Multicare pickets | NABTU & suicide prevention | Farmworker union rights

Monday, April 6, 2026

STRIKES

► From the Aurora Sentinel — Workers plan to halt strike at Greeley meatpacking plant, resume negotiations — Workers at one of the nation’s largest meatpacking plants have agreed to return to work and halt a three-week strike after plant owner JBS USA agreed to resume negotiations, labor union representatives announced Saturday…JBS is the world’s largest meatpacking company with a market capitalization of $17 billion. It is the top employer in Greeley, a city 50 miles (80 kilometers) northeast of Denver with a population of about 114,000 people…The union said the company had offered less than 2% more a year in wages, which is less than inflation in Colorado.

LOCAL

► From the Seattle Times — WA timber industry buffeted by regulations, trade war — In Centralia, a sawmill owned by NWH, formerly known as Northwest Hardwoods, announced the permanent closure of its facility in March, laying off all 70 employees, according to the worker adjustment and retraining notification. Employment in the U.S. sawmill and wood preservation sectors continues to slip, with around 85,000 employees — the lowest point since 2013, per the National Association of Home Builders. Over almost two decades, the current downturn is far from the peak of more than 105,000 employees in 2008. “In Seattle, you can go down the street and maybe get a different job,” Mitchell said. “Not so in these rural communities.”

► From Cascadia Daily News — PeaceHealth: We’re working to ‘adapt and evolve’ to funding shifts amid community angst — An unidentified respiratory therapist, who was one of roughly 60 attendees Thursday, said that trends such as short staffing and patient safety complaints are going unaddressed.  “Responses such as ‘We hear you,’ and ‘We understand you,’ and ‘We care about the patients just as much you,’ but as the years go by, we are still in the same position, the same complaints, and the same concerns for patient safety due to unsafe staffing,” the therapist said. “How can PeaceHealth say patient care and quality are the priority when bedside staffing remains this fragile?” the therapist asked hospital leadership, while the organization, “continues a major $336 million expansion, … substantial executive compensation, but still does not make a concrete commitment to appropriate frontline staffing?”

AEROSPACE

► From Reuters —  FAA proposes to hire 2,300 air traffic controllers in budget request — The FAA is about 3,500 fully certified air traffic controllers short of targeted staffing levels. At the end of September it employed 13,164 controllers — or 6% fewer controllers than it did a decade earlier. Many controllers are working mandatory overtime and six-day weeks and the FAA’s air traffic control training academy faces serious issues with retaining students.

CONTRACT FIGHTS (LOCAL)

► From the Yakima Herald-Republic — SEIU workers picket outside Yakima MultiCare Memorial Hospital — The workers, which include nurses and certified nurse assistants, are pushing for a $25 per hour starting wage, affordable health care and equality across MultiCare facilities, according to a news release from the union. Blanca Arcila, a nurse assistant with the hospital for five years, said that she and her colleagues have a tough job, work long hours and are dealing with inflation. They are also asking for their 401K match to be raised, after it was lowered in the last contract, she said. Arcila is one of the delegates at the bargaining table, representing 1,200 nurses and service workers at the hospital whose contract have been under negotiation since November 2025.

► From the Tacoma News Tribune — Staff picket outside Good Sam Hospital in Puyallup. ‘Patients need our help.’  — Trevor Baumgardner, a licensed practical nurse at Good Samaritan Hospital and a member of the bargaining team, told The News Tribune on Friday that their three-year contract expired on Sept. 30, 2025. He said workers are fighting for higher wages, better health care and increased staffing. “We do what we do because patients need our help,” Baumgardner said. “We’re here and we’re willing to provide that help (but) we need to make sure we’re not being assaulted on the job, we need to make sure we’re being paid a fair wage, we want to make sure that everything in the hospital works so we can provide that care … .”

► From MLK Labor:

 

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CONTRACT FIGHTS (NATIONAL)

► From CBS Chicago — Over 1,600 United Steelworkers locked out of NIPSCO — In a statement, the United Steelworkers condemned NIPSCO for the lockout, calling the move an aggressive escalation that threatens worker safety, undermines labor rights and disrupts communities across northern Indiana. NIPSCO is a public service company providing natural gas and electricity in Northern Indiana. There’s a similar situation in Whiting, Indiana, at the BP Refinery. Hundreds of union workers have been locked out of the BP refinery since March 19, after contract negotiations broke down.

► From the Hollywood Reporter — Writers Guild Reaches Tentative Four-Year Deal With Studios — “Today, the WGA Negotiating Committee unanimously approved a tentative agreement with the AMPTP for the 2026 Minimum Basic Agreement (MBA) for a four-year term,” the union said. “Crucially, it protects our health plan and puts it on a sustainable path, with increased company contributions across many areas and long-needed increases to health contribution caps. The new contract also builds on gains from 2023 and helps address free work challenges.”

► From Fast Company — The architecture world just got its second union — This week, the labor movement in architecture scored a win. Sage & Coombe Architects, a women-led firm based in New York City, unanimously approved a collective bargaining agreement. It’s the second American practice to ratify a contract, after Bernheimer Architecture in 2024. “This contract, the second in the industry, sets a standard for workers at Sage and Coombe and beyond,” Architectural Workers United (AWU), a group that has been helping firms organize, announced on April 1 via Instagram. The agreement’s details have yet to be made public.

ORGANIZING

► From NW Public Broadcasting — Whitman College administration encouraged faculty and staff to vote “no” in union election — WCWU organizers say the administration has expressed anti-union sentiment and wouldn’t meet with committee members and their representatives. In a March 5 email to faculty and staff at Whitman College, Vice President for Finance and Administration Jeff Hamrick wrote about the possibility of an election monitored by the NLRB. Hamrick reminded workers of their right to vote no in this election, and expressed the college’s desire to have employees vote no…In summer 2025, Hearn said the college laid off 10 staff, and announced operational budget cuts and a pause on hiring for vacant positions. Hearn said that drove people to unionize. Workers want higher wages, stable benefits, safety concerns to be addressed, neutral grievance processes and job stability.

NATIONAL

► From Construction Dive — NABTU, CPWR partner with Bechtel-backed suicide prevention initiative — Construction has the second-highest suicide rate of any U.S. industry, behind mining, per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The collaboration between AFSP, union membership group NABTU and safety data researcher CPWR aims to reduce that rate by developing core, shared standards. That includes learning objectives for suicide prevention awareness training and education, as well as exploring peer-based suicide prevention training aligned with jobsite roles…Since its founding, industry leaders — including NABTU President Sean McGarvey — have sat on the Hard Hat Courage CEO Advisory board. “Our members build America. We must also build a culture where it’s standard practice to talk about mental health and take action early,” McGarvey said in the release.

► From NBC News — More Black and Latina women are leading unions — and transforming how they work — Often when people think about unions, “they think of a white guy in a hard hat. But in fact, studies show that about two-thirds of working people who are covered by a union contract are women and/or people of color,” said Georgetown University labor historian Lane Windham…Today’s examples of diverse union leaders include Becky Pringle, a Black woman who leads the National Education Association, the nation’s largest union; Bonnie Castillo, the first Latina to serve as executive director of National Nurses United; and April Verrett, who in May became the first Black woman to lead the Service Employees International Union, which says about 60% of its service worker members are people of color, and two-thirds are women.

► From Deadline — Musicians Union Supports Bruce Springsteen After Donald Trump’s “Personal Attacks”  — “We can not remain silent as one of our most celebrated members is singled out and personally attacked by the President of the United States,” the union presidents said in a joint statement today. “Bruce Springsteen is not just a brilliant musician, he is a voice for working people, a symbol of American resilience, and an inspiration to millions in this country and around the world. From Nebraska to Born to Run,” they continued, “his music has spoken truth to power for decades, and that is exactly what he is doing now.”

► From the Federal News Network — VA reverses course, restores union contracts following judge’s rebuke — The VA is restoring the collective bargaining agreements with six unions that represent a majority of its workforce — including the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents 300,000 VA employees. The labor agreements will temporarily remain in effect while these cases proceed through the court. AFGE’s National VA Council told its members in an email Thursday evening that VA’s Central Office is “instructing facilities to return to the status quo for all AFGE-represented employees,” including everyone covered by the master agreement before VA unilaterally terminated it on Aug. 5, 2025.

POLITICS & POLICY

► From the Stranger — Did Your Elected Representative Vote for You or Your Boss? Washington State Labor Council Releases 2026 Legislative Scorecard — The highest-scoring Republican legislator in WSLC’s 2026 scorecard is Rep. Sam Low of Legislative District 39, which covers rural Snohomish and Skagit counties…Low told The Stranger he meets with labor partners weekly during legislative sessions and during the offseason. “Labor issues/bills should not be a partisan issue,” Low writes in an email. “I am proud of the strong labor vote I have, and the pro-labor worker bills I have sponsored. I still have room to grow and improve, and I appreciate the patience the Washington State Labor Council and other labor groups have shown to me along the way.”..As for the lowest-scoring Democrat, that honor goes to Rep. Amy Walen, who represents the Eastside communities of Bellevue, Redmond, and Kirkland. The Labor Council scored Walen 50 points—17 points lower than Low.

► From OPB — Seattle millionaire asks Washington Supreme Court to allow referendum effort on income tax — Heywood filed a referendum on Senate Bill 6346 shortly after Gov. Bob Ferguson signed the legislation known as the “millionaires’ tax.” It imposes a 9.9% levy on household wage income above $1 million starting in 2028. But, as expected, the secretary of state’s office on Tuesday declined to process it, citing the Legislature’s inclusion of language that the new tax “is necessary for the support of the state government and its existing public institutions.”…“Because the Legislature has declared that the act is exempt from referendum, we are unable to accept your proposed measure for filing and will not process it further,” wrote Stuart Holmes, state director of elections, in a one-page rejection letter.

► From Bloomberg Law — Trump Doubles Down on Labor Department Budget Cuts for 2027 — The US Labor Department would receive $9.9 billion in fiscal year 2027 under President Donald Trump’s budget blueprint, a 26% reduction to current funding levels, after Congress bucked similar cuts to this year’s budget. The blueprint proposes cutting at least $2.4 billion from programs including the elimination of the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs and Job Corps…Senator Patty Murray (D-Wash.), vice chair on the Senate Appropriations Committee, vowed Friday to toss the president’s budget “in the trash.” “Last year, I said I’d rip up President Trump’s budget and make sure Congress wrote a new one instead—that’s exactly what we did and will do again,” she said.

► From OPB — Oregon, Washington among states suing to block Trump’s vote-by-mail executive order — In a lawsuit filed in Massachusetts, the states argue that Trump far exceeded his authority with an order issued Tuesday. Among its provisions, the order would direct federal agencies to create a list of voters who are eligible to vote in federal elections in each state and require that the United States Postal Service allow federal ballots to go to only those people. The order would allow the federal government to withhold funding from states that fail to comply. Trump’s order has been broadly panned as illegal by critics, who point out that the U.S. Constitution gives authority over election administration to the states and to Congress — not the president.

► From the Tri-City Herald — Trump admin proposes $400M cut at Hanford nuclear site. ‘Slap in the face’ — The DOE document said the proposed cut would include $228 million from the tank waste program — the environmental cleanup program under Hanford Office of River Protection — to a little over $1.9 billion. The Hanford Office of River Protection is responsible for 56 million gallons of radioactive and hazardous chemical waste stored in underground tanks, many of them prone to leaking, and also responsible for the treatment of the waste to allow its permanent disposal… [U.S. Sen.] Murray has repeatedly gone to bat for Hanford, using her powerful position in the Senate Appropriations Committee, to obtain more funding than requested by both Democrat and Republican administrations. “The federal government has a moral and legal obligation here,” she said Friday. “And as long as I help lead the appropriations committee, Congress is going to meet that obligation.”

► From WRAL — Trump’s new budget seeks TSA privatization — The American Federation of Government Employees, which represents about 47,000 TSA officers, has long feared the Trump administration would try to privatize the workforce. The union expected the White House would propose such a move, which was outlined in Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation’s conservative blueprint for the second Trump term, an AFGE spokesperson told CNN. “We take this threat very seriously and will be in the fight to ensure it doesn’t happen,” the spokesperson said. In a news conference about the partial government shutdown last month, AFGE union leaders said the administration is trying to use the recent chaos at airports to show that TSA is in “mission failure,” according to Everett Kelley, the union’s national president.

► From My Bellingham Now — State workers now able to view contributions to WA Cares Fund — The state says the annual statements will help people better understand their progress towards earning benefits. “This is an exciting step as the benefits launch of WA Cares nears,” Employment Security Department Commissioner Cami Feek said. “Workers now have the opportunity to check their progress toward the program’s contribution requirement, which they’ll need to meet in order to qualify for benefits in the future.” Applications to access the benefits will open in mid-May and the benefits will become available in June.

TODAY’S MUST-READ

► From the Stranger — Guest Rant: Washington Farmworkers Want Union Rights — Earlier this session, farmworker Gilardo Perez of Quincy, who has worked in agriculture for more than 25 years, testified that he was targeted for speaking out against the use of H-2A guest worker programs to replace longtime local workers. He described how, without union protections, workers are pushed into lower wages and harsher conditions, with little ability to advocate for fair pay. Today, his work remains uncertain as employers increasingly favor temporary H-2A workers over experienced farmworkers rooted in the community…our state Attorney General Nick Brown has been standing up to this discrimination by bringing legal action against unfair hiring practices in the agricultural industry. But, enforcement after harm occurs is not the same as giving workers the power to negotiate protections before abuses happen.

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