SPEEA, Boeing negotiations | Union contracts & AI | Banning heat protections?!

Thursday, July 30, 2026

LOCAL

► From the Burner — PCC Is Sending Workers Home Over Watermelon Pins Again — This Time, Union-Branded Ones — Workers started wearing UFCW 3000-branded stickers after management allegedly told Greenlake PCC worker Ali Zaidi to remove a pin in the shape of a watermelon, just one of many he wore everyday to work for months…“We know many PCC co-op members don’t want their co-op to treat its workers unfairly, and we also know those members have a powerful voice that administrators and managers really listen to,” UFCW 3000 spokesperson Rich Smith told The Burner. “Right now, we’re inviting them to use that voice by dropping a watermelon emoji  in the co-op’s feedback form along with a brief message of support for workers who were simply standing up in solidarity with one of their coworkers.”

► From NW Public Broadcasting — Pierce County is creating a solar array on an old landfill on the Key Peninsula — The project has already created jobs on the Key Peninsula and will continue to support employment. “ This is unique in the number of green jobs that are being produced,” said Katie Condit, CEO of Workforce Central, the county’s workforce development agency. “ Out on the peninsula, job development often happens at a slower pace than it does in the city and urban centers. And so that makes it an exceptional opportunity for local skilled workers.”

► From the Spokesman Review — Spokane Haitians on edge after officially losing their temporary protected status — To assist in protecting vulnerable community members, volunteers have been setting up accompaniment systems to escort people to essential services, like appointments and court hearings. “We also have people who are helping with rides,” Jasmin said. “They are picking up our local Haitian community members, taking them to work.” Jasmin and other community leaders have also been raising money for legal support. Many at-risk individuals require paperwork and legal aid to acquire asylum status or alternate work authorizations, meaning they are stuck waiting, despite their previous status dissolving.

AEROSPACE

► From SPEEA — July 29 Update – Final offer could come soon — “It seems highly likely that we will receive a final offer from Boeing very soon, maybe as early as Thursday,” said Matt Burgner, a quality investigator who works at Boeing-Everett. “We’ve come a long way, looking at every page of the contract, and we’ll continue to work hard until we’re done.” Under SPEEA’s governing documents, after the Negotiation Teams receive a final offer from Boeing, the next step would be for the Teams to present the offer to our union’s Bargaining Unit Councils, or BUCs.

CONTRACT FIGHTS

► From Axios — Inside the AI protections union workers are winning — With Congress on the sidelines, union contracts are among the strongest guardrails American workers have against artificial intelligence…AI protections are gaining ground fastest in industries with longer histories of unionization and repeated threats to workers’ livelihoods, including manufacturing, journalism and entertainment…America is quickly becoming a patchwork of protections. Those with a union contract have a say in their technological future.

► From Cascadia Daily News — Skagit journalists clash with management over wages, AI use — Libby Williams, the sole reporter at the Stanwood-Camano News, said she also works at a coffee stand on the weekends and freelances for other publications to pay rent. As a result of the low wage, the publications have a high turnover rate, said Cameron Martinez, a Herald reporter. “We’re not asking for that much,” Martinez said. “It really shows how much we love our jobs that we’re accepting a $20 minimum.”

ORGANIZING

► From NBC Sports — Stanford football players take first step toward forming a union — Via Amanda Christovich of Front Office Sports, Stanford’s football team has formed a “fraternity chapter.” The move comes in partnership with the College Football Players Association. The CFBPA has been trying to get college players to organize for several years. Stanford’s chapter could be the first of many throughout the country. Stanford senior Fisher Anderson told Christovich that the ultimate goal is to “do what the NFLPA does for college football.”

► From 404 Media — Wikimedia Will Not Voluntarily Recognize Union a Supermajority of Its Workers Want — Last week, Wiki Workers United, which is organized through the Communication Workers Union and represents U.S. workers at the nonprofit Wikimedia Foundation, requested voluntary recognition of their union…On Monday, just days after the massive Wikimania Conference concluded in Paris, the Wikimedia Foundation announced it would not voluntarily recognize the union and said the union would have to conduct a vote as overseen by the National Labor Relations Board…“The fact that this response came exactly 1 day after Wikimania shows that you are afraid of being confronted,” [an editor] wrote.

► From Variety — On-Set Visual Effects Workers on ‘Star Wars’ Productions Join IATSE — The new bargaining unit includes U.S. workers who contribute to titles including, but not limited to “The Mandalorian & Grogu,” “Ahsoka” and “Starfighter.” The unit, which overwhelmingly supported joining the union, will now begin good-faith negotiations with the employer for its first contract.

NATIONAL

► From Jacobin — Workers Need a Legal Right to Full-Time Hours — The report lays out the scale of the problem of involuntary part-time work, defined as workers who could and would work full-time hours, but do not, totaling 4.9 million people as of January 2026, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). “In this context, increasing the minimum wage without also addressing the issue of hours is insufficient to ensure a living wage,” Waldman and Bruenig write. Large employers like Walmart have, sometimes explicitly, systematically cut their workers’ hours over the past decades to get out of paying them benefits and to more easily discipline the more rebellious among them, according to the report.

► From the Seattle Times — Starbucks beats Wall Street expectations in quarterly results — Net earnings per share jumped to 91 cents, compared with 49 cents in the same quarter a year ago. Net earnings amounted to $1.05 billion — an 87% upsurge from the same period a year ago…Global comparable store sales jumped almost 8%.

Editor’s note: Great! Now how about settling a fair contract with the workers who made those earnings possible.

POLITICS & POLICY

► From Common Dreams — Amid Deadly Temperatures, GOP Advances Bill to Ban Federal Heat Protections for Workers — The AFL-CIO, the largest labor federation in the US, has condemned the GOP bill, noting that “extreme heat is one of the deadliest workplace hazards in America.” “House lawmakers are considering legislation that would block OSHA from issuing or enforcing a federal heat safety standard,” the labor group said earlier this week. “That’s the wrong direction when workers’ lives are on the line.”

► From the Washington State Standard — Why WA’s certification process for home care aides is getting bogged down — “We have been frustrated for many years at Prometric and the state’s oversight of Prometric. This has been, in our view, a subpar vendor for many years,” said Adam Glickman, secretary-treasurer for SEIU 775, the union for long-term care workers. “We’ve talked to caregivers who have spent years, multiple years, trying to get tested,” Glickman added…Access to training, meanwhile, isn’t seen as a barrier in the process. SEIU 775 is pushing the state to fund integrating the required tests into the training to avoid these barriers.

► From the Washington State Standard — With 2030 deadline to cut emissions approaching, WA has a long way to go — Earlier this year, state lawmakers passed Senate Bill 6355, which will establish the state’s own electrical transmission authority with a goal to develop more energy projects across the state. Gov. Bob Ferguson will appoint members to the authority’s board in January.  The energy transition is expected to create over 18,000 jobs by 2035, according to Hargreaves, with investments in electric vehicle and grid infrastructure accounting for over 60% of projected job growth.

► From the Stranger — Guest Rant: Stand With Library Workers and Vote Yes on Prop 1 — The stakes are very high: failing to pass this levy would result in closed branches, bare bookshelves, programs and services ended or reduced, and staff cutbacks that would severely impact our ability to do our jobs and meet the needs of our patrons…Libraries show us a path towards a better society that is egalitarian, inclusive, and deeply driven by learning, curiosity, and openness to other ways of thinking and perceiving the world. All are welcome at our library, and we look forward to continuing and building upon this commitment through your support.

JOLT OF JOY

The Entire Staff of The STAND™️ is headed out on vacation, so The STAND will be on a short summer hiatus while I’m off galavanting. But don’t you cry! The STAND will be back online and in inboxes on August 17.

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