NEWS ROUNDUP

Birthright citizenship | Labor Sec. nom. | World Cup

Tuesday, June 30, 2026

 

STRIKES

► From UNITE HERE Local 8:

► From CBS News — Workers at Sheraton Downtown in Philadelphia reach tentative agreement to end strike — Workers represented by Unite Here 274 at the Sheraton Downtown on 17th Street near Race Street and the hotel have reached a tentative agreement that includes pay raises, pension increases and more. According to a news release from the union, the deal includes: wage increases to $30/hour for non-tipped employees by January 2028; reduction in daily quota for room attendants to 15 rooms; an 18% banquet gratuity; major increases in pensions; [and] improved access to dependent health coverage.

 

LOCAL

► From the Seattle Times — Seattle claims World Cup record wins, despite misses — Craig Schafer, owner of downtown luxury hotels Hotel Ändra and Inn at the Market, told The Seattle Times last week that sky-high predictions were off base for his industry, though he’s generally content with Seattle’s performance. “We did not come close at all in terms of what was projected,” he said Wednesday. “We’re behind in what our occupancy projections were, but we’re so far ahead in what our revenue was compared to last year.”

Editor’s note: hotel revenues are up, you say? Sounds like a good time for Embassy Suites to fairly pay hotel workers!

► From the Seattle Times — 2026 World Cup: Lumen Field earns positive reviews from visitors  — Not sure which billionaire needs to hear this, but Lumen Field is a hit…Accessibility is the key aspect for French journalist Baptiste Chaumier. His Paris-based L’Equipe newspaper dispatched a dozen reporters to North America to cover the World Cup, and he was randomly sent to Seattle. The common gripe from co-workers is the stadiums in Houston, Dallas and Kansas City are too far, have little to do around the facilities and don’t have a variety of food choices.

► From the Washington State Standard — Work zone speed camera fines in WA rise to $125 on July 1 — Officials say the cameras reduce speeds in work zones, where reckless driving can threaten vulnerable workers. Dozens of crashes per year result in fatal or serious injuries in work zones, according to state data. In total, 2025 saw over 1,500 work zone-related crashes, a slight decrease from the previous year. “Slow down when you see a work zone — for your safety and for every person trying to do their job taking care of our roads,” Secretary of Transportation Julie Meredith said in a statement. “Protect them the way you’d want someone to protect you and your loved ones.”

► From KING 5 — Weekend wave of ICE arrests reported across western Washington — The arrests spanned multiple cities, including Lakewood, Bellevue, Pacific, Shelton, Lynnwood, Auburn and in Kent as recently as Monday morning, where Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents detained a person near an apartment complex…One of the arrests occurred on Father’s Day in Lakewood. His daughter, Camila Bermudez, said her father was on his way home after grocery shopping when he was arrested.

► From the Portland Mercury — TriMet Safety Response Staff Urge Management Change — Dozens of current and former Safety Response Team staffers have told the Mercury their experience with the program was marked by low pay, inadequate benefits, and generally poor working conditions. Last fall, SRT employees announced their intent to unionize with SEIU Local 49, hoping a union would improve their working conditions and reduce high turnover rates. But eight months later, staff say their bosses at PPI have refused to recognize or even discuss the union. Now, SRT employees are taking a different approach.

 

NATIONAL

► From the AP — Birthright citizenship ruling: Supreme Court rejects Trump’s proposed limits — “Citizenship, then and now, was the right to have rights—to freely participate in our political community. The Framers of the Fourteenth Amendment extended that promise to ‘every free-born person in this land,’” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the court, citing congressional debate over the amendment, “We keep that promise today.” Three conservative justices would have allowed the restrictions to take effect.

► From the Utah News Dispatch — As firefighters mourn 3 of their own, concerns grow about this season’s risks — A union representing federal wildland firefighters is raising concerns about their safety and fatigue after an “explosive” first phase of the season resulting in the deaths of three firefighters in Colorado near the Utah border…The tragedy was the largest in many years among federal firefighting teams, said Matt Brossard with the National Federation of Federal Employees…Another concern is staffing. The U.S. Forest Service said early in June that it had filled more than 11,000 firefighting jobs and pledged to get to 11,300 by July. Brossard is skeptical of those numbers, telling Utah News Dispatch, “we’re definitely seeing a lower number than that, and we’re seeing some pretty big holes in critical positions.”

 

POLITICS & POLICY

► From the Washington Post — Trump taps Keith Sonderling, a longtime ally of business, for Labor Secretary — The business community was quick to celebrate his nomination. “He obviously comes from the employer side of many issues but Keith has an ability to get things accomplished in a manner that brings diverse viewpoints together as opposed to taking them further apart,” said Roger King, senior labor and employment counsel at the CHRO Association, a trade group for human resources executives that represents major employers.

► From the New York Times — ‘Chaos Will Follow’ Ruling Allowing Trump Firings, Dissent Predicts — In her dissent, Justice Sotomayor wrote that “today, this court undoes centuries of political practice and concludes that all three branches of government have been acting in open defiance of the Constitution all this time. Its conclusion is wrong.”…As she spoke, criticizing the court for extending its “maximalist view of presidential power,” Justice Sotomayor often looked at Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., who delivered the majority opinion. He did not meet her gaze.

► From Reuters — US judge blocks labor board’s Trump-era move to take control over union elections — Chief U.S. District Judge Denise Casper in Boston sided with, opens new tabeight unions who had sued to prevent the Federal Labor Relations Authority from stripping its regional directors of their decades-old power to decide cases themselves by ​having its three-member body of presidential appointees handle all of them.

► From Safety + Health Magazine — Heat protections for workers: a regulatory update — On April 10, OSHA issued a revision of its National Emphasis Program on outdoor and indoor heat-related hazards. The updated NEP, set to expire in 2031, features a revised list of 55 “high-risk industries,” along with information on how agency investigators will evaluate heat illness and injury prevention programs. The NEP notes that OSHA’s heat-related inspections have accounted for 6% of all federal-level agency inspections in the past five years. That’s up from 0.5% in the five-year period that preceded the 2022 NEP.

► From the Everett Herald — Incumbent seeks sixth term against two primary challengers — [Mike Steele] keeps running for reelection because of the work on the state’s capital budget, Steele said in a May 22 interview. He has been the ranking member for the House Capital Budget Committee for nine years. “The capital budget is the only bipartisan, unanimous budget in Washington state,” he said. “We start from the very beginning of session, working together in a bipartisan fashion, to achieve good things for all of Washington.”…Steele is endorsed by the Washington State Labor Council, the House Republican Organizational Committee, the Washington State Medical Association, Associated General Contractors of Washington and APRNs of Washington State, an organization representing advanced practice registered nurses.

► From KUOW — Mayor Wilson wades into Dem-on-Dem fight, days after Mamdani’s picks win in NY — Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson made an endorsement on Saturday night in the 43rd Legislative District, the home of Democratic Majority Leader, state Sen. Jamie Pedersen. But she didn’t endorse the Democrats’ majority leader…On Sunday, Washington State Labor Council President April Sims shot back with an emailed statement: “Jamie Pedersen is the most progressive Senate Majority Leader we have ever had, delivering on major progressive priorities like progressive tax reform and rent stabilization when previous majority leaders couldn’t,” Sims wrote. “If he is not re-elected, the next majority leader will most likely be less progressive and less willing to tackle the toughest problems.”

► From the New York Times — Colorado Supreme Court Rejects Democratic Redistricting Plans — The Colorado Supreme Court dealt a significant blow to Democratic hopes to redraw the state’s congressional maps ahead of the 2028 election, finding that the twin ballot initiatives they had sought in order to redistrict in an off year had violated the state constitution. The court found that the two ballot proposals violated the “single subject requirement” governing such measures in Colorado law.

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