Dolores Huerta | Medicare & AI | Wage gap

Thursday, March 19, 2026

STRIKES

► From UFCW Local 7:

LOCAL

► From the Seattle Times — Dick’s Drive-In faces class-action lawsuit over rest and meal breaks — In a complaint filed Feb. 18 in King County Superior Court, lead plaintiff Madison Masterson sued the Seattle fast-food chain, claiming that some employees were not given 10-minute rest breaks for every four hours of work as well as 30-minute meal breaks for every five hours work, as required by Washington state labor laws…The suit claims employees should be paid overtime wages in the instances when those missed breaks extended employees’ workweeks beyond 40 hours. The suit also claims that some employees were not given sick-leave accrual as a result of these alleged missed breaks.

► From the Seattle Times — New Medicare program using AI leaves WA patients in pain — Slated to run through 2031, the Medicare pilot aims to reduce spending on unnecessary care with the help of “enhanced technologies,” including artificial intelligence and machine learning, according to the program overview. In practice, that means patients seeking certain medical services now have to wait for a third-party tech company to give them the green light before they can get treatment. The wait for approval can be long and disruptive…as the initiative’s rollout has been rocky across Washington, patients and doctors say that vulnerable people — people who are older, sick or in pain — are the ones paying the price. “It’s frustrating and depressing,” Magnuson said, sitting on an ergonomic seat cushion at his kitchen table. “It’s robbing me of quality of life.”

► From the Tacoma News Tribune — Puyallup schools change plan to cut $15M. What does that mean for layoffs, pool? — Bob Horton, president of the Puyallup Education Association – the union that represents district employees – told The News Tribune on Monday that he is worried the updated cuts will still harm students, particularly the proposed staffing cuts in schools. “Cuts should be furthest away from the classroom, they should not disrupt student learning,” Horton said. “They should not disrupt student learning and students’ educational experiences.”

► From OPB — Women in the Portland area continue to earn less than men with a wider gap for Black and Latina women — The gap is widest for Latina workers in the Portland Metro area. On average, Latinas earned 61 cents per dollar earned by a man in 2023, the analysis from Portland research firm ECOnorthwest shows…The analysis found that on average, Black women make 67 cents per dollar, white women earn 88 cents per dollar, and Asian women make 92 cents per dollar earned by a man. “The wage gap numbers in Oregon and nationally move at a glacial pace,” Emily Evans, the Director of the Center for Nonprofit and Philanthropic Insight at ECOnorthwest, told OPB. “They are so unbearably slow. We have barely made progress since the 90s. At the current rate, it will take nearly 100 years to close the gap.”

CONTRACT FIGHTS

► From the LA Times — LAUSD teacher and service worker unions announce massive April 14 strike if no deal reached — Los Angeles Unified’s two largest labor groups — the teachers union and service employees — announced Wednesday they will join forces and both go on strike April 14 if no contract deal is reached before then, actions that would effectively shut down schools in less than a month. The strike would affect close to 400,000 students in the nation’s second-largest school system and an estimated 32,000 students in the adult school. It would mean more than 60,000 essential district workers — teachers, counselors, nurses, bus drivers, janitors and cafeteria workers — would walk off the job, crippling school operations.

ORGANIZING

► From KTOO — Voting to form University of Alaska staff union begins — DeLue said organizers’ conversations with staff members often focus on wanting stability and fair compensation. “They’re talking about the fact that things feel unstable, and a union can help provide stability, can argue for stability, argue for keeping us competitive in the market of universities in the United States, as well as making sure that we compensate staff appropriately,” he said. The group filed a petition to form a union last year. It would include permanent UA staff that work in financial aid, advising, communications and more. There are some exceptions, such as supervisors. Roughly 2,300 employees are eligible to vote in an election on forming the union.

NATIONAL

► From the New York Times — Read the Statement From Dolores Huerta on Cesar Chavez’s Abuse — The farmworker movement has always been bigger and far more important than any one individual. Cesar’s actions do not diminish the permanent improvements achieved for farmworkers with the help of thousands of people. We must continue to engage and support our community, which needs advocacy and activism now more than ever. I will continue my commitments to workers, as well as my commitment to women’s rights, to make sure we have a voice and that our communities are treated with dignity and given the equity that they have so long been denied.

► From the AFL-CIO — AFL-CIO on Allegations Against Cesar Chavez — The AFL-CIO unequivocally condemns the actions described in The New York Times article and supports a full investigation into these allegations. The AFL-CIO will not participate or endorse any upcoming activities for Cesar Chavez Day. The AFL-CIO will always stand in solidarity with farmworkers who have fought for and won critical rights over generations through collective action, resilience and extraordinary determination—a history that cannot be erased by the horrific actions of one person.

► From LCLAA — LCLAA reaffirms that no legacy, institution, or leader is beyond accountability —  This moment calls for reflection across our broader movement. No legacy, institution, or leader is beyond scrutiny. Our commitment must remain rooted in the principles that define us: respect for human dignity, gender equity, and the protection of the most vulnerable. The progress achieved through the collective work of farmworkers and organizers belongs to thousands and must not come at the expense of others’ safety or humanity. At LCLAA, we reaffirm that women, children, families, and all members of our community are not expendable, nor are they to be silenced.

► From the UFW — Statement from United Farm Workers: March 17, 2026 — Over the coming weeks, in partnership with experts in these kinds of processes, we are working to establish an external, confidential, independent channel for those who may have experienced harm caused by Cesar Chavez during the early days of the UFW’s history. This channel is for those who wish to share their experiences of harm, to identify their current impacts and needs, and, if desired, to participate in a collective process to develop mechanisms for repair and accountability.

► From Wired — Confessions of the ICE Agent Whisperer  — Karl Loftus, an independent journalist who runs the Instagram account @deadcrab_films, started a new project following the immigration surge in Minneapolis called Confessions of an ICE Agent. There, he publishes interviews with people who work in immigration enforcement across DHS…Another HSI agent expressed concerns about DHS colleagues violating the law, and complained of having to pause investigation into child sexual abuse cases to focus on immigration work. “If they gave child exploitation cases a fraction of the attention, funding, resources, personnel, analytical support, etc. that they’re now giving immigration enforcement, we could do so much good,” they said.

POLITICS & POLICY

► From the Guardian — Security lines persist at US airports as Congress negotiates DHS funding — A White House official confirmed that Senate Democrats sent a counteroffer on Monday aimed at resolving a budget standoff that led to a DHS shutdown into its second month. A Trump administration official confirmed to the Guardian that the offer by Democrats was under review, though Republican lawmakers were quick to dismiss the proposal..More than 300 TSA agents have quit, according to the DHS, and officers by Monday had missed their first full paycheck since the start of the shutdown. Officers have been left with few options, especially amid rising fuel costs because of the war in Iran started by the US and Israel – their average salary is $35,000, according to Airlines for America.

► From the Washington Post — Trump breaches fire wall between watchdogs and agencies they investigate — After firing inspectors general at 19 agencies in an unprecedented purge in the early days of his second term, President Donald Trump has spent the past year nominating several new inspectors general with partisan backgrounds. Investigators, auditors and others were lost in widespread staffing cuts. And political appointees have increasingly gained new powers over the apparatus that is designed to independently operate in order to root out waste, fraud and abuse.

► From the Washington Post — Trump’s cancellation of licenses for immigrant truckers takes effect — Some 200,000 immigrant truck drivers will begin to lose their commercial driver’s licenses as they expire under a new Trump administration rule that takes effect Monday. The Transportation Department’s rule will weigh on the beleaguered trucking industry, which is critical to transporting goods across America at a time when energy costs are surging due to the war in Iran.

► From the Spokesman Review — Some North Idaho law enforcement question lawmakers’ push to intertwine their duties with ICE. Here’s why — Some North Idaho law enforcement leaders are concerned with state lawmakers attempting to intertwine their operations with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. It’s not about aligning with Republicans or Democrats, they argue – it’s about their sworn duties as local police and deputies. The proposals, which broadly require local law enforcement to act as immigration agents, have “brought about a shocking turn within the Idaho Legislature,” argues Bonner County Sheriff Daryl Wheeler. Those who normally oppose more federal involvement are voting “to federalize all law enforcement in Idaho,” Wheeler said.

INTERNATIONAL

► From the AP — Making menstrual leave official: 2 paid days off a month for period pain — It started with a casual lunch conversation between a county governor and his cabinet ministers about a colleague’s menstrual pain. The discussion led to a first in Kenya: The right for female employees to take menstrual leave. The new policy took effect in December 2025. It grants county government employees in the capital, Nairobi, two days off every month to deal with the pain and discomfort of menstruation, with the aim of improving productivity and well-being.

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