SEA TA | Union @ MOHAI | DHS targets WA votes

Wednesday, September 2, 2026

LOCAL

► From the Tri-City Herald — Green card freeze threatens jobs for Tri-Cities refugees nearly a year later — Yohani, 45, nearly lost her job twice over the past year due to her lack of a green card, which she applied for more than three years ago…She is one of the nearly 800 refugees who were resettled in the Tri-Cities between January 2021 and February 2026 and now live with the ongoing risk of losing their jobs and being deported…The problem, Soerens said, is that a person can remain legally authorized to work while still encountering employers that expect to see a green card or another document they recognize.

► From the Tacoma News Tribune — Tacoma mayor, shopping center landlord speak out about Fred Meyer departure — In a statement issued Tuesday by the City of Tacoma, Mayor Anders Ibsen called the grocer’s planned departure of another store a “gut punch,” adding, “There’s no other way of describing it.”…Ibsen noted that he’d “heard the fear and frustration from Tacoma residents who are scared of worsening food deserts and decreased access to their medications. They are also worried about where our economy is going.”

► From Cascadia Daily News — Immigration detainments spiked in June for Whatcom, Skagit counties — Federal immigration agents detained at least 54 people in June in the two counties, and 33 people in July, according to the Deportation Data Project. A majority of those detained did not have criminal charges or convictions, which contradicts how the Trump administration has characterized those being detained. The data dump is some of the clearest information citizens can get about federal immigration detainments; researchers compile the data through Freedom of Information Act requests.

CONTRACT FIGHTS

► From KING 5 — Seattle educators, school district reach tentative contract; avoid strike — Some of the agreements reached include establishing clear guidelines on the use of AI in schools and teaching; supporting educational ASL interpreters; improving school building safety; reinforcing safe and welcoming schools; and allowing voluntary transfers for paraprofessionals, among other agreements…”We really try to work and address all of the issues and priorities that our members let us know about,” Diaz told KING 5 after the negotiations on Tuesday night.

► From NW Public Broadcasting — Washington state workers stage walkout, one month left to negotiate a contract — “ We are here because we love the work that we do, we love the state that we live in, and we want to provide services for the people that we do provide them for,” said Ashley Fueston, vice president of the Washington Federation of State Employees, WFSE, which represents these workers. “But it’s hard for us to provide them when there’s no support, we’re consistently losing staffing, our workplaces aren’t safe, members are afraid that they won’t make it home to see their families by the end of the day.”

► From KOMO — Puyallup teachers agree to work on first day of school as contract negotiations continue — Teachers agreed to continue working at least through Sept. 13, according to the union…Contract negotiations remain ongoing, with the union hoping a tentative agreement can be reached before its next general membership meeting on Sept. 13. At that meeting, teachers are expected to either vote on a tentative agreement, if one has been reached, or take a vote on a potential work stoppage, according to union representatives.

► From the Hollywood Reporter — DreamWorks Remote Staffers Ratify First Union Contract — In a vote that concluded on Aug. 21, 97 percent of 108 eligible voters supported ratifying a deal that provides workers outside Southern California with parity on wages and working conditions compared to their L.A. counterparts. Turnout for the ratification vote was 83.3 percent. The deal offers remote workers the same minimum wage rates, workplace protections and health and retirement benefits as staffers who are covered by The Animation Guild’s Master Agreement in L.A. When the Master Agreement is renegotiated, any changes to the deal will also be applied to the remote workers.

ORGANIZING

► From the Seattle Times — MOHAI workers launch union effort — MOHAI Workers United — which would represent 32 museum staff in visitor services, collection resources, education, marketing, fundraising, programs, exhibits and special event departments — intends to unionize with Communications Workers of America Local 7800, part of a national organization that represents employees in telecommunications, media, customer service and education. The unionizing effort at MOHAI follows a swelling trend of labor organizing at museums both nationally and in Seattle.

► From People’s World — University of Pennsylvania sues to block graduate students from union representation — The University of Pennsylvania filed a lawsuit against the graduate student workers’ union in an effort to exclude hundreds of first- and second-year students from the bargaining unit. This marks a new high in tensions over enforcement of the graduate student workers’ collective bargaining agreement.

POLITICS & POLICY

► From the Seattle Times — Report: WA targeted by DHS voter-fraud investigation ‘surge’ — State officials criticized the effort, which they say they were not informed about in advance. Secretary of State Steve Hobbs said he only learned of the new surge via the CNN report. “Unfortunately, this is not the first time we have learned about federal actions through the media. It’s troubling that Homeland Security is wasting taxpayer dollars investigating a phenomenon we know to be false,” Hobbs said in a statement, pointing to just a handful of verified vote fraud cases in Washington since 2008, out of 90 million ballots cast…Besides Washington, the surge is targeting Wisconsin, Missouri, Georgia, California, Pennsylvania, Nevada, New York and Connecticut.

► From the AP — House passes short-term funding bill to avoid a shutdown before the election — The House passed the bill by a vote of 370-48. The Senate has already overwhelmingly approved the measure, so it now moves to President Donald Trump’s desk for his signature…Rep. Rosa DeLauro…said the bill was much improved from the product that passed the House earlier this summer on a mostly party-line basis. For example, she said it prevents the Department of Homeland Security from transferring funds to the Border Patrol.

INTERNATIONAL

► From In These Times — Workers’ Rights Are Plummeting Under Trump—and the World Is Taking Notice — The ITUC’s Global Rights Index assesses over 150 countries based on 97 indicators drawn from international standards and jurisprudence. Given the increase in violations since last year, the United States was placed on the report’s ​“Watchlist,” alongside Guinea-Bissau, Israel, Liberia, The Republic of Moldova, the Philippines and Zimbabwe. The inclusion of the United States on the ITUC’s Watchlist is based on the pattern of backsliding of fundamental rights over the past year, and serves as a troubling indicator of the country’s current state of affairs.

The Stand posts links to local, national and international labor news every weekday morning. Subscribe to get daily news in your inbox.