Pre-apprenticeship | Longview strong | Hospitalists unionize

Thursday, May 28, 2026

LOCAL

► From the Everett Herald — ​​Everett pre-apprenticeship program preps youth for manufacturing jobs — The classes were offered by the Machinists Institute, an educational nonprofit established by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers District 751, the union that represents manufacturing workers across the aerospace industry, including around 33,000 Boeing employees in Washington. The pre-apprenticeship programs — which the nonprofit is now offering in Everett for the first time out of a newly built three-story facility near Paine Field — are 12-week courses teaching manufacturing, welding or mechanic skills. The goal is to get people apprenticeships and eventually full-time careers making journeyman wages.

► From KGW — ‘Longview Strong’: Communities across Cowlitz County show support for families after deadly mill implosion — The sentiment KGW crews heard on Wednesday was that Longview is more than a mill town; it’s a city built on grit, strength and resilience. That spirit was on full display Wednesday…The Nippon Dynawave Packaging facility is a community staple; it’s been around since the 1950s. The facility contains a kraft pulp and paper mill as well as multiple liquid packaging plants, employing about 1,000 people in the community. Tuesday’s chemical implosion killed at least two and injured eight others, but nine employees remained missing and presumed dead. Recovery efforts were still underway on Wednesday.

► From Nonstop Local — GAO report flags Hanford site staffing issues as DOE eyes new approach to waste disposal — A new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report said the Hanford nuclear cleanup site is dealing with major staffing shortages. According to the report, Hanford is one of the sites hardest hit by recent departures in mission-critical jobs. The report said hiring freezes, executive orders, Department of Government Efficiency initiatives and the Deferred Resignation Program affected Environmental Management’s workforce.

► From the Seattle Times — Co-op preschools face uncertainty amid community college funding shift  — Supporters of the co-ops contend that parent ed does contribute to professional development. Parents gain useful skills they can add to their résumés as they get involved in the management and operations of their preschool, advocates say. And workforce stability depends on children and families who are safe and supported, Giomi said in a letter to the members of the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges in February. “There is no strong workforce without parents/caregivers doing the essential work of raising and supporting children,” Giomi wrote. “ … These programs are not peripheral to workforce development — they are foundational to it.”

AEROSPACE

► From the Seattle Times — FAA approves Boeing’s next MAX production increase, CEO Ortberg says — Boeing recently completed its “capstone review” with the Federal Aviation Administration for the next rate increase, Ortberg said, and will now work to stabilize its production lines at that cadence over the next few months. Before starting the final FAA review, Boeing tested its system at a rate of 47 planes per month, so the company is “highly confident” it will be successful, Ortberg said at a Bernstein’s financial conference Wednesday…This time, as Boeing moves into future rate increases, it will tap into a fourth MAX production line in Everett, known as the North Line. That line has been in the works since 2023, but Boeing says it will be up and running this summer at a low rate of production.

CONTRACT FIGHTS

► From the AP — Baseball players ask for expanded free agency, salary arbitration rights, almost doubling minimum — Baseball players fired the opening salvo Wednesday in what is expected to be long and contentious labor negotiations, asking for expanded free agency and salary arbitration rights along with almost doubling the major league minimum and increasing the money high-revenue teams share with the less-wealthy clubs. A day before Major League Baseball is expected to make a salary cap proposal, the union outlined its initial economic proposals during a bargaining session at the players’ association office in Manhattan. It included what it called a “competitive integrity tax” that would penalize teams dropping below a payroll floor and called for the luxury tax threshold to rise to $300 million next year.

ORGANIZING

► From Becker’s Hospital Review — Hospitalists become 1st Providence physicians in Washington to unionize — Hospitalists with Swedish Medical Group voted to join Northwest Medicine United, AFT Local 6552, becoming the first physicians in the Renton, Wash.-based Providence system to unionize in the state, the union said May 26 in a news release shared with Becker’s…Coler, MD, a hospitalist who has worked at Swedish for 32 years, said in the release the union will help physicians maintain “a stronger voice in how care is delivered” and support “leadership, collaboration and shared ownership.” In addition to Providence, Northwest Medicine United represents physicians and advanced practice providers at health systems such as PeaceHealth and Legacy Health throughout the Pacific Northwest.

NATIONAL

► From LA Magazine — FIFA’s World Cup Credentialing Could Put LA’s Immigrant Workers at Risk — Organizers say that workers seeking credentials to do their jobs during the 2026 tournament must hand over sensitive personal information. This includes social security numbers, home addresses, country of birth and nationality. They also must waive privacy protections guaranteed under California law…The demonstration follows a formal complaint filed by the ACLU of Southern California, UNITE HERE Local 11 and LAANE with both the California Privacy Protection Agency and the state Department of Justice, requesting an investigation into whether FIFA’s process violates the California Consumer Privacy Act and the state constitution’s privacy protections.

► From KNKX — Americans aren’t just on the financial edge because of inflation. Wages are falling behind too — New research from the Brookings Institution released Wednesday describes affordability by comparing the rising costs of essentials against family incomes. By that measure, the report found, in 2024 45.5% of U.S. households did not earn enough to cover their necessities. The report concluded that a mere $1,000 hike in the annual cost of living would leave another 3 million households unable to make ends meet. That precarity is partly due to the gap between inflation and wages. In 2024, national wages saw just a small 1.3% bump, well below the rate of inflation of 2.9% that year, according to the Census Bureau.

► From the Seattle Times — Americans are about to pay even more at the grocery store — And to a greater extent than the surge in gas prices, the slower-moving food shock will be difficult to reverse quickly because the size of autumn harvests is determined by planting decisions made in the spring. “It’s going to be a challenging year,” said Ricky Volpe, an agribusiness professor at California Polytechnic State University who previously worked at the US Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service. “Food is going to become less affordable, and consumers should be prepared for it.” The latest USDA food price outlook, published Friday, projected a 3.2% advance in grocery prices this year, while Volpe said he expects inflation more on the order of 4% to 4.5%.

POLITICS & POLICY

► From the New York Times — In Alabama Case, Supreme Court Faces First Major Test of Voting Rights Act Ruling — The push to switch out Alabama’s congressional map — a move that could advantage Republicans in the heated fight to maintain their razor-thin majority in the House in the midterm elections — began immediately after the justices’ April ruling that raised the bar to bring a discrimination claim under the landmark civil rights law. In response, Republicans in Alabama sought to swap out their state’s congressional map and use one that had been rejected by courts in 2023 that included only one majority-Black district, rather than two. A ruling by the Supreme Court in Alabama’s favor would most likely cost Democrats one of those seats.

► From Reuters — US draws up plans to halt immigration, customs processing at ‘sanctuary city’ airports — U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said the Trump administration is drawing up plans to stop processing international travelers and cargo at major U.S. airports in “sanctuary cities” that have declined to cooperate with an immigration crackdown. The ‌move could effectively halt international air travel and commerce at major airports in Democratic states, with millions of foreign tourists expected to stream in for next month’s start of the FIFA World Cup.

► From the Washington Post — Court lets Trump’s executive order limiting mail-in voting stand, for now — Judge Carl J. Nichols of the U.S. District Court of D.C. ruled against the Democratic National Committee and voting rights groups Thursday, declining to issue a preliminary injunction blocking the order. Nichols, who was appointed to the bench by Trump, said in his ruling that it is too soon to consider the request for an injunction because DHS has not assembled any citizen lists and the Postal Service has not yet adopted a rule saying how it will implement the executive order. The case will continue, as will separate legal actions in Massachusetts brought by state attorneys general and a voting rights group.

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