NEWS ROUNDUP

Hotel strike continues | Wage theft | What’s hidden in I-645

Thursday, July 9, 2026

 

STRIKES

► From the Seattle Times — Seattle hotel workers on strike launch website for Hilton guests — The union said negotiations on June 29 didn’t “produce meaningful progress,” per a news release Tuesday. “Guests should know what’s happening at Embassy Suites Pioneer Square. There’s a strike going on all day, all night,” Teresa Joseph, a hotel restaurant worker, said in a statement Tuesday. “Visit Seattle and Embassy Suites need to give people information before they spend their hard-earned money by booking at the Embassy Suites.”…The cost of a suite at the hotel varies by day. For Saturday, July 18, the lowest-priced room currently sits at $816 for a one-night stay, before taxes and fees.

► From the Massachusetts Nurses Association:

 

LOCAL

► From KING 5 — Wage theft is quietly draining millions from Washington construction workers’ paychecks  — Construction of Ferndale’s new City Hall has become the backdrop for allegations of wage theft, raising questions about who is held accountable when workers are not paid what they are owed. “If you can have workers who aren’t being paid the correct wage on a project where a city hall is being built — the very fabric of where justice is supposed to take place — how can we protect your son, your daughter, your neighbor?” said Zach McCown, a representative with the North Coast States Carpenters Union. The union analyzed payroll data from the worksite and alleges a subcontractor hired by Dawson Construction underpaid workers by $15 an hour, totaling roughly $43,000.

► From Range Media — For a Yakima Valley farmworker, Trump’s immigration crackdown prompts a wrenching decision to self-deport — In early January, Flor Sánchez departed from her Yakima Valley home in Sunnyside, leaving behind her husband and then six-year-old son — both U.S. citizens — to self-deport to Sinaloa, Mexico. For 12 years, she worked in the fruit orchards of central Washington, one of thousands of undocumented men and women who remain a vital part of the labor force in a region that produces most of the nation’s apples…She rose before dawn to pick cherries in the early morning hours when cool temperatures minimize the risk of fruit bruising and spent the late summer and fall picking apples. In an industry where men still claim most of the leadership roles, her formidable stamina and skills helped her to gain a job as a crew boss, supervising some 24 or 30 workers this past fall.

► From KING 5 — ICE ramps up arrests in Puget Sound region under new nationwide quota — Lord walked outside and saw what she described as several unmarked vehicles surrounding a landscaping truck. From her vantage point, she watched masked agents and neighbors gathering nearby. She later reported details of the incident, including vehicle information, to local immigrant rights networks. “It felt very violating,” Lord said. “Two guys just going to work, wanting to support their family. Their lunches were in the back seat.”

 

ORGANIZING

► From Computer World — A brewing battle: More IT workers want unions. The industry doesn’t. — Until recently, many tech professionals viewed themselves as a special and respected worker class: highly educated, hard-working, well paid, and in demand…How times have changed. Now, fed up with mass layoffs, disillusioned with Big Tech’s direction, and stunned by bold management proclamations that AI will displace huge numbers of people in many tech jobs — starting with programmers — interest in unions has risen sharply among tech professionals. Workers in some organizations, including Kickstarter, have already taken the plunge.

► From the Chicago Sun Times — UChicago Press workers vote to unionize — UCP Workers Guild announced Wednesday that 89% of participating voters favored union representation. The guild has 134 members, making it the largest unit in the Chicago News Guild. Members will begin bargaining soon for their first union contract.

► From the Teamsters:

 

NATIONAL

► From Variety — Union Video Game Workers ‘Extremely Disappointed’ With Xbox Leadership Following Layoffs — “When Microsoft sought to grow its video game division, corporate executives made an agreement with video game workers and their union, CWA, to respect their right to organize for a new day for workers across Microsoft’s video game studios,” said CWA President Claude Cummings Jr. “Although our union signed neutrality agreements with Microsoft, we have been extremely disappointed by a company that has slow-walked our members at the bargaining table, making CWA members wait for the protections of a union contract.”…More than 3,500 Xbox workers have formed unions with CWA since 2022.

 

POLITICS & POLICY

► From the Seattle Times — OPINION: Here’s what’s hidden in the initiative to repeal the WA millionaires tax –Heywood, a wealthy hedge fund founder, tinkered with and filed more than a dozen versions of a voter initiative to repeal the Legislature’s new income tax before he settled on I-645…The initiative would ban taxes on individual income but would also forbid taxes “measured by an individual’s income.” The problem is that other important taxes for popular programs are measured by income, including unemployment insurance, paid family and medical leave, and long-term care insurance…Further, although Heywood left a capital gains tax repeal out of I-645, there is a plausible argument that the levy on capital gains from the sale of securities is also a tax “measured by an individual’s income.”…These are all true risks hidden in I-645.

► From Mother Jones — DOGE Ended on July 4, But the Workers Whose Lives Musk Upended Are Still Reeling — The data they collected—300 responses across 14 federal agencies and nearly every state—suggested that the fired workers had not, by and large, settled into high-paying private sector jobs. Many struggled to find work, with about 40 percent searching for at least six months. A year after Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) cut them loose, almost 17 percent remained unemployed.

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