for their children due to immigration-related concerns.
► From the New York Times — NLRB Dismisses Case Brought by Fired SpaceX Employees — In a letter to the workers’ lawyers dated Feb. 6, an official at the National Labor Relations Board said the agency was abandoning the case because it lacked jurisdiction. Adopting an argument made by SpaceX, it said that another regulator, known as the National Mediation Board, was the proper authority to hear the case. “This is one of a million terrible things going on in the U.S. right now,” said Deborah Lawrence, one of the fired SpaceX employees, in a statement. “It’s an example of one of the many ways that our government is now actively hostile to its people, including when it comes to labor law.”
The Stand posts links to local, national and international labor news every weekday morning. Subscribe to get daily news in your inbox.