NEWS ROUNDUP

Tradeswomen | $700k fine | Stop the SAVE

Wednesday, July 8, 2026

 

STRIKES

► From MLK Labor:

► From ABC 6 — Workers expected to return to jobs Wednesday after tentative deal reached to end PECO strike — “Wages and benefits are now industry standard for IBEW 614 members, and customers have faith. We’re coming back to work on Wednesday. If you’re out, we’re coming to save you,” Anastasi added. The strike began at 12:01 a.m. on July 4 after months of negotiations. Two big storms over the weekend followed, and crews were brought in from other states to make repairs and bring back power. The union says they got all their major contract priorities, including cash balance pension plans for all members, full retirement medical coverage for all members, and significant general wage increases.

 

LOCAL

► From the NW Labor Press — Surge of interest in the skilled trades among women — About every three months, Oregon Tradeswomen puts a cohort of 24 women at a time through a 192-hour training that includes OSHA-10 certification and field trips to union apprentice training centers. The group had 65 applicants for the training that began in January 2026, 82 for the one that began in April, and 203 for the one set to start in August.

► From the Daily UW — Laid-off Health Systems advisers petition for reversal and community support  — Among its six cited violations of workplace protections, Superbee was liable for failing to provide employees with information about their jobs. Additionally, the contracting company transported employees without the required insurance and failed to provide pay statements to any of its workers. Giovanna Sierra Carrillo is a listed business agent and controller of Superbee, according to the L&I news release about the investigation. Carrillo is connected to another farm labor contracting company, Harvest Plus, which also has a history of workplace malpractice against its employees.

► From the Seattle Times — WA farm labor contractor fined $700,000 over worker violations  — Washington State Department of Labor and Industries has fined a farm labor contracting company nearly $700,000 for violating worker protection laws, including failing to notify workers where they would be placed, what kind of jobs they’d be working or how much they’d be paid.

► From Range — ‘People are risking their lives to do it the right way.’  — Spokane’s Haitian community is crisis-planning after Supreme Court decision allowed the Trump administration to strip Temporary Protected Status from Haitians, Syrians…Everyone following the immigration process required for Temporary Protected Status had given their information to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), often including their home addresses and their workplaces…One man knew people who had been detained by ICE while attending their immigration appointments. “They’re walking into the lions’ den,” he said. “People are risking their lives to do it the right way.”…A huge frustration for Katia comes from feeling like her community “was never given a chance.” “People keep saying TPS is temporary,” she said. “But people weren’t given a pathway to apply for next steps.”

 

ORGANIZING

► From the New York Times — Hachette Book Group Employees Vote to Unionize — Hundreds of staff members at Hachette Book Group voted to unionize on Tuesday, forming the largest union in American trade book publishing at one of the biggest publishers in the United States. Employees at Hachette imprints across the United States and Canada, including Little, Brown and Workman, voted 388 to 130 to join the Washington-Baltimore News Guild, under the name Hachette Workers Coalition.

► From Orlando Weekly reporter McKenna Schueler:

 

NATIONAL

► From News From the States — New ruling against mandatory detention is another blow to Trump immigration policy — A new appeals court ruling is another blow to the Trump administration’s mandatory detention policy that threatens millions of immigrants with unlimited incarceration without bond if they ever crossed a border illegally. A sharply divided 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 on July 2 that such immigrants must receive a bond hearing within 90 days.  One of the two judges said 30 days would be a better time limit…Last week’s ruling affects three of the states with some of the largest detention centers — Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. Immigrants from across the county often  are transferred to those states.

► From Common Dreams — Texas Rights Group, Officials Demand Independent Probe After ICE Fatally Shoots Immigrant — “After ICE raids in Minnesota when immigration enforcement officers shot and killed two people, Alex Pretti and Renee Good, DHS repeatedly gave false statements about self-defense in an attempt to justify the murders, eroding community trust,” she highlighted. “And in March 2026, only through a public information request did we learn of Ruben Ray Martinez, a 23-year-old US citizen that was killed by ICE in South Padre Island, Texas.”

 

POLITICS & POLICY

► From People’s World — Stop the SAVE: Unions, civil rights groups fight voter suppression bill — The Communications Workers took their national campaign against the SAVE Act all the way to Alaska. There, unionized Association of Flight Attendants-CWA members mobilized outside the office of right-wing GOP Sen. Dan Sullivan to demand he oppose the measure. The Republican voter repression bill would disenfranchise many voters in the North Star State…The AFL-CIO, the Communications Workers, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, both big teachers unions, the A. Philip Randolph Institute, AFSCME, the Service Employees, and 44 other groups signed a letter saying they intend to marshal their forces against voter suppression.

► From the Washington State Standard — DOJ threatens WA election officials with prosecution if noncitizens vote — In a seven-page letter, Assistant U.S. Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon warned the election officers that they could be held criminally liable if they knowingly retain noncitizens on the state’s voter rolls or facilitate noncitizens in receiving and casting ballots. Dhillon sent similar letters to several states…Hobbs has repeatedly refused to provide the Trump administration with protected information included in voter data, like dates of birth, driver’s license numbers or the last four digits of social security numbers. Washington is the subject of an ongoing U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit for access to the state’s voter list, including sensitive personal information. Similar suits in other states have been tossed.

► From Common Dreams — ‘A Slap in the Face’: Trump Moves to Gut Biden-Era Rules Reining In Meatpackers  — The USDA’s move comes amid increased meat sector consolidation, which studies by Food & Water Watch, More Perfect Union, and others have found results in higher consumer prices and lower farmer profits. Over the course of his two terms in office, Trump has boosted the meatpacking industry at the expense of worker rights, competition, and public health. His administration refused to issue binding rules requiring businesses to institute safety measures amid the Covid-19 pandemic, and he invoked the Defense Production Act to classify meatpacking plants as critical infrastructure and force them to stay open even as the coronavirus ravaged industry workers.

 

INTERNATIONAL

► From the AP — Some health workers in Congo’s Ebola outbreak go on strike over pay issues as deaths near 600 — In Ituri province, the hardest hit among the three provinces in eastern Congo affected by the outbreak, some of the health professionals and other front-line workers told The Associated Press they’ve not been paid their wages and bonuses since the outbreak was declared on May 15…“We are doing everything we can to make the public understand how dangerous this disease is. I came here to save people’s lives, but this is how I am being thanked. We are working day and night without being paid,” said Dr. Ghislain Maneba, an epidemiologist and community investigator in the Rwampara health zone.

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