Delivery drivers | Sectoral bargaining | US DOL investigation

Tuesday, March 3, 2026

CONTRACT FIGHTS

► From Sports Illustrated — U.S. Soccer Players Authorize Playing Strike Amid Tense Labor Talks — The USL Players Association, representing the players of the United Soccer League’s Championship Division, have authorized a strike unless a Collective Bargaining Agreement between the USLPA and the USL can be reached. The move, as confirmed by the USL and USLPA, would likely mean that the season would not begin on its scheduled start date of March 6, despite many clubs soon to be completing their preseason preparations.

► From USA Today — WNBA offers accelerated max eligibility, $5.75M salary cap in latest CBA proposal — the WNBA submitted a counterproposal to the players’ union on March 1 in response to the WNBPA’s Feb. 27 submission. WNBPA vice president and New York Liberty forward Breanna Stewart also confirmed the proposal submission. In Sunday’s proposal, the league offered to make first- and second-team All-WNBA players on rookie contracts — like Caitlin Clark and Paige Bueckers — eligible to sign a maximum contract in their fourth year…The WNBA’s latest off also increases the Year 1 salary cap to $5.75 million, up from $1.5 million in 2025 – representing an increase of over 280%. Based on league projections, the salary cap will grow to roughly $8.5 million by 2031, the final year of the CBA. The proposal also projects significant player salary payments via the revenue-sharing model.

ORGANIZING

► From the Chief — JetBlue dispatchers vote to unionize amid pay disputes, job security fears — After years of frustration over pay, workplace changes and a shifting company culture, air dispatchers and operations workers at JetBlue Airways voted Feb. 26 to join the Transport Workers Union of America, reviving a union drive that had previously collapsed amid management pressure…The unionization effort picked up steam six months ago amongst uncertainty of JetBlue’s future, including rumors of mergers or acquisitions following the collapse of the airline’s proposed merger with Spirit Airlines. Unions often serve as a safeguard during mergers or restructuring, organizers argue, giving workers a formal role in negotiations that may reshape the landscape of their industry, which is often subject to economic volatility.

► From Starbucks Workers United:

NATIONAL

► From the Center for American Progress — Modeling the Impact of Sectoral Bargaining for U.S. Workers — Sectoral bargaining is a type of collective bargaining that creates minimum standards and provides representation for all workers in a particular industry or occupation. It typically operates in conjunction with workplace-level bargaining—the current default for bargaining in the United States—setting sector-wide standards that workers can seek to bargain above at their worksite…the authors’ modeling suggests that moving to sectoral bargaining could more than double collective bargaining coverage in the United States, from about 11 percent to just less than 30 percent, and also significantly increase union membership.

► From Wired — All the Ways Big Tech Fuels ICE and CBP — In total, Palantir has earned about $121.9 million in payments and obligations from ICE since 2023. In that same time frame, ICE has paid for products worth at least $94 million from Microsoft, at least $51 million from Amazon, and at least $921,000 from Google. CBP, meanwhile, has paid for products worth at least $81 million from Microsoft, at least $158 million from Amazon, and at least $7 million from Google. These are minimum estimates that exclude payments that do not directly mention these companies or their core offerings in publicly available documents.

► From the Progressive — OPINION: Worker Insecurity Raises Safety Threats — Across the country, people are skipping meals and falling behind on housing payments while layoffs, automation, and diminishing labor protections deepen insecurity. The message many workers hear is simple: You are replaceable. In that climate, people take dangerous jobs and stay silent about hazards. They skip water breaks in extreme heat, avoid asking for training, and keep quiet about faulty equipment because they cannot risk losing a shift. Fear of retaliation has created a chilling effect in some of the most hazardous industries in America. This is not just economic instability. It is a workplace safety crisis.

POLITICS & POLICY

► From Range Media — Millionaire Tax, immigrant work protections, voter privacy bills and more advance in WA legislative session — Sponsored primarily by the Spokane delegation to the state legislature, Natasha Hill and Timm Ormsby, [HB 2416] would make it so the facility that burns Spokane trash to generate energy would not have to buy carbon credits to offset its carbon footprint like a normal landfill…An assessment by the state Department of Ecology found the plant provides a net reduction in greenhouse gases when compared against other waste disposal centers. The bill has cleared the House of Representatives and is now in committee in the Senate…[HB 2105] would require employers to notify workers within 72 hours about a federal agency’s request to inspect I-9 forms, which include an employee’s immigration status, and other related employee records…The bill cleared the House. The Senate Committee on Ways & Means held a public hearing February 26.

Editor’s note: Both bills moved out of the Senate Ways & Means Committee yesterday and now await floor votes. 

► From the Spokesman Review — Spokane Council limits ICE actions on public property, bans private leases for detention facilities — Both actions were approved with a 6-1 vote, with Councilman Michael Cathcart as the sole “no” vote. Immigration officers already need a warrant to enter a permitted event on most public property in Spokane, as long as organizers request protection and go through the proper steps to receive it, under rules the City Council created last summer. The city’s new “Immigration Enforcement Free Zones,” introduced by Councilman Paul Dillon, would ban the use of any city-owned or -controlled property – such as parking lots, vacant lots, garages and other buildings – for immigration enforcement operations.

► From the New York Times — Labor Secretary’s Top Aides Forced Out — Ms. Chavez-DeRemer’s chief of staff, Jihun Han, and deputy chief of staff, Rebecca Wright, were given 24 hours to resign after the White House told Labor Department leaders to fire them, one of the people said…Investigators have spoken with several dozen witnesses in a probe that has expanded to include claims that Mr. Han and Ms. Wright tried to steer department grants to favored political operatives. In interviews with The New York Times, more than two dozen current and former department employees described a toxic workplace characterized by an absentee secretary, hostile aides and a deeply demoralized staff.

► From the New York Times — Despite Promises, Veterans Affairs Department Cut Thousands of Roles for Doctors and Nurses — The head of the Veterans Affairs Department has repeatedly said that the agency needs to hire more doctors, nurses and other providers “taking care of people on the front line,” even as President Trump seeks to shrink the federal government. But the V.A. has eliminated thousands of medical positions that were left vacant after a wave of resignations and retirements last year, according to a New York Times analysis of internal agency records that have not previously been reported. The cuts include empty slots for more than 1,500 physicians and 4,900 nurses.

INTERNATIONAL

► From Wired — Missile Attacks Are Overwhelming the Gulf. Delivery Drivers Are Still on the Roads — An Uber spokesperson confirmed that the company’s services, including UberEats, are fully operational in the region. “The safety and wellbeing of our riders and partner drivers is our core priority”…One driver for popular delivery platform Deliveroo explained that he works for a third-party logistics agency which provides drivers to Deliveroo. He spoke on condition of anonymity. If he refuses to work, he says the agency fines him. This also applies if he doesn’t meet his daily quota for deliveries. Drivers for most delivery platforms receive a basic salary and a fee for each delivery completed, providing an incentive to deliver as many meals as possible.

► From Oregon Live — Nike moves jobs to low-wage regions of Indonesia — If you’re among the more than 1 million people who make Nike’s sneakers and apparel around the world, the company says you should be able to support your family…But Nike’s expansion in Indonesia over the last decade has directly undermined these goals, an analysis by ProPublica and The Oregonian/OregonLive found…Nike’s suppliers employ 280,000 people in Indonesia, the company’s second-largest production center. From 2015 through last year, these suppliers shed around 36,000 jobs in places where the monthly minimum wage exceeds or comes close to a living wage. In these high-wage areas, which include the capital of Jakarta, the minimum typically equates to about $300 a month. By contrast, the company’s supplier workforce grew by nearly 112,000 in parts of Central and West Java with local minimum wages that are typically about $165 a month — far from what’s considered enough to live on.

► From Labor Notes — In Spain, Amazon Workers Win with Quick-Hit Walkouts — By last September, the mood in the warehouse was unsustainable. Workers were getting more and more frustrated with health and safety violations and stagnant wages—especially in Murcia, where wages had been frozen since 2018. (Amazon’s sectoral agreements vary across provinces.) We launched a campaign on these issues and decided to keep our tactics simple: talking with people, publishing our union newsletter (La Cegetera), and openly talking about a strike. There weren’t any grand events or symbolic gestures. The aim was to stir up a hornet’s nest through daily and constant organizing.

► From IG Metall Tesla:

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