‘Pay us’ | Savings for WA families | Paramount-Warner merger

Tuesday, April 14, 2026

LOCAL

► From Oregon Live — ‘We’re human beings who have to pay bills’: TSA workers protest at PDX, decry ongoing government shutdown — As the weeks-long partial shutdown of the U.S. government drags on, members of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 1127, which represents Portland’s TSA workers, say it’s long past time for Congress to reach a budget deal. On Monday morning, about half a dozen union members stood in the median of the road in front of the Portland International Airport’s departures area, holding signs that read “Protect us, Respect Us, Pay Us” and “Pay us for our work.”…“It feels like all people care about is getting to their flight, but people are actually impacted by this,” said Katie Gilmore, a Local 1127 member. “We’re human beings who have to pay bills.”

► From the Washington State Standard — Seattle battery manufacturer fined over $200K for exposing workers to lead — Last July, state regulators inspected the company and found more than a dozen safety violations, many involving lead hazards. Inspectors photographed an inch of lead dust buildup in air cleaning devices that workers used to decontaminate and found additional lead buildup on lunchroom tables. High concentrations of lead exposure can lead to neurological damage, kidney disease, high blood pressure and reproductive problems. By October, Labor and Industries ordered the company to stop all work in the battery assembly area because the safety issues had not been corrected. The agency claims the company ignored reminders and deadlines to remedy the problems.

► From the Seattle Times — What Trump’s approval of flood relief money means for WA  — For people who had their own losses, the disaster declaration opens up possible help — but there are restrictions. The disaster declaration allows people to apply for FEMA individual assistance in King, Chelan, Lewis, Skagit, Snohomish and Whatcom counties, and in several tribal nations in those areas. People whose homes or property were damaged by flooding should first file claims with their insurance providers, according to FEMA. Federal money is meant to pay for costs not covered by insurance or other aid. Then they can apply for federal aid online at DisasterAssistance.gov or by calling 1-800-621-3362. They can also use a FEMA mobile phone app.

► From KING 5 — Protesters urge Tukwila to extend ICE detention center ban — Community members are urging the Tukwila City Council to extend its temporary ban on new detention centers. The City Council approved the six-month ban in February; it was created in response to reports that Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents wanted to move into the city. On Monday, the council held its first required public hearing on it. Some people say they’re concerned about ICE having a presence so close to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, where people could be placed on deportation flights.

AEROSPACE

► From the Seattle Times — Boeing’s MAX deliveries dip even as quarterly numbers pass 2023 levels — Boeing delivered fewer airplanes in March than the month prior as it dealt with an issue on a small number of 737 MAX planes.  Still, the planemaker’s first quarter deliveries rose above 2023 levels, the company said Tuesday. Boeing delivered 143 airplanes in January, February and March this year, an increase from 130 planes in the same three months last year and just 83 planes in the first quarter of 2024.

CONTRACT FIGHTS

► From the LAist — LAUSD, SEIU reach deal — Two days after LAUSD reached new deals with its teachers union and its principals union, the district tentatively agreed on a contract with SEIU Local 99. The unions gave the district an April 14 deadline to reach a deal, or face a walkout. A strike by all three would have shut down district schools and disrupted the education of about 400,000 students and the lives of families scrambling for child care. The unions had been negotiating with the district over pay, benefits and additional support for students for more than a year.

► From the Wrap — CBS News 24/7 Union Ratifies Contract With AI Guardrails — The three-year deal requires CBS News to notify the union ahead of any new generative AI systems, allow staffers to withhold their bylines from any AI-produced work and demands the network bargain with the union over AI’s impact, among other clauses. The AI protections come as newsroom unions across the country have tried to weave guardrails on the technology into their contracts, fearful of the impact on their jobs and credibility. The contract also maintains a 3% annual wage increase, rising to 3.5% in the contract’s second year, and gives each member a $1,500 ratification bonus.

ORGANIZING

► From Facing South — Unions make slight gains in South, mirroring national trends — Labor unions added 166,000 workers in 13 Southern states, with Georgia registering by far the biggest gains: 62,000 more Georgia employees belonged to a union in 2025 than in 2024. Florida, Louisiana, Texas, and Virginia witnessed small increases, while Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee largely held steady. Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, and West Virginia saw declines.

NATIONAL

► From the AP — Hollywood heavyweights voice ‘unequivocal opposition’ to Paramount-Warner merger in open letter — More than a thousand movie stars, writers, directors and other Hollywood professionals announced their “unequivocal opposition” to the proposed Paramount merger with Warner Bros. Discovery in an open letter published Monday. A large swath of the movie industry, including Denis Villeneuve, Kristen Stewart, J.J. Abrams and Joaquin Phoenix came out forcefully against the $111 billion deal that would consolidate two legacy studios into one, arguing that it further reduce jobs and movies in an already downsized Hollywood.

► From the Bloomberg Law — Glitches in New NLRB Docketing System Lead to Case Dismissals — Costly missteps in the National Labor Relations Board’s new intake protocol are emerging, as union attorneys report instances where regional offices have thrown out unfair labor practice charges based on technicalities or their own errors. Since the agency changed its intake protocol at the end of 2025, regional NLRB offices have cited charging parties’ failure to cooperate when dismissing cases for reasons like not filling out questionnaires with the same information they already submitted to the agency—something a top agency official said shouldn’t happen—or missing a deadline the agency didn’t notice.

► From the AP — Pittsburgh Post-Gazette announces it has found a buyer to keep the newspaper open — Barely two weeks before it was due to shut down, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette said Tuesday it had found a last-minute buyer — a successful nonprofit journalism operation that has agreed to keep the struggling newspaper open…Block Communications announced in January that it would shut down the newspaper, on the same day that the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear its appeal of a lawsuit regarding health benefits to formerly striking workers…Mellon and some other journalists at the newspaper have been exploring starting a co-op news website, and he’s not sure what will happen with those plans.

POLITICS & POLICY

► From the Olympian — What WA families, businesses will see in ‘millionaires tax’ — Senate Majority Leader Jamie Pedersen, a Seattle Democrat who sponsored the bill, said that at the same time, about 8 million people will reap financial benefits. The bill eliminates sales taxes for over-the-counter medicine, diapers and grooming and hygiene products beginning in 2029. In one example, parents buying cough syrup for their sick kid won’t have to pay tax on that anymore, Pedersen said. “Big picture is: Anyone who goes to the grocery store is going to benefit from the bill,” he said. Nicollette Roe, a Tacoma parent of three and member of the grassroots group MomsRising, said she spends at least $120 on diapers per month. She’s looking forward to not paying sales taxes on diapers and other essential items that she buys every week.

► From Geek Wire — Non-compete ban stirs optimism and uncertainty in Washington state — here’s what it means for tech –Some startup leaders and investors in the Seattle region say the change is overdue, and non-competes have kept Seattle behind Silicon Valley. “I’m thrilled,” said Chris DeVore, managing director of Founders Co‑op in Seattle and longtime non-compete critic, in an interview. “Washington is empowering individuals to pursue their own economic destiny without being thwarted.” Washington-based tech giants like Amazon and Microsoft have used non-competes to keep employees from joining competitors or launching rival startups. In practice, DeVore and others argue they’re overused and often predatory, limiting job mobility and innovation…California’s more than 100-year ban on non-competes is cited as a key ingredient in Silicon Valley’s rise. A 2010 Rutgers study has backed up that theory, linking weaker non-compete enforcement to higher rates of innovation, patenting and startup activity.

► From the AP — Postal Service union launches ad campaign promoting mail voting as Trump assails the method — The 30-second message features a variety of voters, among them a busy farmer and a flight attendant, explaining why they cast their ballots by mail. Sponsored by the 200,000-member American Postal Workers Union, the advertising campaign announced Tuesday will begin airing this week in Ohio, where Union Army soldiers during the Civil War cast the first mail ballots in 1864. It will then move to other states.

► From Reuters — Trump taps veteran labor lawyer to fill out Republican NLRB majority — President Donald Trump has nominated James Macy, a longtime management-side labor lawyer who took a job at the U.S. Department of Labor last year, ‌for a seat on the National Labor Relations Board, the White House said on Monday. If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Macy would give Republicans a 3-1 edge on the five-member board and allow them to roll back a series of Biden-era NLRB decisions that boosted union organizing and have been criticized by business groups.

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