NEWS ROUNDUP
UW libraries contract | Kaiser strike ends | Signing-in fraud
Tuesday, February 24, 2026
STRIKES
► From ABC7 — Thousands of Kaiser Permanente nurses returning to work after monthlong strike — Thousands of unionized nurses and health care professionals at Kaiser Permanente facilities in California and Hawaii will return to work Tuesday, ending a roughly four-week strike carried out amid prolonged contract talks, union officials said Monday. Officials with the United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals said in a statement there has been “significant movement at the bargaining table” over the past 48 hours, prompting them to call for an end to the strike as of 7 a.m. Tuesday.
LOCAL
► From NBC Right Now — Two Yakima residents face federal charges for labor exploitation — According to the press release, the indictment alleges that Rebolledo Diaz and Ramos illegally transported 103 foreign workers from Mexico under false pretenses. They promised jobs at Marquez Farms LLC with adequate housing, food, and pay. However, upon arrival in the Eastern District of Washington, some workers discovered there was no work, while others worked without pay. The indictment further claims that Rebolledo Diaz and Ramos used overcrowded school buses lacking air conditioning and water to transport the workers. When state authorities began investigating, the defendants allegedly instructed the workers to remain silent and report anyone cooperating with investigators.
CONTRACT FIGHTS
► From the Daily — SEIU 925 librarians remain without new contract as bargaining continues — Negeen Aghassibake, a data management and analysis librarian, also explained that the process of parental leave needed revision based on employees being required to use all their paid leave at once before using unpaid leave. “When new parents were coming back to the workplace and their kids had health issues, they would not have any [paid] leave left to be able to take time off,” Aghassibake said. Aghassibake also explained that PLE employees are pushing for clearer promotion processes to be outlined in the new contract.
► From Forbes — United Airlines Hides $1 Billion In Unpaid Crew Cost, Labor Leader Says — Labor leader Sara Nelson says United Airlines hides at least $1 billion in annual costs “because it isn’t paying for a new contract and flight attendants are massively underpaid.” Nelson is president of the Association of Flight Attendants, which represents about 50,000 flight attendants including 30,000 at United. The United contract became amendable in August 2021: in July 2025, members rejected a tentative contract agreement that offered 27% raises. The next round of mediated talks is scheduled for March 3 through March 6.
► From the AP — WNBA says March 10 deadline needed for new CBA to avoid delaying May 8 season start, AP source says — With an expansion draft for two teams needed to get done, as well as 80% of the league free agents, there’s plenty to get accomplished and little time to do it. A delay would hurt both sides. The season is supposed to start May 8 and every game missed is lost revenue, sponsorships, television money and fan support. Monday’s meeting was the first between the sides that involved players and the league since they met at the WNBA offices on Feb. 2…The two sides are still far apart on revenue sharing and housing, and the clock is ticking. The league said in the meeting on Monday that it would need to have at least a handshake agreement by March 10 for there not to be a delay to the start of the season.
► From Variety — Hearst Magazines Union Ratifies New Deal With Company Covering 410 Members — Unions workers at Hearst Magazines ratified a deal with the company, marking their second three-year collective bargaining agreement. The contract was overwhelmingly ratified with 98% approval by the 410-member bargaining unit of the Hearst Magazines members, who are affiliated with the Writers Guild of America East. The new agreement covers staffers at 29 Hearst Magazines publications including Cosmopolitan, Elle, Esquire, Harper’s Bazaar and Good Housekeeping.
ORGANIZING
► From the Elkhorn Media Group — Whitman College staff launch union drive, seek voluntary recognition — Staff members at Whitman College officially launched a unionization campaign Thursday, announcing they have secured “super-majority support” to form Whitman College Workers United. The announcement came during a campus rally where faculty, staff, and students marched to the office of President Sarah Bolton to deliver a formal letter requesting voluntary recognition of the union by March 1. The organizing committee, which has affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) Washington and the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO).
► From Jacobin — Learning From the UAW’s National Organizing Push — Given the fierce urgency of the moment — thousands of workers were wanting to organize in auto plants right now — we devised a strategy based on our experience in the recent stand-up strike, which saw tens of thousands of UAW members get strike-ready at breakneck speed, and the UAW’s incredible success in higher education, where tens of thousands of graduate workers, postdocs, and researchers had won union elections — often in blowouts — through campaigns rooted in worker-to-worker methods that required minimal staff…Stand Up 2.0 was launched with the goal of unifying workers across states and companies into a single movement with shared benchmarks as coordinated trigger points: go public with the union at 30 percent of workers signed up, rally at 50 percent, and demand union recognition and file for an election at 70 percent. In addition, every two weeks, staff convened digital movement meetings where rank-and-file VOC members shared best practices, cheered each other on, and walked through common problems. It helped build a national culture of solidarity and reinforced the worker-to-worker model of teaching and leaning on each other.
NATIONAL
► From CBS News — ICE whistleblower warns new recruits are receiving “defective” training — “New cadets are graduating from the Academy, despite widespread concerns among training staff that even in the final days of training, the cadets cannot demonstrate a solid grasp of the tactics or the law required to perform their jobs,” Ryan Schwank said during a hearing organized by congressional Democrats. “Without reform, ICE will graduate thousands of new officers who do not know their constitutional duty, do not know the limits of their authority and who do not have the training to recognize an unlawful order. That should scare everyone,” Schwank added. Schwank is an attorney and former career ICE employee who resigned from the immigration agency less than two weeks ago.
► From the Street — UPS clears major legal hurdle amid job cuts — On Friday, Feb. 20, a federal judge in the District Court in Massachusetts gave UPS the green light to implement its Driver Choice Program, much to the delivery company’s relief…Teamsters, the union representing UPS drivers, expects more than 10,000 drivers to take the buyout, Reuters reported. The UPS spokesperson did not confirm the number…the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, one of the largest unions for truck drivers across the country, sued UPS on February 9, calling it an illegal buyout scheme and demanding a halt to the company’s plan to implement cuts for unionized drivers.
► From Law360 — Former NLRB Chairman Joins AFL-CIO Tech Institute — Former National Labor Relations Board Chairman Lauren McFerran has been named the new executive director of the AFL-CIO’s Technology Institute, the organization has announced. McFerran, who spent a decade at the NLRB, from 2014 to 2024, and also served as a board member, has assumed the role as the AFL-CIO Technology Institute’s executive director, the institute said in an announcement Friday. “Lauren McFerran has decades of leadership experience and legal expertise ensuring that every worker is treated fairly under the law,” Liz Shuler, president of the AFL-CIO and board chair of the Tech Institute, said in the announcement.
POLITICS & POLICY
► In These Times — Inside the First-Ever Young Worker March on Washington — Organizers say they spent years preparing for this moment — researching issues and talking to workers facing untenable and unsustainable working conditions. They came up with five core demands that they believe can garner bipartisan support: a raise in the federal minimum wage, affordable healthcare and childcare, affordable housing, the restoration of workers’ and union rights, and education without crushing debt. The first-ever young workers march was organized and led by federal workers in Y.O.U.N.G. — Young Organizing Unionists for the Next Generation. Under the Trump administration, Y.O.U.N.G. and other members of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) have been facing what educators and organizers have called the biggest act of union-busting in U.S. history.
► From the Seattle Times — WA Senate leaders propose $1.5 billion for transportation work — Overall, the Senate proposal accounts for transportation spending through 2031 and touches all corners of the state’s transportation budget by focusing on preservation work on the state’s highways, seeking more dollars by borrowing $1.1 billion through bonds and prodding the work to deliver new ferries with more money. At the same time, the proposal doesn’t include spending for promised ferry conversions, and pushes other major projects farther down the road. Most of the new money — $1.38 billion over six years — is slated for preservation work as well as projects aimed at recovering from December’s destructive floods.
► From the Seattle Times — WA ‘millionaires tax’: Group alleges 37,000 fake opposition sign-ins — The allegations undercut a central political argument against the income tax plan, SB 6346. Opponents have repeatedly cited unusually high volumes of public sign-ins opposing the bill as evidence of widespread backlash. Supporters now argue the integrity of those figures — and possibly the legislative record itself — is in doubt…Those allegedly impersonated include former U.S. Rep. Derek Kilmer and state Sen. Victoria Hunt, D-Issaquah — a co-sponsor of the measure — along with teachers, union leaders, advocates and other elected officials. Beyond those individual cases, organizers said they identified 37,824 additional opposition sign-ins generated through thousands of duplicate name submissions across House and Senate hearings combined. In more than 15,000 instances, they said, identical names were entered repeatedly — sometimes 50 to 100 times. Many of the submissions were filed late at night or in rapid succession.
► From KING 5 — Tukwila approves temporary ban on new detention centers amid reports of ICE expansion — The city of Tukwila has approved a temporary ban on new detention centers after reports that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) may expand its footprint in the area. In a unanimous 7-0 vote, the Tukwila City Council approved a six-month temporary ban on Monday night. The ban does have the possibility to be extended. Although local governments cannot block private office leases, they can prohibit new detention centers through zoning or emergency legislation. The city of SeaTac enacted one of the first local moratoriums on new detention facilities in the area. Mayor Mohamed Egal said adding another detention center could strain city resources.
► From the Seattle Times — City Council weighs in on mayor’s pick for Seattle’s highest-paid job — Though grumbling about staffing decisions is common whenever a new mayor takes office, the reaction to Lindell’s firing was even more heightened than usual. The local electrical workers’ union, IBEW77, collected more than 6,000 signatures demanding she be rehired and the MLK Labor coalition passed a resolution calling for a more open and transparent process for naming a new CEO…Steve Kovac, who leads IBEW77, praised Lindell, saying he never filed a grievance against her despite the discipline she gave out to members of his union.
► From the Everett Herald — Lynnwood becomes one of the 1st in the state to terminate Flock contract — The City Council voted 7-0 Monday to cancel the agreement with the automated license plate reader company. Community members have urged the council to cancel the contract since late last year, when a University of Washington report found that out-of-state agencies accessed Lynnwood’s network seemingly for the purposes of immigration enforcement. The Daily Herald found identical searches in several networks throughout Snohomish County.
► From AeroTime — ALPA says US House aviation safety bill falls short of needed changes — The Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) is pushing back on the US House’s newly introduced ALERT Act, saying the bill does not go far enough to prevent another midair collision like the January 2025 tragedy near Washington Reagan National Airport (DCA). In a statement, ALPA President Capt. Jason Ambrosi said the union supports many elements of the Airspace Location and Enhanced Risk Transparency Act of 2026, but argues the legislation “falls short” because it does not mandate ADS-B In technology with a cockpit traffic display for pilots. The union pointed to the National Transportation Safety Board’s final report on the DCA crash and said the board found that ADS-B In could have given the PSA Airlines Flight 5342 crew about one minute to identify the approaching helicopter, instead of 19 seconds. “One minute versus 19 seconds,” Ambrosi said. “That difference could have saved 67 lives.”
► From the Seattle Medium — Judge Blocks Trump Anti-DEI Directive In Schools Nationwide — A federal judge in New Hampshire officially put an end to a Trump administration directive that public K-12 schools and colleges end diversity, equity and inclusion programs, or risk losing millions in federal funding…it also comes weeks after the Trump administration dropped its appeal in a separate federal court ruling regarding the letter. In that ruling — which stemmed from a lawsuit filed by the American Federation of Teachers and other groups — a Maryland federal judge found that the letter violated educators’ First Amendment rights.
► From the AP — Education Department hands off more of its responsibilities to other US agencies — Under one interagency agreement, the Health and Human Services Department will take over grant programs that send millions of dollars to schools for safety and community engagement efforts. Another calls for the State Department to take over a portal that tracks foreign gifts to universities…The latest agreements make no mention of the department’s Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, which manages billions of dollars in grants and oversees state compliance with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
INTERNATIONAL
► From the New York Times — Journalists Arrested in Cameroon While Reporting on Trump’s Secretive Deportation Program — The five people detained on Tuesday were taken to the judicial police headquarters, where the journalists were separated and interrogated, according to Joseph Awah Fru, the lawyer supporting the deportees, and Randy Joe Sa’ah, a freelance journalist who regularly works for the BBC and was one of the detainees…Some of the journalists, Mr. Fru and Mr. Sa’ah said, were kept in a cell for hours. The two men said the A.P. reporter appeared to have been beaten up and had told them the police had attacked him. All of the five were later freed. Before the journalists were released, the police confiscated their phones, cameras and laptops, saying the journalists had captured sensitive government information, according to Mr. Fru and Mr. Sa’ah. It was unclear if any had been charged.
The Stand posts links to local, national and international labor news every weekday morning. Subscribe to get daily news in your inbox.