H-2A impacts in WA | Clean energy jobs | USPS plan to restrict ballots

Monday, August 24, 2026

STRIKES

► From UNITE HERE Local 8:

As significant repeat business pulls & support for our strike grows, we’re on the line with supporters marking 2 months on strike at @EmbassySuites @HiltonHotels Pioneer Square – the longest hotel strike in Washington history.

If we don’t get no contract, you don’t get no peace! pic.twitter.com/Emszrr44DE

— UNITE HERE! Local 8 (@UniteHereLocal8) August 21, 2026

LOCAL

► From the Yakima Herald-Republic — Study looks at impact of H-2A program on Washington farmworkers — analysis found that the H-2A program is being used a primary means of securing labor, displacing local immigrant farmworkers across the state and hurting “already vulnerable communities.”…Navarro’s report recommends stronger labor rights for farmworkers across the state and a statewide biannual survey to accurately count the number of local farmworkers in the state…Nothing about the results from the study was surprising to the UFW, especially the finding that domestic workers are reporting fewer hours offered as the program expands.

► From the Seattle Times — New evidence from Longview chemical disaster raises maintenance doubts — Employees who spoke with Cowlitz County detectives talked about inspections, department records show. One crew member said he’d heard the tank was “not in good working condition” despite passing an inspection last year. Another worker heard the tank had failed an inspection…A mill supervisor told investigators the tank was “scheduled to be replaced sometime next year,” records show. It isn’t clear, based on records made public so far, when the tank was last drained and inspected from the inside.

► From Cascade PBS — Washington state grapples with the AI data center boom — “If we have the energy, we will get the economic development that goes with it. And when we do have, when they are coming here, then we get to set the rules for both workers as well as the environment,” [East Wenatchee councilmember and a local IBEW leader Matthew] Hepner said. “If we drive data centers out from here, they’re going to go to the south, and they’re just going to run the entire thing on diesel. So we’re still going to be using the internet, and those data centers are still going to be operating 24 hours a day. You know, spewing more carbon.”

► From the Seattle Times — ICE agents’ detainment of wrong man in WA was ‘egregious,’ judge says — Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents last month detained a man in Lakewood who legally entered the U.S., despite being on an operation targeting someone else — a move a federal magistrate judge called “egregious.”…Velasquez was released from the Tacoma ICE detention facility on Wednesday evening, his attorney Bart Klein said. Klein said ICE agents merely “saw some Hispanic guy,” decided to go after him and forced him out of the vehicle. Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court lifted a lower court ban preventing ICE agents from stopping, questioning or detaining people based on appearance, language or accent.

► From the Spokesman Review — VA adds $17 billion, 3 years to Oracle Heath contract for troubled computer system tested in Spokane — Despite internal reports of problems at Spokane’s Mann-Grandstaff VA Medical Center and its affiliated clinics from Wenatchee to Libby, Montana, the Biden administration brought the system to hospitals in Walla Walla, southern Oregon and central Ohio in 2022. After The Spokesman-Review revealed patient harm tied to the system in June 2022, the VA halted the system’s rollout for the remainder of former President Joe Biden’s term in office, with the exception of a joint VA-Defense Department hospital complex in Illinois in 2024. When President Donald Trump returned to office in 2025, his new VA secretary, Doug Collins, denounced the Biden administration’s cautious approach and accelerated the system’s rollout.

AEROSPACE

► From the Air Current — Boeing plays hardball after SPEEA members spurn contract offer — In an Aug. 21 message to union members, Boeing said it had withdrawn perks for 2026 that it had promised the white collar union for early approval of the new collective bargaining agreement. The forfeited pay includes an immediate 3% guaranteed wage increase retroactive to February and a 40% hike to potential annual incentive payouts. “With the disappointing vote results, we are now diverting those dollars to execute our plan and prepare for a potential strike,” wrote Ben Nimmergut, Boeing vice president and functional chief engineer for production engineering.

CONTRACT FIGHTS

► From the Seattle Times — Seattle teachers union still negotiating as school year looms — The current contract ends on Aug. 31. School starts on Sept. 2. The union’s membership will meet on Wednesday, Aug. 26, to either sign a tentative agreement or authorize a strike — which could delay the start of the school year…“It is clear that we have different ideas about relieving the pressurization that educators are feeling,” said Davina Diaz, the union’s vice president and head of bargaining. “Our members do need more time to be prepared, prepare our lesson plans, to make sure we have real collaboration with our colleagues.” Diaz said the district wants educators to spend more time in meetings — which members sometimes feel are redundant — and more time entering data for curriculum assessments.

► From SEA:

► From the Salem Reporter — Faculty at Western Oregon University unable to negotiate union contract, declare impasse — Western Oregon University Federation of Teachers, the union representing 250 faculty at the public university in Monmouth, are at an impasse after contract negotiations fell through…“Even at the modest amount WOUFT (the union) has proposed for the next year’s salary, it amounts to a pay cut for members compared to the rate of inflation,” Baker said.

► From KGW — Evergreen students head back to class on schedule after last year’s employee strike — The largest district in the area returning to school today is Evergreen Public Schools in Vancouver with 38 schools and about 20,000 students…This year, the district says it recently signed a five-year collective bargaining agreement with the union representing its teachers.

NATIONAL

► From the Guardian — Against the wind: despite Trump’s attacks, unions are fighting for good US clean energy jobs — As soon as the stop-work order was announced, McElroen’s union, the IBEW Local 3, and the rest of Climate Jobs New York set out to mobilize against it. “These weren’t theoretical jobs we were facing losing, it was people looking at actively losing paychecks,” said Chris Erikson, the local’s business manager. “We had press conferences, we rallied, we brought attention to the issue.”…ultimately, courts blocked each of the stop-work orders and each project has continued. McElroen said he was grateful for the continued job opportunities. He feels good about contributing to the clean energy economy, and the work has been financially beneficial to him, too. When he began working in offshore wind, he set a goal of saving up for a down payment on a future home. During his interview with the Guardian, he received a text. “Good news,” he said. “I just got prequalified for my mortgage.”

► From the New York Times — Washington Post Ordered to Rehire Fired Columnist Karen Attiah — Sarah Miller Espinosa, the arbitrator, said in a written decision Thursday that The Post “did not have good and sufficient cause” to terminate Ms. Attiah and “violated” its labor agreement, according to a copy of the decision shared with The New York Times by Ms. Attiah’s lawyers…Ms. Attiah was represented by the Washington-Baltimore News Guild and Democracy Defenders Fund, a nonprofit co-founded by the lawyer Norman Eisen.

POLITICS & POLICY

► From the New York Times — Postal Service Publishes Finalized Plan to Restrict Mail Ballots — If the regulations are enacted, the Postal Service said that it would not deliver mail ballots in states that do not share voter data with the federal agency. Under the new rule, the agency would review every envelope for compliance with the new standards before accepting ballots into its system…Mr. Trump’s executive order was largely blocked by federal courts this summer, and the Postal Service said in its rule published on Friday that it would “not take actions to implement the rule specifically for the 2026 election” unless the Supreme Court rules in the administration’s favor.

► From Reuters — US judge strikes down policy suspending immigrant visa processing for 75 nations — A U.S. judge on Friday struck down a Trump administration policy suspending the issuance of immigrant visas to applicants from 75 countries, saying that the policy exceeded Secretary of ‌State Marco Rubio’s statutory authority. U.S. District Judge Jeannette Vargas in Manhattan said the policy that the State Department announced in January was “patently unlawful” and ran afoul of federal immigration law, which explicitly stripped the secretary of state of authority over consular officers’ processing of immigrant visas.

► From Safety + Health Magazine — Miners’ union demands reinstatement of MSHA silica rule — “Every day federal regulators drag their feet and sit on this rule, another working father, mother, husband, wife, sister or brother contracts an incurable, fatal disease,” Sanson said in a press release. “Someone’s life is forever changed. A company’s profit margin cannot take precedence over a miner’s right to draw a breath.”

► From the Federal News Network — Losses keep piling up for Trump administration over handling of RTO mandate — The latest loss came earlier this week when an arbitrator ruled that the Agriculture Department violated its collective bargaining agreement and committed unfair labor practices when it ended its telework and mandated Rural Development Agency employees represented by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) return to the office without negotiating the terms first.

► From the Verge — Elon Musk broke the FAA — Palantir is picking up the pieces — Palantir is deeply integrated with the FAA’s systems, making it a prime contender for many of those contracts, despite no significant prior experience with air traffic control. According to air traffic controllers — several of whom spoke to The Verge on condition of anonymity so as not to jeopardize their jobs — these moves will do little to alleviate the issues on the ground (and in the air). They say that the FAA’s most urgent needs remain on the personnel side. None of the $12.5 billion in new FAA funding authorized by the One Big Beautiful Bill goes toward personnel. Instead, much of it seems destined for Palantir’s pockets.

► From the Washington State Standard — Striking workers will need to seek jobs to qualify for WA unemployment benefits — Since Jan. 1, when the law took effect, Washington’s Employment Security Department waived that requirement because it deemed those involved in labor disputes to be “attached to an employer.” But this week the U.S Department of Labor told the state agency that this approach does not conform with federal law…April Sims, president of the Washington State Labor Council, one of the forces behind the legislation, had a different view. “It is a concern. We are still assessing the on-the-ground impact it might have,” she said. “I don’t think this rule change will stop workers from exercising their power to go on strike.”

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