NEWS ROUNDUP

Embassy Suites strike | Ed. funding at risk | FAA understaffing

Monday, June 29, 2026

 

STRIKES

► From Real Change News — Hotel, restaurant workers strike during World Cup — The company has offered a raise of $1.07 per year for the next five years ($5.35 in total), while the union continues to demand an overall $6 raise across the next two years. The company’s offer “is not enough,” Kara, an Embassy Suites front desk worker who chose to reveal only her first name, said in an interview with Real Change. “It’s been very hard, especially in this economy, where things are going up. We’re living paycheck to paycheck, and we’re overworked and understaffed, so we deserve better pay, a fair contract and respect from management.” Fritzie Corral, a breakfast attendant at the hotel, told Real Change that despite being hired for a full-time position, she has been given less than 30 hours per week.

► From UNITE HERE Local 8:

 

LOCAL

► From the Yakima Herald Republic — Yakima County immigration rights advocates voice concerns over recent arrests — “The COTA law exists for a reason. We want people to use the legal system — to go to municipal court to pay their tickets and sort out their affairs. If they cannot do so — if they are afraid — we are creating different classes of justice in this county, where there is justice for the documented, but no justice for the undocumented. This affects the entire community because undocumented people are our neighbors, the people we work with, and families within this county,” [YIRN volunteer David Morales] said.

 

CONTRACT FIGHTS

► From GoSkagit — Skagit County in mediation with Public Works employees’ union — The employees, who are members of American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees Council 2, have been without a contract since Dec. 31, 2024. Negotiation began in June 2025 but have stalled…Rosie Ventura, a former Skagit County employee and staff representative with AFSCME Council 2, offered public comment Tuesday during a meeting of the Skagit County Board of Commissioners on behalf of the Public Works staff. “Their ability to keep up with the cost of living has significantly been impacted by these delayed negotiations,” said Ventura. “They are asking for a fair contract that recognizes the value of their work, provides competitive wages, protects benefits and supports safe working conditions.”

► From MyBallard — Walrus and the Carpenter reopens after labor agreement ends strike — According to the terms of the agreement reported Friday, The Walrus and the Carpenter will move from its previous 22% service charge model to a service charge of no more than 6%, with employees retaining all tips beyond that fee. The two-year agreement also includes changes to wages, paid time off, retirement and other employer-funded benefits to reflect the new compensation model.

 

NATIONAL

► From NLRB Edge — The Staggering Legal Footprint of the Starbucks Union Campaign — As of today, the Starbucks union has won 701 elections covering 15,132 workers, according to NLRB data…When a union can win this many elections at this rate and by these margins, but has to put up with this without securing any collective bargaining agreements, then the system we have is clearly at odds with its stated purpose.

► From Jacobin — The War on Iran Has Made the Rich Even Richer — New research from economists Gregor Semieniuk, Isabella Weber, and colleagues uses financial forensics to show exactly how supply shocks funnel money upward: over 50% of the profits from the COVID and Ukraine-related supply shocks of 2021 and 2022 went to the top 1% of the US wealth distribution. The bottom 50% received just 1%. There is every reason to believe the same pattern is playing out right now.

► From Reuters — Migrants in US on temporary status should seek permanent residence or leave, Homeland Secretary says — Migrants in the United States on temporary protected status should seek permanent residence or leave for their home ​countries, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said on Sunday. The remarks to CNN’s “State of ‌the Union” program follow last week’s split Supreme Court decision allowing President Donald Trump’s administration to strip hundreds of thousands of Haitian and Syrian immigrants of a humanitarian status that protects them from deportation to home countries plagued by ​conflict and destitution.

 

POLITICS & POLICY

► From the Seattle Times — Could initiative to kill WA ‘millionaires tax’ also kill capital gains tax? — Foes of the initiative are citing a new legal analysis that says the proposal’s broad wording — banning any taxes “measured by” income — may have far more sweeping and financially disastrous consequences for the state…Because the capital gains tax is calculated using profits reported on federal income-tax returns, it “likely falls within the Initiative’s prohibition on taxes ‘measured by’ income,” the legal analysis says, noting repeal of that tax would eliminate about $500 million per year dedicated mainly to K-12 education…Brian Heywood, the Redmond hedge fund manager who has bankrolled the anti-income-tax effort, said in a text message last month that I-645 does take aim at the capital gains tax.

► From KUOW — Why do some U.S. airports have private security, but others use TSA? — The Trump administration wants to boost private involvement. It rolled out a new version of the SPP called TSA Gold+ last month, saying it will announce the first airports joining the program later this year. The administration has said privatizing airports would save tens of millions of dollars, prompting pushback from the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) union, which warns that the plan would undermine federal officers.

► From the Federal News Network — The FAA is writing mandates, but federal coordination systems can’t keep up — The need for skilled talent at the federal level compounds the problem directly. Approximately 400 probationary FAA employees were terminated in early 2025, and more than 1,300 accepted early retirement — including aviation safety technicians and certification engineers. Any congressional mandate to retrofit thousands of aircraft arrives on a certification pipeline operating below its 2020 throughput, and rebuilding federal capacity won’t happen overnight.

► From Florida Politics — Despite Gov. DeSantis’ union crackdowns, AFSCME Florida keeps winning — The results show that one of Florida’s largest public-sector unions has adapted to — and, by its own account, overcome — the challenges posed by a 2023 law championed by Gov. Ron DeSantis that imposed new membership and recertification requirements on many government-worker unions. AFSCME Florida reported in December that it won 30 of 32 recertification elections in 2025. Some of the wins included bargaining units that lost certification during the turbulent early implementation of the 2023 law, but rebuilt membership and won recognition back.

► From the American Prospect — Billionaire Wealth Tax Headed to the California Ballot — Sponsors of a ballot measure in California that would place a one-time 5 percent tax on the wealth of the state’s billionaires, raising approximately $100 billion to offset devastating federal cuts to health care for the next five years, announced on Thursday that they would go forward to the statewide ballot this November…Voters will also see two rival measures that would nullify the billionaire tax; they were funded by Google co-founder Sergey Brin and qualified for the ballot earlier this week.

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