NEWS ROUNDUP
May Day | New leadership @ IAM 751 | Waymos worse
Friday, May 1, 2026
MAY DAY
► From the Seattle Times — Thousands expected to protest, march across WA on May Day — On Friday, protesters across Washington will call for Tacoma’s ICE detention center to be shut down and for the state to divest from GEO Group, the Florida-based private company running the center, Rubio said. Their demands will also include barring ICE agents from this summer’s World Cup events in Seattle and blocking the state from sharing its licensing data with U.S. border authorities. Friday’s event is open to anyone hoping to “organize for a better world and a way out of the current political, economic and social crises,” Rubio said.
► From KNDU — May Day events set for Yakima and Sunnyside as workers gather — Brenda Morgan, an executive board member with Service Employees’ International Union 775, also known as the Caregivers’ Union, said the events were open to everyone. “This is community members coming together. This is people that want to voice their concern. This is people raising awareness of what our labor movement has done for us as workers. Don’t keep quiet. Come out. Join us,” Morgan said. Morgan explained that union support helped her and other caregivers earn a living wage, get health insurance and have more job security. She also said Washington’s labor movement had several milestones to recognize on May 1, including the passage of the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights and the millionaire’s tax.
► From OPB — May Day protests have long history in the Pacific Northwest — But in the Pacific Northwest, many continued to celebrate May Day. That’s due, in part, to the large presence of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, a powerful union that remained committed to a more radical labor culture, Beda said. “That has a lot of profound effects on the Pacific Northwest’s economy,” he said. “The ILWU retains this kind of radical culture, and part of that radical culture was continuing to celebrate international holidays like May Day.” It’s a tradition organizers are hoping continues on Friday.
► From Common Dreams — US Working Class Mobilizes Ahead of Nationwide ‘May Day Strong’ Rallies — “Amid attacks on our health and safety, our civil rights, and our very freedom to organize, we are standing up for a worker-centered vision of America,” [AFL-CIO President] Schuler continued. “From now through November, the AFL-CIO, our state and local labor movements, and allies across the country will be in the streets and at worksites to peacefully engage our co-workers and neighbors on the issues at stake in the next election so we can ensure that everyone can vote and every vote is counted and unify working people around our economic demands.” “This week and for the months to come, we will continue to fight for our vision of a worker-centered America,” she added.
► From People’s World — May Day 1886: The great upheaval in Chicago — “Eight hours for work, eight hours for rest, eight hours for what we will” was the rallying cry, and the bosses hated it. Chicago in the late 19th Century was the site of one of the battles in the ongoing class war, and the capitalists had the money to back their side. Firing and black-listing union workers was common, as was hiring scabs, spies, and private security thugs. Racism and bigotry were tools often used by the ruling class to exacerbate tensions and further divide the workers, sometimes successfully. Since newspapers often supported business interests, the ruling class had the media’s backing, forcing the workers to create their own newspapers…The just demands of the working class continue to this day, and the struggle of those workers of 1886 is now our struggle.
LOCAL
► From the Seattle Times — Boeing Machinists union elects new president — Members of the International Association of Machinists District 751 voted Tuesday to nominate and elect Jason Chan to serve as the union’s president for the next two years, finishing out the term of former IAM District 751 President Jon Holden…Chan started at Boeing in 2008 as a wing mechanic on the 737 program in Renton and worked for the company for 10 years. He started working for the union in 2018 as an organizer, then served as a business representative in Boeing’s Auburn facility, before joining Holden’s team as chief of staff in 2021. He’s been a union supporter since his first day on the job, recalling that on his first night on the factory floor, a union steward invited him to lunch and asked him to attend the local lodge meeting. “When I walked in the door, I was greeted and welcomed with open arms,” Chan said. “I felt in that moment I had 30,000 brothers and sisters I didn’t know about.”
► From the union-busting Columbian — Clark County sees demand for in-home care for elders growing, but professional caregivers harder to find — Yet, as demand for in-home care continues to grow, the availability of professional caregivers has struggled to keep pace. In 2024, 38.2 million people provided unpaid elder care, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Deportation of immigrants might exacerbate the shortage of direct-care workers who play a pivotal role in providing long-term care services in both home care and institutional care settings, according to KFF, an independent public health nonprofit.
CONTRACT FIGHTS
► From the Eagle — Staff Union secures immigration enforcement protections in agreement with AU — [American] University has previously stated that AUPD would not cooperate with ICE, unless required to by law in multiple emails from February 2025. The agreement reiterates this, saying the University will only cooperate with federal agents when presented with a warrant signed by a judge. It also guarantees union notification during potential immigration enforcement activity on campus, and creates pathways for job reinstatement for employees who have been detained or have lost their work authorization, as long as they resolve their immigration status within six months.
► From the NYT’s Athletic — MLB labor talks will begin in the next couple weeks. What’s the process, and what’s at stake? — Soon, Major League Baseball and the players’ union will begin collective bargaining, an acrimonious but weighty undertaking that will shape the future of the sport — and, for a time, likely imperil it. Baseball has a long history of labor wars, but this rendition could be the wildest yet. The owners, an extraordinarily wealthy group, are planning to push for a salary cap, which players, a number of them quite rich themselves, have long considered a non-starter.
NATIONAL
► From Wired — Emergency First Responders Say Waymos Are Getting Worse — In Austin, first responders have been frequently stymied by Waymos “freezing up,” said Lieutenant William White, head of Highway Enforcement Command at the Austin Police Department. White said that, contrary to what Waymo had told first responders, the vehicles often fail to recognize or respond to officers’ hand signals, which can lead to cascading delays during emergencies or unusual road incidents. “I believe the technology was deployed too quickly in too vast amounts, with hundreds of vehicles, when it wasn’t really ready,” White said.
► From Bloomberg Law — Volkswagen Opens Door to Challenging NLRB Regional Directors — The NLRB has been sued for alleged constitutional violations nearly 50 times since 2023, but the carmaker’s recent lawsuit included for the first time claims of violations related to the agency’s regional directors, according to a Bloomberg Law review of cases. Although Volkswagen subsequently dismissed its claims, it paved the way for similar challenges. A Wisconsin-based healthcare provider contested regional directors’ constitutionality just a few days after Volkswagen sued…Volkswagen’s lawsuit marked an escalation of the legal war against the NLRB, in which employers are attempting to halt the agency from moving forward with administrative cases over alleged constitutional defects in its structure.
POLITICS & POLICY
► From the AP — Trump signs bill funding the Department of Homeland Security, ending record shutdown — President Donald Trump swiftly signed a bipartisan legislation Thursday to fund much of the Department of Homeland Security, but not its immigration enforcement operations, shortly after the package won final approval in the House, ending the longest agency shutdown in history…President Donald Trump swiftly signed a bipartisan legislation Thursday to fund much of the Department of Homeland Security, but not its immigration enforcement operations, shortly after the package won final approval in the House, ending the longest agency shutdown in history…Immigration enforcement workers have largely been paid through the flush of new cash — some $170 billion — that Congress approved as part of Trump’s tax cuts bill last year.
► From the New York Times — Supreme Court Voting Rights Ruling Could Fuel New Era of Redistricting Wars — The Supreme Court’s decision to upend a key provision of the Voting Rights Act has plunged the nation into a dizzying new era of partisan conflict, most likely ushering in a forever redistricting war that could produce fewer competitive seats in Congress and further polarize American politics. Left as probable casualties are longstanding principles of fair representation — along with American voters, who are likelier now to be shunted into hyperpartisan districts drawn in each state to benefit the party in power. A great carving could effectively dilute the power of millions, especially minority voters, and make partisan primaries more important than general elections when it comes to choosing leaders.
► From the Tri-City Herald — Will landmark Voting Rights ruling erase Latino gains in WA? — A landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision Wednesday could reveal a possible Achilles’ heel in a federal court ruling that gave Latino voters a chance for stronger representation in Olympia. The Washington state legislative boundary changes were in response to a decision in U.S. District Court that found the 2021 state redistricting commission had illegally “cracked” apart the region’s communities by watering down dense Latino communities with white voters. It changed the boundaries of 13 legislative districts, including substantial alterations to the 14th and 15th legislative districts in the Yakima Valley.
► From Broadband Breakfast — Federal Preemption of State AI Laws Threaten Worker Safety — Advocates warned that federal preemption, which would limit or eliminate the ability of states to pass their own AI laws, risks creating a regulatory ceiling rather than a baseline, particularly as states have begun taking more aggressive action to address emerging harms. Crystal Weise, policy and programming director at the AFL-CIO Tech Institute, said limiting state and local authority would leave workers exposed to risks already materializing in the workplace.
INTERNATIONAL
► From Footwear News — ‘Injury to One is Injury to All’: Why Oregon Educators and Asian Garment Workers Are Fighting Nike Together — For decades, Nike told the world to “just do it.” Now, Oregon educators and Asian garment workers say they’re just done. If the affinity between the two groups—backed by the Asia Floor Wage Alliance, Global Labor Justice, the Portland Association of Teachers and Jobs With Justice—isn’t obvious, it’s only at first glance. Both charge the sportswear Goliath with fueling a “race to the bottom” by cutting tax deals that siphon funds from public education and underpaying the people who make its sneakers and clothes.
JOLT OF JOY
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