NEWS ROUNDUP
Homecare workers | WNBA deal | Surveillance pricing
Wednesday, March 18, 2026
STRIKES
► From the Colorado Sun — Some workers striking at the JBS meatpacking facility say they were put in danger on the job — [Rodarte] also said she’s seen JBS officials refuse to let people leave the production line to use the bathroom. And she said they failed to replace one of her coworker’s protective mesh tunics after a section covering her chest ripped and was no longer protecting her heart. “She worked like that for a year, maybe two, and they wouldn’t switch it out,” Rodarte said. When she tried, they would say, “we don’t have your size, or we don’t have any in stock.” These stories align with JBS’ history of attracting unwanted attention about its workforce, including when hundreds of workers at the Greeley plant contracted coronavirus and six died, and when the U.S. Department of Labor found that a JBS cleaning-service contractor employed minors as young as 13 at several plants, including in Greeley.
► From the Guardian — Starbucks shareholders push to oust board members over stalled union talks — The SOC Investment Group, Trillium Asset Management, Merseyside Pension Fund, the non-profit Shareholder Association for Research and Education (Share), and the New York state and New York City comptrollers wrote a letter to Starbucks shareholders to vote “no” on the re-election of board members Jørgen Vig Knudstorp and Beth Ford at Starbucks’s annual shareholders meeting on 25 March…A leading proxy adviser, Glass Lewis, recommended voting no against the board members, citing, among its reasons, the dissolution of a Starbucks board committee to oversee labor relations.
► From the Business Journal — Kaiser nurses plan one-day strike over AI concerns in Fresno — Kaiser Permanente employees are planning a one-day work stoppage on Wednesday, March 17, [sic] citing concerns over the provider’s implementation of artificial intelligence tools, a concern that Kaiser nurses fear could put their jobs at risk…“An injury to one of us is an injury to all of us, so nurses will be standing in solidarity with our mental health therapy colleagues as they go on strike,” said California Nurses Association President Michelle Gutierrez. “We know working people have to stand together, and we’re proud to stand alongside Kaiser therapists as they fight for meaningful, commonsense protections for our patients and for working people.”
► From OPB — As Portland Community College strike continues, most classes do not — On social media, PCC students are expressing frustration with president Adrien Bennings’ actions and statements and calling for movement from PCC in negotiations. With picketing at four PCC campuses continuing, the college board of directors plans to meet remotely Thursday. According to the meeting agenda, board members are set to hear from leaders of the two unions, in addition to the president of the student senate. Also Thursday, the two unions are holding what they’re calling a “People’s Board Meeting,” with four state legislators scheduled to appear, as well as multiple elected officials from Portland and Washington County. Leaders plan to share results of a vote of no confidence in President Bennings at the event.
LOCAL
► From the Tri-City Herald — Principal who questioned Pasco teacher likely broke WA labor laws — A Pasco principal likely went too far when she suggested that a teacher should be held to a higher standard of conduct because of their role as a union leader. Virgie Robinson Elementary School Principal Maria Sandoval also likely broke labor relation laws when she discouraged the same employee from talking about position cuts and discussing workplace concerns with their peers, an investigation from the Washington Public Employment Relations Commission (PERC) found…The complaint was just one of nine allegations the Pasco Association of Educators (PAE) teacher union made against the district in 2024 over alleged bargaining and employee rights violations. PERC ultimately concluded the other eight did not violate Washington state labor laws.
► From the Olympian — Regional library cuts 25% of staff in South Sound layoffs. Here’s what to know — The Thurston County libraries are in Olympia, Lacey, Tumwater, Yelm and Tenino. Timberland also serves Grays Harbor, Lewis, Mason and Pacific counties. The library union, AFSCME Local 3758-B, added in its own announcement that librarian and public services specialist positions also will be cut. The Hoodsport, McCleary, and Amanda Park libraries in Mason and Grays Harbor counties will transition to an expanded access hours-only (EAH), self-service model, Rasmussen said…The union countered in its announcement that those three branches will operate on a “locked key-card model without staff present, severely limiting community members’ abilities to use those libraries.”
► From the Daily UW — Public Employment Relation Commission overturns ruling, determines advisors are not owed merit pay — Advisors wanting to unionize disagree with the ruling, arguing that UW still owes them the pay increases. “I truly don’t believe that the ruling was sound,” Beth Jeffrey, an advisor at UW Tacoma, said. “It makes no sense that you would give the exact same job title, the exact same position in the medical school, you would give them the money, and you wouldn’t get to us simply because their bosses told them and our bosses didn’t, which isn’t even true.”
► From the Cascadia Daily News — We’ll keep reporting on PeaceHealth — with or without PeaceHealth’s help — In a field where the end product — people’s very well-being — cries out for exceptional degrees of explanation, community engagement and buy-in to changes, PeaceHealth routinely exhibits the transparency of a block of andesite the size of Alabama…That assessment comes from experience. It’s been evident in our local newsroom going on five years — and from my own prior work as a Seattle Times reporter facing PeaceHealth’s trademark dodge/weave/attack media strategies (see: the smear tactics hurled at fired emergency room physician Ming Lin in the early COVID-19 era, sparking a justified lawsuit.) PeaceHealth’s present-day community handshake seems to stagger between indifference and contempt-driven blame-shifting.
AEROSPACE
► From the Seattle Times — Boeing looks to familiar faces for new Everett 737 MAX assembly line — Speaking to investors at a Bank of America conference Tuesday, Boeing Chief Financial Officer Jay Malave said the new production line will be “an exact replica” of the three lines already churning out 737 MAX planes in Renton. The Everett line, which Boeing calls its North Line, will enable the manufacturer to build more MAXs each month…Boeing expects to start building its first 737 MAX in Everett this summer, but it will start slowly. That “first build” will take a “number of months,” Malave said. The North Line will “bump up” to a rate of two 737 MAX planes per month in 2027, Malave said. It will take a few years to reach what will be the North Line’s normal cadence, he continued.
CONTRACT FIGHTS
► From the Guardian — CBS News workers hold 24-hour walkout for new contract — “CBS News 24/7 journalists are walking off the job on both coasts today because management refuses to agree to a new contract with essential work protections and fair wages,” the union said in a statement. The union alleged management continues proposing worse terms than their previous contracts. US regulators approved billionaire David Ellison’s Skydance Media $8.4bn takeover of CBS owner, Paramount, last year. Skydance is now finalizing a $110bn takeover of CNN’s owner, Warner Bros Discovery. “Paramount has billions to spend acquiring Warner Bros Discovery, but still hasn’t guaranteed fair wages and basic job protections for the workers who make their streaming news operation run,” said Beth Godvik, WGAE vice-president of broadcast/cable/streaming news.
► From the New York Times’ Athletic — WNBA, players reach verbal agreement on new CBA after marathon negotiations — The league and the WNBPA finally reached a deal after 2 a.m. ET on Wednesday to move forward with a new pact that will redefine the economic and governing rules of the WNBA. The agreement, Breanna Stewart said, will be “transformational” for the league and its players. The details of the agreement are still not known. Player salaries will be tied to league revenue for the first time, average player compensation will be more than half a million dollars, WNBPA president Nneka Ogwumike said, and the agreement will also improve on family planning and parental leave benefits.
ORGANIZING
► From 48 Hills — At Gaming Conference, game-workers keep unionization hopes alive — At last year’s Game Developers’ Conference, the Communications Workers of America announced the formation of the United Videogame Workers-CWA Local 9433. The UVW is a direct-join organization that, according to organizers, is meant to provide a channel into activism and organizing for workers in a fragmented industry. The day of the organization’s launch, its membership swelled to triple digits…But the year that followed was not quite so encouraging…“The vibes are off,” said Anna C. Webster, an organizer with the UVW, when I ask her on Wednesday morning about what it’s been like at the conference this year.
NATIONAL
► From News From the States — Home care workers unionized 10 years ago: good for workers, good for their clients — I also spoke with Jeremy Heyer, who has received services from home care workers for over 20 years. He told me he believes the union has helped to elevate the profession and improve perceptions of PCAs by policymakers. Prior to unionization, he felt the state viewed these jobs as low-wage work that anyone could do. He said he believes this has created more interest in becoming a home care worker and elevated the quality of the workers. He also described how SEIU includes clients as part of their feedback processes, to ensure the concerns and priorities of both workers and those receiving care are considered.
► From Raise Up the South:
POLITICS & POLICY
► From the Washington State Standard — Elections officials decry costs heaped on states in SAVE America voting bill –The bill would initially add $35 million in costs for Washington state to administer this year’s midterm elections, Clark County Auditor Greg Kimsey said. The measure would cost an estimated additional $12 million annually in presidential election years for the state’s elections administrators, he added. But it would not provide federal funding for states and localities to meet the new costs…the measure “is the very definition of a solution in search of a problem,” Kimsey said on Tuesday’s call. Noncitizens voting in federal elections is exceedingly rare.
► From Grocery Dive — Grocers face state and federal lawmakers’ scrutiny over ‘surveillance’ pricing — Last year saw more than 100 price transparency state bills introduced across 33 states and Washington, D.C., according to MultiState, a state and local government relations company. And the momentum behind efforts to bar grocers from using dynamic pricing has not slowed down in the new year…In February, the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union launched a national campaign to ban the “predatory practice of ‘surveillance pricing,’ target the encroachment of AI-driven technology in grocery stores, and deliver fair prices for families while preserving good, union grocery jobs.”
► From the AP — Judge orders restoration of Voice of America, putting hundreds of journalists back to work — A federal judge on Tuesday ordered the Trump administration to restore the government-run Voice of America’s operations after it had effectively been shut down a year ago, putting hundreds of employees who have been on administrative leave back to work. U.S. District Court Judge Royce C. Lamberth gave the U.S. Agency for Global Media a week to put together a plan for putting Voice of America on the air.
► From Variety — Adam Schiff to Hold Hearing on Hollywood Jobs With Noah Wyle and IATSE’s Matt Loeb — Schiff is also expected to focus on the job impact of the merger of Paramount and Warner Bros. “There are many pressures facing the entertainment industry workforce – from generous tax incentives offered by other countries, to the potential merger of two of Hollywood’s biggest studios,” Schiff said in a statement.
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