Machinists Institute | Magic: the union | All eyes on AI

Tuesday, April 28, 2026

LOCAL

► From KHQ — Machinist Institute Spokane to train highly skilled workers — Jobs tied to the aerospace manufacturing industry make up a large and growing part of that market across the state. However, these specialty jobs require training. In Eastern Washington, experts say that training had been hard for many people to access. Now, the Spokane branch of the Machinists Institute said its working to close that gap at a lower cost for students. “Our goal is to make all entry-level training fees to participants free,” Executive Director of the Machinists Institute Ryan Davis said. “So we go out and pursue grants, whether those grants were from the federal government or state government. There are some new funding streams coming down for technical education. So our goal is to make that cost for the student zero.”

► From KING 5 — Governor, attorney general to announce legal action at ICE facility in Tacoma  — Washington Governor Bob Ferguson and Attorney General Nick Brown are preparing to announce legal action against the Northwest ICE Detention Facility in Tacoma, where state health inspectors say they’ve been blocked from entering despite state law and a federal judge’s order. The announcement is set for 12:15 p.m. Tuesday, marking the latest development in a three-year standoff between state officials and the facility operators…Meanwhile, advocacy group La Resistencia said detainees have been raising concerns about food, medical care and religious accommodations. Muslim detainees have reported receiving non-halal meals and disrupted fasting schedules during Ramadan.

► From the Cascadia Daily News — Parents, colleges scramble to continue co-op preschools after state funding ends — Reese said these programs help parents build skills and confidence in the “challenging work” of parenting. They support both children and parents, he said. “The result is a ripple effect: stronger families, more resilient children, and healthier communities,” Reese said in an email. “At SVC, we feel that parent education is not just an early learning strategy; it is a long-term investment in educational success, workforce readiness, and the overall well-being of the state.” Ethier said the cut to parent education fits into the larger “disaster” of the state reducing funding to early education, referencing deep cuts to Transition to Kindergarten, a pre-kindergarten program operated by school districts. He said he worries about the “downstream impacts” of cuts to early education. “This is hugely impactful for families of young children,” he said. “We already are living in a childcare desert.”

► From the union-busting Columbian — Battle Ground Public Schools plans to cut more than 130 positions — Battle Ground Public Schools plans to cut 137.2 positions to address a $20 million budget deficit, which district leaders largely blame on a triple levy failure and lack of adequate state funding. The school board approved a resolution Monday authorizing staff reductions for the 2026-27 school year. The cuts are being made after a replacement educational programs and operations levy failed to pass for a third time in February. Combined with a previous staff reduction ahead of the 2025-26 school year, Battle Ground has cut 268.3 positions, or 16 percent of all staff, dating back to 2024-25.

► From Cascade PBS — WATCH: Seattle says gig workers earning more under new pay rules

ORGANIZING

► From the Times of San Diego — Workers at San Diego’s REI store vote to join UFCW Local 135 — Employees at San Diego’s REI store have filed to unionize, REI Union announced Monday, with the aim of joining United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW) Local 135, the largest private-sector union in the region.  Workers voted to unionize in hopes of improving working conditions, scheduling practices and pay, along with keeping the co-op true to its original mission. “We’re excited to join a national movement of REI workers standing up to save the heart of the co-op that is losing its way,” said Juan Pablo Contreras, a local REI worker, in a news release.

► From the Guardian — The ‘wizards’ behind the online version of Magic: the Gathering are unionizing — Magic: the Gathering is casting lots for a union. Game developers at the popular digital and tabletop studio Wizards of the Coast, a subsidiary of Hasbro that develops online versions of the popular card game are seeking to join the Communications Workers of America. The workers announced their intent to unionize on Monday to join the CWA, which has organized thousands of workers in the tech and video game industry in recent years, including the largest certified union in the US video game industry in 2024 representing 600 quality assurance workers at Activision.

NATIONAL

► From the Seattle Times — Why all eyes are on AI spending at Microsoft and Amazon — As the industry continues to pour hundreds of billions of dollars into artificial intelligence investments, cloud computing revenue is where investors will be able to see if the bets are starting to pay off. If trends from previous earnings reports persist, Wall Street will also have a watchful eye on those rising AI costs…During its most recent earnings call, Microsoft was pressed on the falling stock price, despite another strong quarter. Earnings grew 24% year-over-year for the last three months of 2025, but Microsoft’s share price fell by 10% afterward. “I think one of the core issues that is weighing on investors is (capital expenditures) is growing faster than we expected, and maybe Azure is growing a little bit slower than we expected,” said Keith Weiss, an analyst with Morgan Stanley, on the January earnings call. “And I think that fundamentally comes down to a concern on the (return on investment) on this capex spend over time.”

► From Bloomberg Law — Apple Store Union Staff Accuse Firm of Retaliation Amid Closure — The store made history in 2022 when it became Apple Inc.’s first unionized retail location in the US. Now it’s one of three stores the company is shuttering, which Apple blamed on the “departure of several retailers and declining conditions” in the case of the mall housing the Towson outpost. But union representatives say the iPhone maker is treating the Towson staff worse than it typically does in situations like these by making it harder for them to stay with Apple.

► From KUOW — Stuck in limbo: millions of professionals risk losing legal status under Trump pause — Five months in, and the impact has been catastrophic for many people from those countries already living in the U.S., whether they’re going to school or working in lucrative labor sectors like oil and gas, technology and medicine…Their experiences mirror each other: sudden financial insecurity, months of unemployment, academic and professional opportunities lost — and a crippling anxiety over the abrupt inability to live or work legally in the U.S…The pause is also hurting some U.S. citizens who want to get legal status for their immigrant spouses — and the Americans who rely on foreign-born workers in dozens of key industries, from health care to cybersecurity.

POLITICS & POLICY

► From Reuters — US Supreme Court will weigh Labor Department’s enforcement powers in farmworker cases — The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday agreed to decide whether the U.S. Department of Labor’s in-house proceedings for cases involving the treatment of farmworkers are unconstitutional, the latest ​challenge to an agency’s administrative powers taken up by the high court. The justices granted a petition, opens new tab by the Labor Department seeking ‌to overturn a 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision, opens new tab that said Sun Valley Orchards, a New Jersey produce farm, was entitled to have its case heard in federal court before it was hit with more than $500,000 in fines for violations of the H-2A visa program for temporary foreign farm labor.

► From the New York Times — Trump Administration Will Pay to Cancel More Wind Farms — The firms will forfeit their leases in federal waters for the two wind farms, one of which would have been built off New York and New Jersey and the other off California. The government will reimburse the companies a combined $885 million, the amount they paid for the leases under the Biden administration. In exchange, the companies have pledged to invest that money in oil and gas projects, including liquefied natural gas facilities along the Gulf Coast…The agreements are extraordinary transfers of taxpayer dollars to private companies for the purposes of throttling offshore wind power, a source of clean energy that Mr. Trump has disparaged for decades.

► From the Washington State Standard — Sam Hunt, who represented Olympia in WA Legislature for over two decades, dies at 83 — Hunt served 16 years in the state House, before moving to the Senate in 2017. He was chair of the committees overseeing state government and elections in both chambers. Hunt decided not to seek reelection in 2024, and was appointed a regent at Washington State University…Upon retirement, Hunt highlighted his support for the state’s marriage equality law and for state employee collective bargaining rights.

► From CBS News — California billionaire tax secures enough signatures to make ballot — The measure, proposed by Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW), a union representing more than 120,000 California health care workers, would impose a one-time 5% tax on Californians with net worths of $1 billion or more. The union said it obtained more than 1.5 million signatures, exceeding the 875,000 required to qualify for the ballot.

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