NEWS ROUNDUP

Challenging 12-term incumbent | Charges dropped | Amazon workers on SNAP

Wednesday, July 29, 2026

 

STRIKES

► From UNITE HERE Local 8:

 

LOCAL

► From Cascade PBS — What happens when there’s an assault in Tacoma’s ICE detention center? — Angelina Godoy, who analyzed the records, says she found a pattern of disregarding evidence in internal investigations. “For example, they say there’s no video evidence available. While we know from the facility that there’s oftentimes cameras and there’s simply not checking the cameras. Or they conclude quite readily that somebody is making it up, that they’re not telling a truth, etc.. It’s a very frequent tendency to dismiss accounts,” Godoy said.

► From KING 5 — Capitol Hill restaurant owner pleads guilty to withholding $1.4 million from employee paychecks — Ruadhri McCormick, 44, owns and operates Single Shot restaurant. Prosecutors said he employed as many as 87 servers, bartenders and cooks between 2014 and 2024. During that period, McCormick withheld payroll taxes from employee paychecks but kept the money instead of sending it to the Internal Revenue Service, according to his plea agreement. McCormick failed to pay $1,027,362 withheld from workers’ paychecks across 36 quarters, prosecutors said. He also failed to pay more than $400,000 in employer contributions for Social Security, Medicare and federal unemployment taxes.

► From the Willamette Week — Feds Retreat From Most Serious Accusations Against Man Shot in Portland by Border Patrol — Prosecutors had backed off from the gang narrative by February. “We’re not suggesting—and we didn’t make an argument to the court—that he’s a gang member,” a federal prosecutor told a judge in one hearing. And now, the plea agreement filed in court this week makes no claim that Nino-Moncada attempted to run over law enforcement agents.

 

CONTRACT FIGHTS

► From NW Public Broadcasting — Unionized state workers planning to walk out want Washington state to bargain in good faith — “No one went into these jobs to become rich. We did it because we care about our communities, and we still have bills to pay. And the last time I checked, you can’t pay your rent with good karma,” Yestramski said. The union is organizing a one-day walkout on Aug. 31. The walkout won’t endanger public safety, Yestramski said, and employees will participate for a short period of time during their workday.

► From KOIN — PPS workers approve tentative agreement with union following negotiations — SEIU represents nutrition services workers and custodians…Earlier in July, SEIU highlighted terms of the deal, including step increases over the next three years on top of “cost-of-living adjustments.”

► From ESPN — USL Super League, union agree to CBA key terms — The USL Super League and the USL Players Association announced on Thursday a tentative agreement over key terms of its first collective bargaining agreement. The agreement would give players of the first-division women’s league standardized rights for the first time since launching in 2024, including minimum salaries starting at $37,200, housing benefits, and fully covered insurance premiums…Many of the key points in the USL labor deal mirror rights that have also been established for players in the National Women’s Soccer League’s most recent CBA, including consent to all transfers, which is not universally mandated in the USL’s men’s leagues, the Championship and League One.

 

ORGANIZING

► From the Hollywood Reporter — Workers at ’Dynamic Duo’ Studio Swaybox Vote to Unionize — Creatives at Swaybox Studios, which is presently working on Dynamic Duo about former Batman sidekicks (a.k.a. Robins) Dick Grayson and Jason Todd, voted to join the crew union IATSE in an election that concluded on Tuesday. Eighty-four eligible workers at the New Orleans-based studio voted to join the union, while 35 voted against the move.

► From the Hollywood Reporter — QVC Hosts Vote to Unionize Amid Concerns Over Generative AI — “QVC Group hosts are dedicated professionals who have played a key role in making QVC Group a leader in the live, social shopping industry,” SAG-AFTRA president Sean Astin said in a statement. “Like everyone, QVC, HSN and Omni Channel employees deserve fair compensation, AI protections and a stronger voice in decisions that affect their work. All of SAG-AFTRA’s 160,000 members are proud of these individuals for bravely exercising their right to unionize, and we stand with them as they begin bargaining for their first contract.”

► From the NW Labor Press — Union magic: A new union at Wizards of the Coast — By unionizing, workers hope to win greater job security and pay transparency, clearer policies regarding AI use, and more sustainable workloads. Workers told Washington State Labor Council’s online publication The Stand that the union campaign was in part a response to a “return to office” mandate from management — which would amount to unpaid relocation for workers who had been hired remotely and promised continued remote work.

 

NATIONAL

► From Politico — DOJ moves to drop case against California labor leader — In a Monday morning filing, the Justice Department moved to dismiss its indictment against SEIU-United Service Workers West President David Huerta, who was arrested last summer as he participated in a demonstration against Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Los Angeles…“This means the government is finally admitting what we knew from day one and what was obvious to anyone who saw the videos: the charge against me was baseless, meant to intimidate anyone who dares to speak out, organize, or demand justice,” Huerta said in a statement.

► From the Washington Post — Amazon, gig companies see spike in workers on SNAP and Medicaid, study shows — The number of Amazon workers relying on the federal programs for the poor nearly tripled between February 2020 and September 2025, according to the report published Wednesday. And for the first time, ride-hailing and app-based food delivery companies — Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, Grubhub and Instacart — collectively ranked among the top three employers with workers receiving aid…“American taxpayers should not be forced to subsidize the starvation wages of large corporations like Walmart and Amazon,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) said in a written statement.

► From the AP — Loss of work authorization sows confusion for thousands of Haitian immigrants and their US employers — Then on Monday, the work permits were not extended, and fear mounted — not only due to the loss of jobs but also because of the potential for arrest and deportation to one of the poorest and most violent countries in the Western Hemisphere…Miriam Singer, CEO at Jewish Community Services of South Florida, said the organization advised 18 employees that they were no longer eligible to work. “It’s been a very hard process,” Singer said. “They are devastated and without a path forward for caring for themselves and their families.” The Haitian workers provided home care to elderly Holocaust survivors…Katie Smith Sloan, CEO of LeadingAge, which represents nonprofit long-term care homes, said member facilities have been on edge. “These providers and the patients themselves are dealing with a ton of uncertainty for months and months,” she said. “And so now it all feels like it’s about to come to a head.”

► From NW Public Broadcasting — Forest Service gives first-ever respirator recommendations to wildland firefighters — Now, for the first time, the Forest Service is recommending the use of N95 respirators in federal wildland firefighting, along with increased decontamination protocols in the forms of showers, gear cleaning and clean air recovery…It’s still somewhat uncommon for people working in wildland fire to use respirators, said Heather Heward, a senior fire ecology and management instructor at the University of Idaho…She also worries that recent and proposed cuts to scientific funding and within federal agencies may lead to a chilling effect on researchers who are government employees or rely on federal grants.

 

POLITICS & POLICY

► From the NW Labor Press — The Local 48 member challenging a 12-term incumbent — After attending Washington State Labor Council’s Path to Power training program for union member political candidates, he prepared to run a competitive race [for Port of Longview Commissioner]. Then his only opponent dropped out, and he was elected unopposed to a six-year term. Joining the commission, part of his agenda was to bring organized labor in from out in the cold…labor unions and allied state legislators promoted a bill to toughen penalties for employers that violate labor laws protecting minors. To Jones’ shock, his own state rep, Ed Orcutt, voted against it. In his 23 years in office Orcutt had voted against organized labor 78% of the time according to votes tracked the Washington State Labor Council.

► From the AP — Court panel declines to block Trump’s mail ballot order, but its status for midterms remains unclear — A federal appellate panel on Tuesday refused to block President Donald Trump’s executive order seeking to restrict mail voting, a day after the administration asked the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in on the proposal in a separate case. The three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia upheld a May ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Carl J. Nichols that said an injunction against the order was premature…In a separate case filed by Democratic state officials, a federal judge in Massachusetts last month blocked the executive order from taking effect for this year’s elections because it was already forcing states, which are granted the power under the U.S. Constitution to control their own elections, to revise their procedures on the fly. That ruling was upheld on Saturday by a Boston-based appeals court and then was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday by the Trump administration.

► From Reuters — Trump economy at 18 months is a tale of shocks, resilience, and signs of stalled progress — The first 18 months of President Donald Trump’s second term in the White House have seen a series of policy-driven economic shocks, highlighted by the immigration crackdown and higher tariffs that he promised during his 2024 campaign, and an unanticipated war with Iran that has boosted the price of oil and threatened global supply chains. While the U.S. economy overall has withstood the policy changes and Middle East war better than many economists expected, Trump’s vow to lower prices, boost factory jobs, and improve life for the middle class has yet to materialize, with the ‌midterm elections a little more than three months away.

► From the New York Times — Trump Will End Subsidies for Medicare Drug Premiums — The decision means that millions of Americans 65 and older could face higher Medicare drug premiums next year, when the cost of living is already a major concern. That could be politically damaging for Republicans in the midterm elections. In the weeks leading up to November, Medicare beneficiaries could experience sticker shock while shopping for next year’s drug plan.

► From Stateline — State AGs join legal fight against Trump’s wind farm freeze — The companies and state leaders say that the feds have frozen all new wind projects by refusing to conduct routine national security reviews. The bottleneck has halted more than 155 onshore wind projects, according to the American Clean Power Association…The attorneys general pointed to specific projects in their states that have been unable to move forward. In Washington state, Attorney General Nick Brown, a Democrat, said five projects totaling more than 1,600 megawatts are stuck in limbo.

► From Oregon Live — Trump country sent her to Congress. Now a mainstream Republican wants the seat back — Even while in the minority in Congress, [Marie Gluesenkamp Perez]’s brought home tangible wins for her district, including $2 billion in federal funding and important design concessions for a new Interstate 5 bridge. And she will play up the fact that Braun welcomed an endorsement from Trump – whose popularity has fallen significantly in the 3rd District since he won 50% of the vote in 2024. “John Braun’s candidacy is really predicated on an endorsement from Trump, and I think that’s inconsistent with the independence (3rd District residents) want to see.”

The Stand posts links to local, national and international labor news every weekday morning. Subscribe to get daily news in your inbox. 

Related Topics:
Exit mobile version