Contract @ Weyerhauser | Restaurant worker strike? | $40 bil in taxes dodged

Thursday, June 4, 2026

LOCAL

► From the Seattle Times — Workers at damaged Longview mill will be paid at least through Aug. 8 — How long workers can expect pay past Aug. 8 isn’t clear. Union officials emphasized that the date isn’t “a hard stop,” but couldn’t say how much longer pay might continue, due to uncertainties around the investigation, cleanup and recovery at the mill, as well as the realities of “restarting a facility as complex as a pulp and paper mill that has also had this major incident,” said Josh Estes, a union spokesperson…On Monday, U.S. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, who represents Longview, complained that Nippon Dynawave Packaging had been inconsistent in its statement around pay for workers idled by the implosion…On Wednesday, Estes pushed back on the claim that Nippon Dynawave had wavered in its position on pay for idled workers. “There was never a hard-stop cutoff” after June 7, Estes said.

Editor’s note: this is a testament to the power of a collective bargaining contract and union advocacy to support their members.

► From the Chinook Observer — Operations Director Brenda Lane out at Timberland Regional Library — As of Tuesday, June 2, Timberland Regional Library [TRL] Operations Director Brenda Lane is no longer with the organization according to an internal email written by Interim Executive Director Andrea Heisel and confirmed by TRL Communications & Media Coordinator Anna Lisa Rasmussen. Lane has been removed from the Leadership section of the TRL website’s About Us page. Lane has been at the center of a swirling controversy regarding TRL’s budget crisis and hostile work environment allegations. She was placed on leave after damning Microsoft Teams chat transcripts came to light last week…During that chat, Lane and Preston spoke negatively about trustees, TRL employees and public commenters.

► From the Bellingham Herald — Lost work due to WA flooding? Deadline to apply for unemployment is near — The assistance is available to legally eligible workers, including those who are self-employed, who lost their main source of work due to the flooding that occurred between Dec. 5-19, 2025, but do not otherwise qualify for unemployment benefits. The deadline to apply is Wednesday, June 10.

► From the NW Labor Press — City unions plan rally against job cuts  — Deliberations began when Portland Mayor Keith Wilson submitted his budget proposal to Portland City Council April 20. The proposal called for the elimination of 145 positions and other measures to close an estimated $163 million gap between projected revenue and operating expenses. That number of staff reductions shrinks under various budget amendments considered by city council. The final budget is  expected to go before City Council June 17.

► From the Willamette Week — Oregon Suicide Rates for Farming, Fishing and Forestry Workers Are Five Times the State Average — “When you compile the uncontrollable stressors like weather, the financial stress, the workload, and the long days these individuals have to put in to make a profit, it’s really a perfect storm for them,” says Tara Haskins, health director at the AgriSafe Network, which has a 24/7 crisis support line for people in agriculture…Contributing to the high rate, Haskins says, is the culture and structure of these rural industries. “These people work in isolation, long hours, and don’t have great access to mental health care…and have very high rates of injury.”

CONTRACT FIGHTS

► From the NW Labor Press — Machinists ratify new four-year contract with Weyerhaeuser — Machinists union members at mills and logging operations across Washington and Oregon voted May 19-20 in person to ratify a new set of four-year agreements with Weyerhaeuser. The contract settlement encompasses 14 individual agreements covering 1,160 union members in four locals: W130 in Centralia, W246 in Springfield, W261 in North Bend, and W536 in Longview. Members of those locals are employed by Weyerhaeuser in sawmills, export yards, logging camps, and trucking operations. The agreements raise wages 11% over four years and provide a $3,000 signing bonus upon ratification.

► From the Stranger — Union Workers at Acclaimed Restaurant the Walrus and the Carpenter Are Ready to Strike — On Tuesday afternoon, unionized workers at the Walrus and the Carpenter held a strike authorization vote in the sweltering Ballard sun minutes before the acclaimed oyster-centric spot opened for service. Eighteen of 20 union members voted to authorize a strike (with two not voting), so leadership will be able to call a work stoppage if progress isn’t being made at the bargaining table with Sea Creatures restaurant group. Negotiations have stretched on for more than a year.

ORGANIZING

► From the Willamette Week — Workers at Milwaukie’s Dark Horse Comics Have Formed a Union — According to a press release published May 27 by Dark Horse Workers United, 59 eligible employees of the comics publisher and its retail shop, Things From Another World, have signed and sent a letter to interim CEO Jay Komas asking for voluntary union recognition. Should Komas fail to recognize the union by June 3, DHWU intends to petition the National Labor Relations Board for a union election.

NATIONAL

► From the New York Times — In Apparent Reversal, Mullin Says Abrego Garcia Could Be Deported to Costa Rica — Mr. Mullin’s statements came in response to questions from Senator Chris Van Hollen, Democrat of Maryland, who has long worked to support Mr. Abrego Garcia, a resident of the state. It remained unclear whether the remarks reflected a genuine change of policy by the department or whether Mr. Mullin was simply unaware of the earlier position taken by other Trump officials. A department spokesman did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment. Either way, Mr. Abrego Garcia’s lawyers immediately sent a copy of Mr. Mullin’s remarks to Judge Paula Xinis, the Maryland federal judge handling the deportation case, who has previously pressed the administration on why it could not send him to Costa Rica.

POLITICS & POLICY

► From Common Dreams — Trump Lets Big Corporations Dodge $40 Billion in Taxes as He Jacks Up Costs for Working Class  — The New York Times, citing securities filings, reported Friday that American Express, Paypal, Pepsi, and other major US-based corporations “avoided taxes by attributing hundreds of billions of dollars in earnings to low- or no-tax foreign locales like Cyprus, Bermuda, Switzerland, and the Cayman Islands.”..“Some companies using tax havens to avoid US income tax rely on federal funding for their profits,” the newspaper reported. “Thermo Fisher Scientific, the scientific equipment maker, cut its taxes by $3.5 billion last year via Malta. Honeywell, which received over $30 billion in Defense Department contracts over the past decade, used Swiss units to cut its tax rate by more than a quarter—or $301 million—last year.”

► From the Guardian — Trump signs order to make it easier to fire 8,000 highly paid federal workers — The order, released by the White House and the office of personnel management (OPM) on Wednesday, strips job protections from a mostly senior group of federal workers – about 8,000 employees – earning up to almost $200,000 a year, and who are deemed to be “influencing” government policy…“This is a blatant attempt to corrupt the federal government by eliminating employees’ due process rights so they can be fired for political reasons,” said Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, in a statement on the executive order.

► From Common Dreams — As Detained Immigrants Strike Against ‘Chaos and Cruelty,’ Advocates Demand ‘Not Another Dime for ICE’  — “Not another dime for ICE—not while children are locked in trailer prisons, detainees are on hunger strike, and protesters are being pepper-sprayed for demanding basic decency,” Vanessa Cárdenas, executive director of the group America’s Voice, said in a Monday statement…CWA District 1 detailed: “Make no mistake: This is a labor struggle. The people held inside Delaney Hall are forced to cook meals, clean the floors, and keep the facility running—for as little as one dollar a day. These workers are on strike to protest the unconscionable conditions they are forced to endure and the basic due process they are entitled to, but have been denied.”

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