Friday, September 25, 2026

Immigrants’ healthcare | Quiet ICE surge | Union Hall Arts

LOCAL

► From KREM — Spokane care workers voice concern over upcoming cuts — Spokane Care workers are speaking out against upcoming Medicaid cuts set to begin next week. H-R 1 also known as the Big Beautiful Bill was signed into law last year. “Thousands of immigrants across this state are going to lose their Medicaid health care effective October 1st,” said SEIU 775 President Sterling Harders…The Caregivers Union says the potential cuts would have devastating effects on those losing coverage and for the caregivers themselves.

► From the Yakima Herald-Republic — Seven farmworkers detained in Upper Yakima Valley, immigrant support group says — Danielle Surkatty, a volunteer with the Yakima Immigrant Response Network, said Thursday morning that YIRN volunteers confirmed seven men were arrested by federal officers while they were working in the Naches Heights area…Family members told YIRN federal authorities lined up the people they saw in the orchard, handcuffed them and questioned them about their status. Those arrested were not farmworkers with H-2A visas, which allow them to be in the United States as temporary foreign labor.

► From My Northwest — Instacart pays $150K to settle Seattle app-based worker pay violations — “The law is clear, app-based workers who are picking up orders that start in Seattle are entitled to minimum payment,” OLS Director Steven Marchese said. “We are seeing this issue come up more frequently, which makes enforcement especially important. While we want to ensure all businesses are following the law, we also want to ensure workers know their rights and feel empowered to come forward if they believe they are not being paid what they are owed.”

CONTRACT FIGHTS

► From OPB — Central Oregon Community College faculty authorize a strike — The union has notified the college that they intend to strike on Oct. 5 if an agreement isn’t reached. Unlike the potential classified workers strike at Oregon’s seven public universities, a faculty strike is more likely to halt classes. “This fight is bigger than one contract,” Enrique Farrera, president of the statewide union Oregon Education Association, said in a press release Wednesday. “It is a fight for working people across Central Oregon to earn a fair wage and build a life in the communities they serve.”

NATIONAL

► From the New York Times — A Quiet ICE Surge That Unfolded ‘Everywhere All at Once’ This Summer — The most effective escalation of President Trump’s mass deportation campaign happened quietly…Arrests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement this summer soared to record highs since the start of this Trump administration — with 43,000 in June, more than 49,000 in July and nearly 51,000 in August — as officials cut or narrowed the pathways to legal residency in the United States and expanded the pool of people eligible for deportation. Federal agents appeared in nearly every corner of daily life, carrying out operations at hospitals and airports, outside suburban schools and along rural construction sites and truck stops.

► From Workday Magazine — How Federal Agents Surveilled a Worker Assembly in Minneapolis — The federal government’s investigations into unions and workers has not been limited to Minnesota. The Graduate Employees’ Organization (GEO) Local 3550, which represents graduate workers at the University of Michigan, released a statement about the government serving the union with a federal grand jury subpoena…Additionally, a Republican senator launched a formal inquiry into the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) for hosting a discussion on U.S. foreign policy with Cuba at a union hall.

► From Common Dreams — $2.2 Trillion: The Collective Net Worth of ‘Big Tech Oligarchs’ Invited to Trump-Xi Dinner — Sanders pointed to the guest list for the Trump-Xi dinner and noted that the expected attendees “have nearly doubled their wealth since Trump’s election.” Bloomberg reporter Jonathan Tamari argued that the Trump-Xi dinner shows how the US president has “treated Silicon Valley execs almost like an extension of his administration.”

► From People’s World — Detroit’s Union Hall Arts residency blends organizing and creative power — Taking place from Aug. 10 through Sept. 7, this first year welcomed artists whose practices include writing, beat-making, painting, sculpture, film, printmaking, and more. Each resident is a member of a union, and each of their union contracts include an Organizing Education Clause—the key clause invoked by Union Hall Arts to enable members to take time away from work with pay covered by their respective unions….The residency’s premise: “Unions keep us connected and keep us human, mobilizing worker power so that people can lead full, healthy lives with time to do the things we love. Culture is how people make life livable, creating joy in otherwise oppressive systems. Art is how we survive and thrive. We are making space to create again.”

POLITICS & POLICY

► From the Washington State Standard — WA voters of color more likely to have ballots challenged, per report — Younger voters and voters of color in Washington state see their ballots challenged for signature issues more often than their older and white counterparts. That’s according to an analysis of state election data by University of Washington researchers presented to state lawmakers Wednesday. Meanwhile, thousands more votes than usual went uncounted in last month’s primary due to delivery lags from the U.S. Postal Service…But while white voters have seen 1.5% of their votes scrutinized for signature discrepancies, it’s 1.9% for Black voters, 2% for Asian voters and 2.2% for Hispanic voters, according to the UW research.

► From the American Prospect — The New Union Way to Build Progressive Power — Labor leaders in three swing states, Maine, North Carolina, and Texas, have launched a very promising initiative called the “Contract with Working America.” The idea is to use a deep canvass—extensive in-depth conversations—to learn what’s on the minds of working families, and then distill the results into an explicit plan of action that reflects actual worker views rather than top-down policy wonkery…Braxton Winston, president of the North Carolina AFL-CIO, told me, “Deep canvassing allowed us to affirm and adjust what we thought we knew, rather than just assuming. It helped us reach out to a part of our membership that often doesn’t vote with us.”

► From People’s World — Banned reporters regain access to White House — The NewsGuild-CWA President Jon Schleuss, whose Washington-Baltimore local represents the Politico reporters, hailed Kelly’s decision. “The only solution” in battling Trump and for the Constitution “is to stand together, push newsroom management to defend our colleagues, defend our work, and hold other news organizations to account by calling on them to stand with us,” Schleuss said in a statement issued behalf of The NewsGuild-CWA, the union covering media workers.

JOLT OF JOY

Happy Dolly Parton day! Here’s two of my favorite Dolly tracks. If you’re feeling a little blue about summer’s end, take it from the Queen of Appalachia: you can’t cry forever! Get on up and connect with your neighbors (…..like by joining a Labor Neighbor canvass this weekend 😉)

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