Minimum wage win | ‘Shocking result’ | TPS work permits

Monday, July 13, 2026

STRIKES

► From the Washington State Standard — Six months in, WA has paid unemployment to more than 100 striking workers — “It does allow people to go on strike for longer and be better off financially in order to get the contracts that they want signed,” [striking worker] Desmarais said Wednesday. “And I want mine.” April Sims, the president of the Washington State Labor Council, said employers can always weather work stoppages easier than workers.  “Employers know this and bad bosses use the precarity of low wages as a bargaining strategy, relying on workers’ economic strain to keep them from taking action to organize a union or win a contract,” Sims said in a statement. “Providing unemployment benefits for striking workers upends this predatory dynamic.”

LOCAL

► From the Seattle Times — WA live-in adult family home staff to get minimum wage, high court rules — For decades, live-in workers at adult family homes have been exempt from the state’s minimum wage law. The Washington Supreme Court on Thursday declared that exemption unconstitutional — a ruling that could bring financial relief to workers and reshape the adult care industry…“No one will dispute that having a place that is similar to a home for individuals who cannot live independently is beneficial for the residents and society,” three judges wrote in a concurring opinion. “However, the cost of providing those facilities cannot be placed on the backs of workers.”

► From the Seattle Times — Where WA ranks in CNBC’s top states for business — Washington ranked No. 11 in the Consumer News and Business Channel’s annual list of the top states for business, challenging the narrative that the state is driving away businesses…Ohio topped the list, followed closely by other Midwestern and Southern states. Washington was the highest-ranked West Coast state on the list.

► From SEIU Local 925:

AEROSPACE

► From FOX 13 — Boeing invests $1B to expand 737 MAX production in Everett, WA — Company officials emphasized that the new Everett operation will perfectly mirror the established assembly techniques used further south. “We’re going to use the same processes, we’re using the same tools, the same people are giving support, so that you’ll be producing the same great airplanes up here at the Everett site that we do down in Renton,” a program representative stated during the facility launch.

CONTRACT FIGHTS

► From Blue Mountain Eagle — Union member: Labor talks with Oregon Trail Electric set for early August — A representative of the union that represents about 40 employees from Oregon Trail Electric Cooperative, including journeyman linemen, said negotiations are scheduled for Aug. 4-6 in the union’s dispute with the cooperative based in Baker City. Nick Simons, a lineman from La Grande, said those are the only planned dates for contract talks. On June 22 the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 125, based in Portland, issued a 30-day strike notice to OTEC…Simons, who is the La Grande delegate for the union’s negotiating team, said members of Local 125 — which includes workers for many utilities across Oregon, including OTEC — have never gone on strike.

ORGANIZING

► From KUOW — ‘A shocking result.’ Fred Hutch clinicians’ union vote ends in tie –.LaborLab, a workers’ rights watchdog that tracks employer anti-union campaigns, estimates Fred Hutch spent between $380,000 and $513,000, or about $3,000 per worker, on its Get the Facts Fred Hutch website and related outreach efforts…The Union of American Physicians and Dentists plans to file a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board to address what they say are “unfair labor practices related to the conduct of the company during the election process.” The union alleges Fred Hutch threatened, surveilled and bribed employees, among other tactics intended to influence the vote.

NATIONAL

► From the New York Times — U.S. Employers Told to Dismiss Thousands of Immigrant Workers — The work permits of Haitians with Temporary Protected Status will expire on July 24. Such permits will also lapse on July 17 for those from Ethiopia, Myanmar, Somalia, South Sudan, Syria and Yemen, according to notices issued for each affected country by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which oversees the legal immigration system…Thousands of T.P.S. recipients from Haiti work in the health care sector and as caregivers to older Americans. The program has also allowed thousands of beneficiaries to work in the manufacturing, construction and transportation industries.

► From the Guardian — The New York nurses replaced by AI: ‘It should concern every patient who cares about quality of care’ — After nearly four decades in her job, Shuler is one of 12 nurses who was laid off Sunday after being replaced with AI-powered software, according to the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA), which represents nurses at the hospital…The layoffs at Montefiore come in the wake of a massive nurses strike across several hospitals in New York City in January 2026. The new union contracts written after the strikes included safeguards against AI. But Shaiju Kalathil, a fellow nurse at Montefiore and a union executive committee member, said the layoffs violate this new contract.

► From the New York Times — At Vigil, Sons of Man Killed by ICE in Houston Call for Accountability — “I just want to continue pressuring, continue the pressure, to continue obtaining a full independent investigation,” said Mr. Salgado, 29, a public-school teacher, as he addressed the crowd at an event organized by the Service Employees International Union…Mr. Salgado’s younger brother, Lorenzo Salgado Jr., evoked the words of one of the founding fathers, Thomas Jefferson, in remembering his father. His father “had his liberty, though he couldn’t travel outside of the country due to, you know, not being able to get back to his life,” he said, referring to his unresolved immigration status. “The pursuit of happiness, he achieved that.” Still, he added, “it’s a hard moment to be an American.”

POLITICS & POLICY

► From Common Dreams — ‘Should Shock the Conscience’: Trump Admin Escalates War on Press With Subpoena of New York Times Reporters — David McCraw, the top attorney representing the Times’ newsroom, denounced the subpoenas as an attack on the freedom of the press. “The appearance of federal law enforcement agents on the doorstep of news reporters should shock the conscience of any American who believes in the Constitution and the press freedom it protects,” said McGraw. “This brazen act should be seen as nothing more than an attempt to prevent the public from knowing what is happening in their country by intimidating journalists from doing their jobs.”

► From the Guardian — Trump officials accused of stacking top chemical safety board with industry ‘mouthpieces’ — The Environmental Protection Agency’s science advisory committee on chemicals (SACC) is slated to review research for dozens of toxic chemicals during the new members’ terms. At least 13 proposed Trump appointees are probably conflicted on the chemicals that will be reviewed, comments filed with the EPA by a coalition of public health advocacy groups alleges. Their appointment, critics warn, is designed to provide scientific justification for the EPA’s broader campaign to dismantle the nation’s protections against toxic chemicals.

► From the Spokesman Review — The ‘SAVE America Act’ has brought Congress to a halt. Local election officials say it’s an unworkable bill — “It’s a solution in search of a problem, but it’s also creating more problems that I think are going to hurt our country in the long run,” said Trent Tripple, Ada County clerk and vice president of the Idaho Association of County Recorders and Clerks…Tripple, a Republican who returned home to Idaho after 20 years as an Air Force fighter pilot, said state law already requires voters to show ID or sign an affidavit when they vote. In Washington, where elections are conducted entirely by mail, each voter’s registration is automatically updated from a database shared with the Department of Licensing, and identity is verified by signature. “If we catch anybody lying or doing anything wrong, then we prosecute them,” Tripple said, adding that voter fraud does happen but isn’t widespread. “But to suggest that this problem rises to the level of completely overhauling how we do things is just absolutely asinine and ridiculous.”

► From the Oregon Capitol Chronicle — Columbia Gorge farmers seek pear disaster declaration, revised housing and overtime rules — The farmworkers union Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste, or PCUN, worked for years to get the overtime and housing laws passed. Its executive director, Reyna Lopez, said lawmakers should look at other structural parts of the food supply chain, particularly large grocery retailers and contractors who often dictate commodities prices, for solutions to the industry challenges instead of pulling back on protections for farmworkers.

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