$83 bil. tax breaks | Trusting unions | Uber Eats fined

Wednesday, August 19, 2026

STRIKES

► From UNITE HERE Local 8:

TURN OUT this Thursday, Aug 20 – Picket line with striking Embassy Suites workers commemorating TWO MONTHS on strike.

It’s up to us to fight back. Will you join us? pic.twitter.com/M7dFjWEZkm

— UNITE HERE! Local 8 (@UniteHereLocal8) August 18, 2026

LOCAL

► From the Seattle Times — Uber Eats to pay $4.4M settlement to Seattle delivery workers — Seattle’s Office of Labor Standards accused Uber Eats of failing to consistently provide minimum payments for canceled orders, according to a city news release. That meant delivery workers could be halfway through a job when an order was canceled for cause, and they wouldn’t be paid. Uber Eats agreed to settle with the city and pay around 14,400 workers $4.4 million in back pay, interest, liquidated damages and civil penalties in addition to a fine to the city. The city estimates 35,000 workers overall drive for Uber Eats in Seattle.

► From KUOW — Will ICE take control of the privately run detention center in Tacoma? — The private owners of the immigrant detention center in Tacoma said they’ll soon be in talks with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to sell some of their detention facilities across the country to the feds. It remains unclear whether those negotiations include the Northwest ICE Processing Center, which has been run by GEO Group since 2005…U.S. Rep. Emily Randall (D-Washington), whose district includes the Tacoma facility, said this is part of a greater plan by President Donald Trump and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller to make CEOs like Zoley richer. Zoley, and GEO Group, donated heavily to Trump’s reelection campaign.

► From NWPB — US Department of Energy whittles down Hanford board that gives feds, state advice on cleanup — “For 32 years the Hanford Advisory Board has provided 326 pieces of advice to all three of our agencies on a myriad of cleanup issues,” said Ryan Miller, a spokesperson with Ecology. “These issues have ranged from public involvement to tank waste cleanup to remediation of facilities and soil and groundwater. We have really gotten so much value from the HAB by getting this advice as a state agency. It was such a valuable venue for us to be able to hear and to get this consensus input directly from that diverse board of interests.”

AEROSPACE

► From Everett Herald — OPINION: Boeing supports a positive future for Everett and Renton — The Boeing workforce is a key part of that success. Our cities are home to the most skilled aerospace workforce in the world, the heart of the company’s positive future with their commitment to quality and safety…The new North line in Everett will enable Boeing and its employees to build and deliver more of the world’s best-selling 737 airplanes to customers around the world. And Boeing employees will continue to manufacture 737s in Renton for years and years to come.

CONTRACT FIGHTS

► From the Baker City Herald — Union official: Talks with Oregon Trail Electric make progress, but strike still possible — An official for the union representing linemen for Oregon Trail Electric Cooperative said a contract bargaining session on Monday, Aug. 17, was productive, but that workers could potentially go on strike as soon as Aug. 22. “We’re getting somewhat closer on wages and benefits,” Travis Eri, business manager for the International Brotherhood of Electric Workers Local 125, said late Tuesday morning, Aug. 18.

NATIONAL

► From the Chief Leader — As AI spreads, workers turn to unions to protect their rights — Even the poll’s least popular proposal — expanding workers’ ability to unionize specifically to protect their jobs from AI — still drew support from 75 percent of respondents…Asked which institutions were most likely to protect them from AI’s risks, respondents were more than twice as likely to name labor unions as any other option — 38 percent chose unions, compared with 17 percent for Democrats, 10 percent for Republicans and just six percent for employers themselves.

► From MPR News — Minnesota groups targeted by DHS surveillance call on companies to condemn tactics — Bernie Burnham is president of the Minnesota AFL-CIO, which was one of 18 groups listed as supporters of an anti-ICE conspiracy to grand jurors. She said federal prosecutors used an “unhinged conspiracy theory” to justify targeting political opponents. “The Trump administration continues to weaponize our federal government to intimidate our unions, our communities, and anyone who peacefully opposes their radical authoritarian agenda,” Burnham said.

► From the AP — Justice Department pushes to revive criminal case against Kilmar Abrego Garcia — Crenshaw found that Abrego Garcia would never have faced criminal charges had he not successfully sued the government over his 2025 deportation. The ruling was an embarrassment for the Trump administration, which only brought him back after securing a criminal indictment against him…Crenshaw’s ruling noted the sustained oversight of the case by top Justice Department officials, including regular communications between McGuire and Associate Deputy Attorney General Aakash Singh, in finding that the criminal case was thoroughly tainted.

► From Reuters — US court delays hearing on Google’s purchase of Spirit Airlines data as union objects — A U.S. bankruptcy court on Tuesday delayed to September 9 a hearing to approve ​the sale of internal business data from bankrupt ‌Spirit Airlines to Alphabet’s Google for $10 million. The adjournment of the hearing, which was initially scheduled for Wednesday, comes ​as the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA), ​which represents Spirit cabin crew, filed an objection ⁠to the sale.

► From the Seattle Times — 2016 WNBA MVP Nneka Ogwumike announces she’s retiring after this season, her 15th in league  — Ogwumike in the interview also expressed contentment with the state of women’s basketball. WNBPA executive director Terri Carmichael Jackson credited Ogwumike for extraordinary leadership as president of the union, which earlier this year negotiated a transformative collective bargaining agreement. “She has served this union with a level of commitment, courage, integrity and purpose that is truly unparalleled,” Carmichael Jackson said.

► From CWA:

Today, game workers and allies are taking action at Save Our Devs actions across the US and Canada to call out layoffs and corporate greed in the industry and to demand fair first contracts across Microsoft’s gaming studios. pic.twitter.com/ljqGaoPZgJ

— CWA (@CWAUnion) August 18, 2026

POLITICS & POLICY

► From Common Dreams — As Americans Struggled to Buy Basics, These 6 Companies Got $83 Billion in Tax Breaks Last Year — The publication points out that “the stunning size of the federal income tax breaks corporations claimed this year dwarfs past corporate tax breaks, themselves sizeable. Microsoft received $18.7 billion in federal income tax breaks, a record high for single-year federal tax breaks for one publicly traded company. Alphabet claimed a staggering $18.4 billion, and Amazon walked away with $17.4 billion in tax breaks. Meta received $13.7 billion, JPMorgan Chase received $8.3 billion, and Nvidia received $6.8 billion.”

► From Reuters — Unions, advocacy groups sue to overturn US visa rule for foreign students, journalists — A coalition of unions and advocacy groups sued the federal government on Tuesday seeking to block a rule ‌that would limit how long foreign students and journalists can remain in the U.S. without applying for extensions. The new rule from President Donald Trump’s Department of Homeland Security creates a fixed time period for F visas for international students, J visas that allow visitors on cultural exchange programs to work in the U.S., and I visas ⁠for members of the media. Those visas are currently available for the duration of the program or employment in the U.S.

► From the Cascadia Daily News — Washington, other states move to fortify elections against Trump — [Washington AG Nick] Brown said he’s less worried about a White House effort to cancel or attack the legitimacy of elections across the country. Rather, he fears a more targeted effort to interfere with or challenge results in a few states that could determine the balance of federal power. The president still refuses to acknowledge his 2020 electoral defeat, and Brown noted some fellow election deniers now hold power in state and local governments.

► From the Stranger — OPINION: The Ballot Initiative to Ban Trans Girls from Sports in Washington Will Threaten All Women and Girls — Once you take a cursory look at how these laws work, you soon realize that they don’t just target transgender athletes. In practice, they threaten the well-being and dignity of all women and girls…Children should not be required to have a medical provider look at or touch their genitals just to participate in school sports…These requirements may be enough to dissuade countless girls and their families from even trying to join a team at their school. Laws like these are designed to divide communities by falsely painting trans girls as dangerous or possessing some magic testosterone-laden power that gives them an unfair advantage, despite the science stating otherwise.

► From the Spokesman Review — Independent effect? Trump headwinds? Three Spokane Republicans exit primary with unusually low vote share — In the past 30 years, it’s been more likely than not that right-wing candidates for the 5th Congressional District will emerge from the August primary with a roughly 20-point lead over the liberal challengers. Baumgartner, the sole Republican candidate this year, earned less than 48% of the vote in the primary. The last time conservatives got less than 50% was 1992 – the final year that Democratic former House Speaker Tom Foley would go on to win re-election.

► From NBC News — Angie Nixon wins Florida Senate Democratic primary, defeating Alex Vindman — “We showed the world what organized people can accomplish,” Nixon told supporters Tuesday night. “And we showed the world what people of Florida are all about. Medicare for all. Universal child care. Real, affordable housing. Fully funded public education. And an end to senseless wars.”…The DSCC also released a statement supportive of Nixon after her victory. “Angie Nixon has dedicated her career to fighting for Florida. A lifelong native of Jacksonville and a former union organizer, Angie’s dedication to put working families first runs deep — and now, she’s running to take that fight to the Senate,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and DSCC Chair Kristen Gillibrand, D-N.Y., said in a joint statement.

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