State budget | REI | Elect union members

Thursday, March 12, 2026

STRIKES

► From the Willamette Week — Portland Community College Employees Go on Strike — Michelle DuBarry, PCCFFAP’s executive vice president, says the administration “did move a lot” on Tuesday. She says the faculty union also tried to meet the administration with its own lower offer, proposing a 6% cost-of-living increase over two years in various configurations that would have resulted in some significant savings for the college. But she says the administration effectively walked out. “We would have gone a couple more rounds,” she says. “We thought that was our path.” In a similar vein, PCCFCE contract action team chair Justin Eslinger says the classified union tried to reach a deal with the administration on Tuesday night, with a final offer coming down close to a million dollars. (PCCFCE’s final Tuesday proposal was confidential.) He says negotiations ended when management said they weren’t authorized to move beyond their final offer.

LOCAL

► From Oregon Live — Trump’s immigration crackdown takes quiet toll on Preschool for All providers — Hayward, who has hired staff members from the Worksystems program, said three of her teachers are rushing to get their work authorization approved but that the slow federal approval process could put them out of work. Now she’s between a rock and a hard place. Hayward said she can’t wait indefinitely to staff her classroom, but finding qualified replacements is challenging and she doesn’t want to see her proven staff members leave.

CONTRACT FIGHTS

► From the Guardian — Nearly 4,000 US meatpacking workers to strike at plant run by top Trump donor — About 3,800 workers at JBS USA, the world’s largest meat producer, are set to strike on Monday in what will be the first labor strike in the industry in decades…The union cited an ongoing lawsuit against JBS alleging discrimination against Haitian workers at the plant by increasing line speeds on Haitian employees. The lawsuit alleges they were recruited under false pretenses. Cleaning contractors have also faced fines by the US Department of Labor for illegally employing minors at the JBS Greeley plant. JBS agreed in January 2025 to settle the child labor violations without admitting wrongdoing for $4m. “I think they are emboldened by their relationship with the administration. They were Trump’s largest donor to the inauguration,” said Cordova.

► From Jacobin — What San Francisco Educators Won on Their Strike — UESF members voted to ratify the contract with a 92 percent “yes” vote at the end of the month. The union says the deal included major victories for workers on health care — getting the district to fully cover rapidly rising insurance costs — as well as pay increases, workload reductions for special education professionals, and the preservation and expansion of the school’s program to support unhoused students and their families. Jacobin’s Nick French recently sat down with three rank-and-file educator-leaders to talk about the strike and what they won.

► From ESPN — WNBA, union conduct 2nd straight day of marathon CBA talks — Following back-to-back days of prolonged negotiations between the WNBA and its players’ union, WNBPA president Nneka Ogwumike told reporters late Wednesday that the players are “feeling movement” in collective bargaining talks and are “committed to being at the table.”..In all, there have been eight proposals exchanged over the past two days, with the parties meeting for roughly 12 hours Tuesday evening into Wednesday morning and then for about 11 hours Wednesday afternoon into early Thursday. “Being able to be in the room, being able to exchange proposals, we’re feeling movement,” Ogwumike said.

NATIONAL

► From Bloomberg — REI Plans to Cut Pay of New Hires and Reduce Employee Benefits — In her message to staff, Laughton said the benefit cuts would apply throughout REI’s stores, and were being included in a final contract offer it was making for the unionized ones. None of those stores has reached a collective bargaining agreement in the four years since the first one organized…While the two sides last year announced they’d agreed to a process to try to expedite a contract deal, tensions are now rising again. In a Feb. 24 letter viewed by Bloomberg, REI’s attorney Joseph Ragaglia told the UFCW that the two sides were at an “impasse,” and so the company planned to begin unilaterally implementing terms from its final offer, including on pay and benefits. UFCW representative Matthew Horn wrote back that there was no impasse, that unilaterally imposing those terms would be illegal and that the union “will use all tools available” to prevent that from happening.

► From CNBC — Black women were disproportionately impacted by DOGE cuts. A year later, they’re rebuilding careers for themselves and each other — The DOGE cuts, which continued for several months, contributed to a disturbing trend: Black women’s unemployment rate skyrocketed to a high of 7.5% in September 2025, compared to 4.4% unemployment among all U.S. workers at that time. The overall net loss in employed Black women in 2025 was driven entirely by public-sector losses, with most job losses in federal government, according to research from Wilson. Among Black women, the largest losses were for college graduates.

► From GamesIndustry.biz — SAG-AFTRA issues a Do Not Work Order against Capcom for “failing to initiate the signatory process” — As a result of SAG-AFTRA Do Not Work Order, voice actor Ben Diskin is now unable to reprise his role as Mega Man. “I was asked to return for Mega Man: Dual Override, but only on the condition I work without the protections of a union contract,” Diskin wrote on BlueSky. “I was told there are ‘full A.I. protections in place that guarantee in writing that [my] voice will never be used for A.I. development’ but was also told ‘with certainty, from [Capcom], that the project will not go union.’ While I certainly appreciate the acknowledgement of the concern around AI, working without a contract I can realistically enforce isn’t something I can risk. “The only way to enforce non-union contracts like this involves personally taking giant companies like Capcom to court and suing if I thought they’d used AI. I don’t have the mental, emotional, or monetary strength to survive a protracted legal fight.

► From Aviation A2Z — American Airlines Silently Firing Dozens of Flight Attendants — Union records indicate that 59 flight attendants filed grievances in the past year after being terminated for “reserve not in position” violations. The figures suggest a growing crackdown by American Airlines as it investigates whether crew members were physically near their assigned airport when called to work…The union also warns that American may bypass progressive discipline and proceed directly to termination if evidence shows a reserve crew member was not positioned to report for duty.

POLITICS & POLICY

► From the Washington State Standard — Income tax bill heads to WA governor for signature — Democratic state senators in Washington pushed a state income tax across the legislative finish line Wednesday after Republicans’ last-ditch attempt to derail it failed. On a 27-21 vote, Democrats approved Senate Bill 6346, clearing the way for it to go to Democratic Gov. Bob Ferguson, who is eagerly waiting to sign it…Once Heck and House Speaker Laurie Jinkins sign it, the bill will be sent to Ferguson, who will have 20 days to act on it following the end of the session.

► From the Washington State Standard — Democrats settle on plan for patching up WA’s strained budget — The $79.4 billion plan makes changes to the $77.8 billion two-year budget lawmakers passed last year, which covers state funding for July 1, 2025, to June 30, 2027. It’s fueled in part by an $880 million withdrawal from the rainy day fund. The biggest pots of new spending deal with addressing the state’s growing lawsuit payouts for government misconduct and grappling with major federal changes to safety net programs like Medicaid and food stamps. A handful of curtailed tax breaks would raise some new money in the near-term. Revenue from the income tax is not expected until 2029, when payments are set to begin.

► From the Guardian — One simple way to heal American politics: run more union members — American politics feels hopelessly broken. Extreme political polarization, enormous amounts of Pac money sloshing around during elections, and the increasing power of the rich make it seem like nothing, and no one, can set the country on the right track. But a new report from the Center for Working-Class Politics looks at a surprisingly simple way that ordinary people might have more influence in our political system: run more union members for office…Our research finds that working-class candidates make up just 8%–14% of Democratic and 5%–8% of Republican congressional candidates, despite roughly half of Americans working in manual labor, service or clerical jobs. These numbers have barely budged since 2010, in stark contrast to gender and race, where Democrats have roughly doubled their share of female and non-white candidates over the same period.

► From MyNorthwest — Sen. Murray says ICE reform is needed before DHS funding passes — Washington Democratic U.S. Senator Patty Murray wants reforms within ICE before the agency gets funding. “We have got to have accountability. We’ve got to. Americans’ rights are at stake, and as we have seen, their lives are at stake,” Murray said…“FACTS: Democrats introduced a clean bill to fully fund TSA with no conditions. Republicans blocked it,” the Homeland Democrats group said on X. “Republicans would rather disrupt our travel than rein in ICE. It’s shameful.”

► From OPB — PeaceHealth emergency room deal will test new Oregon law — A plan by nonprofit PeaceHealth to contract out emergency services at three Oregon hospitals to a for-profit Atlanta-based firm is increasingly raising questions about whether the arrangement violates a new, high-profile Oregon law intended to block corporate meddling in patient care. And among those questions is a basic one: If the law is broken, who would enforce it?

INTERNATIONAL

► From the Solidarity Center — Bangladesh Garment Workers Form First Union Under New Law — The workers received legal recognition for the Fashion Pulse Limited Sramik Union in February after organizing with the Bangladesh Independent Garment Workers Union Federation (BIGUF), with legal and technical support from the Solidarity Center. BIGUF and the Solidarity Center helped workers navigate the complex legal process required to register the union as government officials implemented the new provisions.

The Stand posts links to local, national and international labor news every weekday morning. Subscribe to get daily news in your inbox.