Baristas v. Billionaires | ‘Dramatically wrong’ | Portuguese general strike

Wednesday, June 3, 2026

LOCAL

► From Investigate West — ‘Something dramatically wrong’: Questions but few answers after Longview mill tragedy — Josh Estes, a spokesperson for the local chapter of the Association of Western Pulp and Paper Workers union, said he understands there is a need for answers and accountability. “We are going to fight to get those answers,” he said. OPB spoke to seven chemical safety experts and former investigators about what officials would look for to determine how the rupture happened and what could have prevented it…“If you keep having problems such that you’re on L&I’s radar or you have problems such that your employees are reporting you, there’s probably something that can change to create a better health and safety culture on that site,” Baker said.

► From the Seattle Times — U.S. Chemical Safety Board faces steep cuts during Longview probe — The House Appropriations Committee on Wednesday is set to debate a proposal that would reduce the Chemical Safety Board’s budget from $14.4 million to about $8.2 million. Former board members, investigators and engineers told The Seattle Times that a drastic cut would impair the board’s ability to conduct a thorough and timely probe of the Longview disaster and future industrial catastrophes…It’s the latest attempt to weaken — or dismantle — the CSB altogether. President Donald Trump has repeatedly sought to eliminate the board, proposing since his first term to reduce its funding to $0.

► From KING 5 — ‘Pay to play’: Washington families struggle with steep new immigration court fees — To seek relief from deportation, Claudio Guzman must submit an application that previously cost $130. Under changes enacted after President Donald Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act into law, that same filing now costs $1,670. For families already dealing with detention and lost income, immigration attorneys say the increase can be devastating…According to Catala, immigrants who could not afford certain filing fees in the past often requested fee waivers from immigration courts. But she says judges in Tacoma have recently denied those requests, citing a lack of authority under the new law.

► From SEIU 775:

 

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AEROSPACE

► From Fortune — How Kelly Ortberg is rebuilding Boeing from the inside out — A crucial test looms in October: Boeing’s contract with its 16,000 engineers, which predates Ortberg, is expiring. It’s essential that Ortberg, the engineer’s engineer, secure an agreement that satisfies all parties, and avoids an extremely lengthy strike, as he did with the machinists. “That would send a message that Boeing’s cultural transformation is real,” says Mikus.

NATIONAL

► From In These Times — Baristas, Billionaires, and (Alec) Baldwin — [Baldwin]: “These companies that are making this enormous amount of money and kind of overworking these people, you come in there and they — it’s that great line from North Dallas Forty. [John Matuszak] says, ​“Every time I call it a game, you call it a business, and every time I call it business, you call it a game.” They alternate. Whether you’re coming to Starbucks to work and it’s business, or it’s like home and you’re part of a family, and you shouldn’t be nickel-and-diming them about your hours and your schedule and so forth. I support unions who are trying to make the workplace safer and the schedules more humane.”

► From People’s World — Justices rule for union and in favor of trans student rights — A small National Education Association union local, the Placer County (Calif.) Teachers Association (PCTA), won a big deal pro-trans rights ruling at the U.S. Supreme Court on June 1. It triumphed against a local school board that demanded teachers “out” trans kids…Forcing educators to involuntarily out transgender students not only violates kids’ right to privacy in the classroom, it can expose them to numerous risks, according to social scientists. When schools mandate parental disclosure without the student’s consent, the dangers rise of violence at home, housing instability, and family rejection.

POLITICS & POLICY

► From the Washington State Standard — WA urges US Supreme Court to take redistricting case — The state of Washington on Tuesday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to accept a challenge against the state’s political maps, then remand it to a lower court to determine if the way the lines were drawn complies with a recent ruling in a Louisiana case. “The lower courts should be given the first opportunity to apply that decision to the facts of this case,” reads the 19-page brief filed by Attorney General Nick Brown. That scenario could lead to the state’s legislative district boundaries changing again before they’re next scheduled to be redrawn in 2031.

► From the AP — Supreme Court allows Alabama to use congressional map favoring Republicans in this year’s elections — The Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed Alabama to use a congressional map favoring Republicans in this year’s elections, blocking a lower court ruling that the redistricting plan intentionally discriminates against Black people. The justices granted the state’s emergency appeal to use a map it adopted three years ago that has a majority-Black population in just one of its seven congressional districts. The three liberal justices dissented.

► From Bloomberg Law — NLRB Bets on Full Sixth Circuit to Revive Critical Board Power — The National Labor Relations Board is putting its hopes of restoring one of its core powers in the full Sixth Circuit, a conservative federal appeals court that has ruled against the agency in key cases in recent years. The NLRB asked the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit for en banc review of a case that threatens the board’s ability to set labor law policy through individual case decisions rather than regulations. A previous panel of judges dealt a blow to the agency along partisan lines, with Republican-appointed judges in the majority and a Democratic appointee dissenting

► From Trains.com — Labor organization expresses concerns over House transportation funding plan — The letter today (June 2) from TTD President Greg Regan is addressed to Reps. Tom Cole, Steve Womack, Rosa Delauro, and James Clyburn, the chairs and ranking members of the Appropriations Committtee and the Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development. Among other points, the letter calls for the committee to maintain or exceed funding levels established by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which expires this year, and to continue the advance funding established in the IIJA, which Regan calls “especially consequential for modes that otherwise lack a reliable source of funding.”

INTERNATIONAL

► From People’s World — Portuguese workers gear up for second general strike in six months — This Wednesday, on June 3, Portuguese workers will once again walk off the job in a massive general strike in an attempt to deliver a second blow to a right-wing government that refuses to implement workers’ demands. The General Confederation of Portuguese Workers (CGTP-IN) called a nationwide general strike to defeat the government’s labor package—the same one that workers buried with their December 2025 general strike.

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