Millionaire tax signed | Sbux layoffs | TSA agents get pay

Tuesday, March 31, 2026

STRIKES

► From the Willamette Week — Portland Community College Reaches Tentative Agreement With Faculty Union to End Strike — Portland Community College’s largest union, the Federation of Faculty and Academic Professionals, reached a tentative agreement with the college’s administration to end a weeks-long strike late Monday night. The two parties have been close to a deal for much of the third week of the strike, which began March 11, but disagreed on whether workers should receive back pay for the time they spent on the picket line. In the end, the union closed on a deal with PCC that doesn’t explicitly list back pay, but instead offers a lump sum payment to each member that union leaders said would effectively accomplish the same thing.

LOCAL

► From the Seattle Times — Starbucks lays off dozens after Seattle store closures — Starbucks laid off 69 workers after its recently announced closures of five Seattle stores, according to a state filing on Monday. The closures, announced this month, impact stores on First Hill, in the University District, in the Seattle Center Armory, in Seattle Children’s hospital and in the Metropolitan Park East building downtown…Workers at four of the five stores belong to Starbucks Workers United, the union representing thousands of baristas, per the worker adjustment and retraining notification. Starbucks Workers United reiterated its stance on the store closures Monday, saying: “We know Starbucks doesn’t work without baristas. We make the drinks, take the orders, clean the spills, and build relationships with customers.”

► From the Anacortes American — Anacortes resident detained by ICE agents upon arriving at work — An Anacortes construction worker is being held at a federal immigration detention facility after witnesses say U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detained him Thursday, March 26, at a job site in the city’s Rock Ridge neighborhood…Cruz-Amado has worked for Strandberg Construction for the past 12 years, said Nels Strandberg, who owns the Anacortes company. “Israel Cruz is a steady, responsible, and hardworking member of our community and our workforce,” Strandberg wrote Monday, March 30, in a letter on Cruz-Amado’s behalf…Cruz-Amado is a permanent resident who was brought to the U.S. from Mexico as a child, Garcia said. In his letter, Strandberg noted that Cruz-Amado had provided a Social Security card and a Permanent Resident card when he was hired.

► From My Bellingham Now — New report finds gender wage gap is wider in northwest Washington — A newly released report from the National Partnership for Women & Families finds women statewide earn about $18,500 less per year than men. In Congressional District Two, which includes Bellingham, the gap is even wider. Women earn just 69 cents for every dollar paid to men. Nationally, women earn about 76 cents on the dollar, losing nearly two trillion dollars each year due to pay inequity.

CONTRACT FIGHTS

► From KATU — Health care workers overwhelmingly ratify Kaiser Permanente contract — More than 4,500 Kaiser Permanente health care workers in Oregon and southwest Washington have approved a new labor contract. The Oregon Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals says about 90% of members voted to ratify the agreement, which includes 21.5% wage increases across the board with some workers seeing more than 30% total increases over the life of the contract. Union leaders say the deal also protects health and retirement benefits and aligns contract expiration dates across multiple bargaining units.

► From CT Public Radio — Fast food workers at Connecticut service plazas secure landmark union contract — A first-of-its-kind labor agreement will cover hundreds of fast food workers at 23 Connecticut highway service plazas, marking a rare union foothold in the fast food industry and a milestone for labor organizers nationwide. The deal, reached between 32BJ SEIU and Applegreen, the primary operator of the plazas, runs from April 1, 2026, through March 1, 2031, and follows years of organizing and worker complaints about wages and conditions…The agreement covers workers at plazas along Interstate 95, the Merritt Parkway and other major corridors, after a campaign that began in 2019 and culminated in a union vote late last year.

► From Sports Illustrated — Everything to Know About the NFL’s Labor Dispute With Refs As CBA Expiration Nears — The NFL and its referees’ union are racing against the clock to hammer out a new labor deal ahead of a May 31 deadline, and things are … not going well. Negotiations have stalled in recent days, and the league has since begun preparing to hire replacement officials to use during training camp and beyond in the event of a lockout.

NATIONAL

► From Wired — A School District Tried to Help Train Waymos to Stop for School Buses. It Didn’t Work — One of the purported advantages of self-driving car tech is that every car can learn from one vehicle’s mistakes. Here’s how Waymo puts it on its website: “The Waymo Driver learns from the collective experiences gathered across our fleet, including previous hardware generations.” But in Austin, Waymo’s vehicles struggled for months to learn how to stop for school buses as drivers picked up and dropped off children…“The data we collected from the beginning of the school year to the end of the semester shows that about 98 percent of people that receive one violation do not receive another,” an official with the school’s police department told the local NBC affiliate that month. “That tells us that the person is learning, but it does not appear the Waymo automated driver system is learning through its software updates, its recall, what have you, because we are still having violations.”

► From the New York Times — Deaths in ICE Custody Are Growing. ‘They Let Him Rot in There.’ — By the time his relatives were allowed to visit him nine days later, Mr. Damas, 56, was on life support, unable to move or speak but still shackled to a hospital bed…He died on March 2 — one of 13 people who have died in federal immigration custody in the first three months of this year, and one of 46 who have died since President Trump took office last year and began his mass deportation campaign, according to death reports and news releases made public by ICE.

► From the Washington Post — Why millions of seniors have suddenly lost health care coverage — Petchkis and thousands of other elderly people in New Hampshire lost their insurance and were forced to scramble for alternatives this year, part of a broader phenomenon as Medicare Advantage companies abandoned communities where their plans threatened profits or lost money. Hardest hit were a half-dozen rural states from New England to Idaho…But over the last year, insurers sharply retreated from the plans in some regions, saying rising health care costs and reduced government reimbursements have hurt profitability.

► From Bloomberg — Obamacare Customers Paying $6,000 a Year Doubled in 2026  — The share of Affordable Care Act insurance customers in plans that cost more than $6,000 a year doubled, a sign of the squeeze on household budgets after Congress let Covid-era assistance expire. The US Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services posted data late Friday on ACA plans, also called Obamacare, that showed total enrollment this year dipping by about 5% to 23.1 million. That figure doesn’t yet count people who still may drop off plans because they can’t pay premiums, so the decline is expected to deepen. The share of people paying more than $500 a month — or $6,000 a year — is 8%, double the level of the previous four years, according to CMS data.

► From Liz Shuler:

Today we recognize the many farmworkers whose labor sustains our nation. Their work is essential to every community. They deserve fair pay, safe working conditions and the dignity and respect that come with a voice on the job.

— Liz Shuler (@LizShuler) March 31, 2026

POLITICS & POLICY

► From KUOW — Washington’s historic income tax on high earners is now law — Gwen Goodfellow, a caregiver and board member of SEIU 775, said she was excited about the passage of the tax. The tax would provide sales tax breaks for over-the-counter medications, personal hygiene products, and diapers. “I’ve done the math, it would take me 18 years to earn the threshold income to even pay this tax, so having a fairer tax system is better for all of Washington,” Goodfellow said. “I’m telling my friends, when you look at your grocery cart, look at your shampoo, the over-the-counter medications, your diapers, and think about not paying sales tax on those things and how that will ease the burden in your household, it just means the average worker in our state can afford to keep working.”

► From the New York Times — TSA Workers Begin to Receive Paychecks After Trump Signs Executive Order — Most of the Transportation Security Administration’s 60,000 workers began receiving back pay on Monday, easing the financial strain that has troubled them since the partial government shutdown began more than six weeks ago. But with the shutdown persisting, the workers don’t know when they’ll be paid next…Asked whether T.S.A. officers would be receiving future paychecks, Lauren Bis, a department spokeswoman, referred the question to the Office of Management and Budget. The agency did not respond to a request for comment. Ms. Bis said most employees had been sent back pay that covered two full paychecks, though workers were still owed another week’s pay.

► From AFGE:

Congress needs to get back to Washington and pay DHS employees! https://t.co/LIQqT3IoLt

— AFGE (@AFGENational) March 30, 2026

► From the Yakima Herald-Republic — Immigrants in WA to be notified of federal workplace inspections under new law — The Immigrant Worker Protection Act requires employers to give their employees a heads-up when a federal agency announces an upcoming inspection of the business’ I-9 forms on file. Employers use the I-9 and related documents to verify employees’ identity and work authorization. The notice gives workers time to straighten out paperwork, consult an advocate or attorney, talk with their families about possible outcomes — such as detainment or deportation — and otherwise plan ahead for problems.

► From the Seattle Times — New Washington law bans noncompete agreements — The measure, spearheaded by state Rep. Liz Berry (D-Seattle), outlaws noncompete agreements: in general, contracts that let employers forbid workers from creating or joining a competing business for a set amount of time…On the effective date, restrictive covenants will be unenforceable for all Washington-based workers and businesses, according to the new law. New noncompete agreements are illegal. Employers must notify current and former workers in writing about any voided noncompete agreements by Oct. 1, 2027…States with full noncompete bans include California, North Dakota, Minnesota and Oklahoma, per the Economic Innovation Group, a bipartisan public policy organization.

► From the New York Times — A Democratic Electrician Nabs a State Senate Seat in Republican Florida — Democrats on Monday officially claimed a second upset in Florida’s recent special elections when The Associated Press declared an electrical workers union leader to be the winner of a tight state senate contest in reliably Republican West Tampa…Mr. Nathan, 45, is one of many blue-collar Democrats and anti-Republican independents vying for U.S. House and Senate seats, as well as state legislative posts. Those include Bob Brooks, a retired firefighter, and Brian Poindexter, a union ironworker, who are running for House seats in Pennsylvania and Ohio; Graham Platner, an oysterman, and Dan Osborn, an industrial electrician, running for the Senate in Maine and Nebraska; and Sam Forstag, a smokejumper and union leader, who is vying for the Democratic nomination for a House seat in Montana.

Editor’s note: the guy who wrote the above article neglected to mention AFA-CWA member Kaela Berg’s run for congress. Luckily, another reporter at the NYT did a deep dive on her race…

► From the New York Times — Kaela Berg, a Flight Attendant, Runs for Congress One Layover at a Time — Ms. Berg, a Minnesota state representative who works as a flight attendant, is trying to jet her way from the galley to the gilded halls of the Capitol…“If you look at Congress, there are people there that are independently wealthy,” said Ms. Berg, 52, who earns about $45 an hour as flight attendant. “Some of them are multimillionaires. They’ve been there forever. They haven’t had to worry about a paycheck in decades. But they’re making decisions about people and their lives without a clear understanding of it.”…Ms. Berg, who never graduated from college, attributed her political success to her involvement in her union. “Every opportunity I have ever had and where I am today is because of being in a union,” she said.

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