NEWS ROUNDUP

Electricians strike | ‘Go get your money’ | Mail ballot restrictions

Tuesday, August 25, 2026

 

STRIKES

► From OPB — Electric company workers in Eastern Oregon strike over alleged unfair labor practices: ‘They had plenty of forewarning’ — The union is seeking reinstatement of employees as part of their bargaining agreement, he said. “Some of us have basically been forced to have our phone on us at all times during the week, even when we are not on standby,” [IBEW Local 125 member] Simons said. “They refuse to place us on seven-day standby because they said paying us standby pay is not necessary.”…Travis Eri, business manager for IBEW Local 125, said the union is concerned about how OTEC plans to fill staffing gaps if outages occur during the strike. “Anybody that they do get, if they do actually hire replacements — those people are not going to have the institutional knowledge of the system, and they certainly won’t have the connections to the customers,” Eri said.

► From the East Oregonian — Oregon Trail Electric Cooperative linemen go on strike — About 35 employees of Oregon Trail Electric Cooperative, including linemen, went on strike at 9 a.m. on Monday, Aug. 24….Simons said union members voted 33-1 to go on strike in protest of what the union considers unfair labor practices involving the recent firing of one lineman and warnings to another, both of whom work in La Grande…Simons said on Monday morning that the labor practices issue has “superseded” the wages and benefits side of the negotiations, although wages remain “a sticking point,” according to a press release from the union.

 

LOCAL

► From the Seattle Times — We’re No. 1 — for corporate tax breaks — Microsoft came out No. 1. The Redmond tech giant set a record for scoring what is believed to be the largest corporate tax break in U.S. history, $18.7 billion…The result: Microsoft estimates it will pay only $2.46 billion in U.S. income tax this year, despite making more than $101 billion in U.S. profits. That’s just a 2.4% tax rate…“Microsoft paid more tax in Ireland than to the U.S. federal government in its latest financial year,” the Irish Times reported this month.

► From OPB — Officials warn wildland firefighters about the risks of using a supplement for smoke exposure — “Because glutathione is not an FDA-approved drug, consumers should be cautious about product safety and claims that glutathione can treat or prevent diseases,” said a safety advisory issued last week by the International Association of Firefighters, a labor union representing some 360,000 first responders. Glutathione was offered to firefighters during recent blazes that destroyed hundreds of buildings in and around Spokane, Washington…The supplement’s promotion in Spokane prompted physicians and some members to contact the IAFF with concerns about health claims despite no research proving those claims or showing the supplement’s safety, said Sean DeCrane, IAFF assistant to the general president for health and safety.

 

CONTRACT FIGHTS

► From KUOW — Seattle Public Schools struggles to ink new contract with teachers union as school year nears — “We came to bargain with the district to make conditions better for student outcomes,” said Heather Barker, a member of SEA’s bargaining team and third grade teacher at Sanislo Elementary School. “Right now, the things that the district has been putting on the table for us doesn’t really get us there.” According to the union, SEA and SPS have struck tentative agreements on some issues like school safety for immigrant students and artificial intelligence…SEA members will get their opportunity to weigh in Wednesday, during the union’s general membership meeting at the Seattle Convention Center. Members will either vote to ratify a tentative contract agreement or authorize a strike.

► From KIRO News Radio — ‘Go get your money’: Gee and Ursula divided on pending Boeing strike after engineers reject contract — “Go get your money. Go get it all,” Gee Scott said on “The Gee and Ursula Show” on KIRO Newsradio. “You know who we don’t really talk about? The people that make Boeing go. Because without the people in the trenches, there are no planes. So 30%? Go get your money. I hope you get it.”…“We are constantly talking about what the shareholders get, what the CEOs get. When it comes to the employees, get your money! The reason why Boeing is what it is today is because of the people in the trenches.”

► From Axios — UAW and Deere are set to clash amid AI sales boom — “Our members rejected Deere’s offer to extend their contract because they know their worth and what they deserve,” Fain said in a statement. “The company failed to make an offer that addressed the issues weighing on the minds of our members, especially job security. We’ll see Deere at the table in 2027.”…Deere’s stock price has soared 40% in 2026 as the company finds itself at the center of the AI trade. The company reported last week that sales jumped 18% in its construction and forestry segment from a year earlier to $3.62 billion. Operating profit in the segment also soared 84%, while operating margin spiked to 12.1% from 7.7%.

► From Skagit News Workers:

 

ORGANIZING

► From OPB — Oregon State University objects to women’s basketball team’s petition to unionize — It will now be up to the Oregon Employment Relations Board to determine if the athletes qualify as OSU employees and if they meet the requirements to be recognized as a unit…“Ultimately, our goal is to make college sports safe, fair and sustainable for future generations of athletes,” Andrew Cooper, former Washington State University and UC Berkeley track athlete as well as co-founder and executive director of UCAA, told OPB. “And to protect them as humans, students and workers.”

► From the Stranger — Slog AM: Feds Undermine Washington Unemployment Protections Ahead of Possible Big Strikes, a Congressional Candidate Honors His Nazi Grandfather, and the US Removes Syria from the Terror List After Putting Al-Qaeda in Charge — Neumos security staff won their union election: The National Labor Relations Board tallied their votes Friday and everyone who showed up voted yes. Workers at Neumos, Barboza and The Runaway, all owned by Fokus Industries, began organizing publicly this spring, with the security staff announcing a union earlier this month.

 

NATIONAL

► From Wired — Spirit Airlines Wants to Sell Its Data to Google. Former Flight Attendants Are Freaked Out  — Just days after the court announced Google’s winning bid, the labor union representing 5,500 former Spirit Airlines flight attendants filed an objection to the sale. Lawyers for the 55,000-member Association of Flight Attendants (AFA) argue the sale would include an enormous amount of sensitive employee information, and that even Google’s promised safeguards wouldn’t prevent privacy violations of decades of flight attendants who never could have guessed that their data would be sold to train AI systems…The Spirit data sale would, according to a court filing, include more than 1 million time-card records, over 175,000 employee records, nearly 150,000 employee tax forms, employment contracts and litigation files, 80,000 email accounts, 17 million individually owned Microsoft OneDrive items, 20.6 million shared Microsoft SharePoint files, and 500 million Microsoft Teams records.

► From MPR News — Teachers call for Target boycott over ICE response — The American Federation of Teachers pressed the Minneapolis-based company to take a stronger stand against ICE earlier this year. Union president Randi Weingarten sent multiple letters to Target CEO Michael Fiddelke asking the company to call for an end to the surge. In a statement last week, the union said it “did not receive a constructive response,” prompting the call for a boycott.

► From the AFL-CIO:

 

POLITICS & POLICY

► From the AP — Supreme Court sides with Trump administration on mail voting restrictions — The decision leaves room for additional court challenges that could further slow Trump’s order, and other similar cases have already been filed. The U.S. Postal Service laid out how it would implement the order last week, but time is running short to impose major changes…While the emergency order is not final, it does have the potential to create chaos around voting across the country, with Trump often questioning the integrity of elections and the nation’s highest court again the possible arbiter of a political controversy.

► From Washington Attorney General Nick Brown:

► From the New York Times — Trump Has Quietly Sought Control Over Postal Service to Transform U.S. Elections — Four weeks before President Trump signed an executive order seeking to restrict mail voting, he filed four nominations for vacancies on the Board of Governors of the U.S. Postal Service. All four were Republicans. Three have expressed doubts about who won the 2020 presidential election and the security of voting. The selections broke with a longstanding practice of nominating board members in bipartisan pairs. Two of those nominees are on a fast track for approval, and could reach a full Senate vote when the chamber returns from recess in September.

► From Politico — Trump administration proposes more than $100K fee for H-1B visas — the Department of Homeland Security revived the proposal on Monday, submitting it online in the Federal Register to be officially published on Tuesday, when a 30-day public-comment period will commence. And the administration is now proposing $103,265 for all new H-1B visa petitions.

 

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