Meatpacker strike | ASL interpreters| Labor Dept. chaos

Monday, March 16, 2026

STRIKES

► From the AP — Meatpacking workers strike at Colorado’s JBS-owned Swift Beef company — The strike follows accusations from union officials that the company retaliated against workers and committed other unfair labor practices amid contract negotiations. A previous contract expired Sunday night. “They don’t really value their workers and we’re the ones that help them get all their profit,” said Leticia Avalos, a 34-year-old union steward and Greeley native who has been working at the plant since 2020…Kim Cordova, president of the United Food and Commercial Union Local 7, said 99% of workers voted to authorize the strike. No formal negotiations took place over the weekend after the company refused a union request to negotiate on Saturday, Shechter said…It’s the first strike at a U.S. slaughterhouse since workers walked out at a Hormel plant in Minnesota in 1985, Cordova said. That strike lasted more than a year and included violent confrontations between police and protesters, according to the Minnesota Historical Society.

► From UFCW Local 7:

LOCAL

► From KING 5 — Seattle vigil honors Atlanta spa shooting victims, launches massage worker safety campaign — “Many times these deaths are forgotten. The people who die are made invisible,” said JM Wong, an organizer with the Massage Parlor Organizing Project, which advocates for local massage workers. The group used the anniversary to launch “Safety Not Stigma,” a campaign focused on reducing licensing barriers, improving housing access and addressing negative stereotypes about Asian massage workers…Wong acknowledged that exploitation exists within the massage industry but said stereotypes linking Asian spas to sex trafficking harm workers and obscure legitimate labor issues…With the FIFA World Cup coming to Seattle in 2026, organizers say immigrant workers in the Chinatown-International District face heightened anxiety about police crackdowns and immigration enforcement.

► From the Tri-City Herald — As immigration fears sweep Eastern WA, even priests worry about being deported — As immigration enforcement has ramped up across the U.S., Catholic leaders in the Yakima diocese have noticed that while Sunday mass attendance is stable, participation has dropped in other religious activities due to widespread fear and confusion. “On the whole, folks still feel fairly safe coming to church, and we haven’t had any enforcement activity that I’m aware of on or near a church campus,” Yakima Bishop Joseph Tyson said. “What we’re trying to do is create pockets of freedom and openness and religious liberty in the midst of fear,” he said. Some parishioners from Central and Eastern Washington have been detained and deported, or have self-deported. “Immigration affects people’s faith and family life,” Izquierdo said.

CONTRACT FIGHTS

► From the Spokesman Review — Spokane Regional Health District approved 3-year contract for unionized employees — The contract will provide cost-of-living increases each year through 2028. The first two years of the contract wages will increase by 2.5% and by 2% in its last year. The 2026 increases will apply retroactively to the beginning of the year. “Increases are in line with inflation or maybe a little behind,” said Protec17 union representative Suzie Saunders. “These are modest adjustments in an era of a loss of public funding for public health,” she said. The contract also adds an extra day of time off for bereavement, and loss of pregnancy is now covered as an example of bereavement.

► From the AP — WNBA commissioner says progress made in collective bargaining talks after another marathon session — The two sides met for another marathon negotiating session that started Sunday afternoon and ended around 3 a.m. Monday morning. The two sides will get together again later Monday for a seventh consecutive day of talks. It’s been a long week of discussions with the WNBA and union meeting face-to-face for more than 72 hours since the first in-person bargaining session Tuesday…The key sticking points have been revenue sharing and housing. “It’s very important for us to nail those two things down, which is I think the biggest thing on the agenda today,” Ogwumike, the union’s president, said Saturday between bargaining sessions. “So we want to make sure that we can get that.”

► From Yahoo — ‘They’re willing to fight.’ WGA leaders brace for tough negotiations — Writers are poised to commence another round of bargaining with the major studios on a new three-year film and TV contract. Few observers think the union is girding for another showdown, especially at a time when many of its members are struggling to find work amid media consolidation and belt-tightening. But in advance of negotiations that begin on Monday , union leaders are eager to dispel any perception that they might have scaled back their demands. “Our members have shown many times that they’re willing to fight for what we need as a collective group,” WGA West President Michele Mulroney said in an interview. “And there’s no exception here.”

► From Deadline — No Deal Yet: SAG-AFTRA Extends Studio Talks Ahead Of WGA Negotiations; Actors Union Likely To Resume Bargaining In June — The actors union agreed to extend talks with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, likely into June, after failing to finish up their deal before the Writers Guild of America begins its own bargaining with the studios on Monday. The two parties had gone back to the bargaining table this week and went down to the wire, discussing issues into the weekend to try to finalize the agreement, we hear. However, despite some gains in key areas, the extra few days weren’t enough to get the deal across the finish line, they announced via a joint statement late Sunday night, just after the 98th Academy Awards wrapped its ceremony.

ORGANIZING

► From Mother Jones — ASL Interpreters Are Unionizing—And They Say They’re Getting Fired for It — Kathleen started to get more deeply involved in union organizing efforts in the fall of 2025, she said, because she was so frustrated by how she was treated as an employee with disabilities—not an unusual factor in union drives, but especially ironic for an organization that serves disabled people…The union drive at both firms kicked off in 2024 under the Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU) in an effort to win improved pay, better and more consistent hours, and more manageable working conditions—like time for breaks between calls or the involvement of certified Deaf interpreters. All of this, organizers told me, would help workers better serve Deaf people. Instead, ZP Better Together and Sorenson’s ASL interpreters say they’re dealing with anti-union attitudes, including the firing of organizers at one of the two providers.

NATIONAL

► From the AFL-CIO:

POLITICS & POLICY

► From the Washington State Standard — Winners, losers and takeaways from WA’s legislative session — The curtain fell Thursday night on the Washington Legislature’s 60-day session. A lot happened before it did. Passage of Democrats’ income tax on millionaire earners was the big storyline. It followed House debate on the bill that was one of the longest in the state’s legislative history. Here are some highlights, plus who came out ahead and behind…On the House side in particular, Republicans have become adept at bogging down proceedings with amendments. An extreme version of this was on display with the nearly 25 hours of continuous debate on the income tax. Chewing up precious floor time in this fashion ultimately kills bills Democrats care about. Jamming the legislative gears is a far cry from governing. But until Republicans figure out a recipe for attracting more voters, they remain a resistance party, and it’s one of the only tools they have.

► From the Seattle Times — How education fared this legislative session — School districts in Washington are poised to get relief from a new sales tax that administrators say has been draining money from classrooms. Lawmakers last week approved a tax package that includes an exemption for school districts from the expanded sales tax that took effect last year and has already cost some schools hundreds of thousands of dollars. The change was added through an amendment to the “millionaires tax,” which passed the Legislature and now awaits the governor’s signature…What follows is a look at how education funding across Washington, from early childhood programs to colleges, will shift in the coming year.

► From Salon — Labor Department chaos hides an anti-worker agenda — Under the policy, the charging party — typically an employee or union alleging an unfair labor practice — is required to file a timeline of events related to their allegation, documentation of those events, like communications and phone records, and a list of witnesses they plan to bring and a summary of their testimony…While the NLRB cited “the existing backlog of cases and decreasing staffing levels” as the reason for the new policy, the change came as a windfall for employers hoping to escape the scrutiny of the board and was hailed as a win for employers by firms that help businesses navigate labor disputes and NLRB charges…The agency has seen a decrease in funding since 2011, with inflation chipping away at a largely stagnant budget. Trump also hollowed out the agency in his first term, and though former President Joe Biden’s administration did some hiring, the agency still has fewer employees than it needs to handle its caseload.

► From the AP — Tricky negotiations begin Monday to renew a trade pact between the United States, Mexico and Canada — The North American economies could agree to renew USMCA as it is for another 16 years— a prospect that appears unlikely. Or they could keep working on ways to improve it; under a convoluted renewal process, they have until 2036 to reach an agreement — or the pact expires. Meantime, any USMCA country can pull out of the pact provided it gives its two partners six months’ notice – an option that Canada and Mexico, heavily dependent on trade with the United States, fear the impulsive Trump might end up choosing.

► From the AP — The biggest change to voting in Republican election bill could become a burden for many US voters — The 31-year-old arrived at his voting place in Portsmouth and handed the poll worker his driver’s license, just as he had done in other towns when arriving to vote. She said that would no longer do…Bogdan’s experience in New Hampshire is a glimpse into the future for potentially millions of voters across the country. That is if Republican voting legislation being pushed aggressively by President Donald Trump passes Congress and a “show your papers” law is put in place in time for the November elections…Obtaining the necessary documents under the SAVE Act is not as easy as it might sound. A similar effort was tried in Kansas a decade ago and turned into a debacle that eventually was blocked by the courts after more than 30,000 eligible citizens were prevented from registering.

► From the Seattle Times — Mayor Wilson pauses city employees’ sanctioned use of AI — One question in Seattle, as elsewhere, is what it could mean for the size of the city’s workforce. The policies acknowledge AI use is likely to stir unease among workers worried about their jobs. “There absolutely will be tensions in these shifts,” the plan says. “Still, our message is clear: AI is a tool to augment staff and service levels, not replace people.” Still, some union figures have urged caution from Wilson. Steve Kovac, head of IBEW Local 77, which represents some IT workers in the city, said he met with the mayor and pressed her to make sure the programs had been well-vetted.

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