VA firings | Safety @ WDFW | Why DOGE can’t find fraud

Monday, March 24, 2025

LOCAL

► From the Spokesman Review — They were fired in the name of efficiency based on ‘a lie.’ Now the VA is paying them not to work — As the head of a 12-person team responsible for ensuring clean water, fire safety and other essentials required to maintain the hospital’s accreditation, Noschese and his bosses hoped he would be exempted from the mass firing. But after they sent the justification memo up the chain, they got a curt response: The document was too long. He should sum up his position in no more than three sentences…Having to fill a vacant position is costly and hurts productivity, he said, and firing workers en masse under a false pretense is not only “completely and utterly wrong” but also inefficient. “You talk about waste,” he said. “That’s where the waste really, truly comes from.”

► From the Seattle Times — Lewelyn Dixon, UW lab technician, held in Tacoma ICE detention center — Lewelyn Dixon, who came to the United States from the Philippines five decades ago and is a green card holder, has been held for more than three weeks at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Tacoma. Now, with the help of an attorney, Dixon’s family believes she is being held because of a conviction for embezzlement in 2001, Madriaga said. But that nonviolent conviction hasn’t prevented Dixon’s renewal of her green card or international travel in the past…Benjamin Osorio, Dixon’s attorney, told Newsweek that Dixon was never ordered to serve active time in jail or prison as a result of the conviction. She received 30 days in a halfway house and a $6,400 fine.

► From the Spokesman Review — ‘Are we just left to die?’: Spokane health care providers, patients consider Medicaid cuts in roundtable — As an older Spokane resident, Gail Halverson relies on Medicare and Medicaid to live. Right now, she is afraid she could lose that coverage. “People are going to be sick, and they’re going to have to go to nursing homes – well, who’s going to pay for the nursing homes? That’s Medicare; that’s Medicaid. So, are we just left to die?” Halverson said at a Wednesday roundtable of health care providers and patients U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Spokane, hosted. The budget resolution passed by the House earlier this month directed the chamber’s Energy and Commerce Committee to cut $880 billion in spending over the next 10 years. The committee only oversees $700 billion of spending that is not related to either Medicaid or Medicare, which would not be enough cuts to fulfill the mandate.

► From the Olympian — Thurston road workers say they have no confidence in management — The union informed Karen Weiss, director of Thurston County Public Works, about the vote in a three-page letter dated March 14. Specifically, the workers agreed they had no confidence in Roads Operations Manager Mike Lowman and Roads Supervisor Nick Bemis. Tim Binschus, staff representative for Washington State Council of County and City Employees AFSCME Council 2, AFL-CIO, sent the letter on behalf of the workers of Local 618-T. The letter states 85% of total membership attended the meeting and the vote of no confidence was unanimous.

► From KUOW — What’s the future of public safety on King County transit? It depends who you ask — “No single entity is responsible for our current state of public safety, and no entity alone can improve it,” [ATU 587 President Greg] Woodfill said. “Our union’s goal was to gather you all here today to hopefully start coming up with solutions collectively. Less finger pointing and more cooperation are desperately needed.” During the meeting, community members gathered at tables of 10 to 12 people to share their experiences riding transit, and what changes they think could be implemented to make riders’ and operators’ experiences safer.

► From the AP — Caught in the middle, this US oddity at the border is grappling with Trump’s trade war with Canada — Known as a geographic oddity since the boundary with Canada was drawn in 1846, this detached 5-square-mile community — called an exclave because it’s completely separated from mainland America — is surrounded by water on three sides. Its only land connection is to Canada and it takes one border crossing and about 25 miles north by car to get to downtown Vancouver, B.C.; or two border crossings and about 25 miles through Canada to re-enter the United States along Boundary Bay.

► From MLK Labor:

Keep your hands off OUR postal service!!#FightLikeHell pic.twitter.com/Wea2Okcua0

— MLK Labor (@MLKLabor) March 23, 2025

CONTRACT FIGHTS

► From the Daily Bruin — UPTE-CWA 9119, AFSCME Local 3299 announce third strike in over 4 months across UC — AFSCME Local 3299 said it was striking in solidarity with UPTE-CWA 9119 in a Friday Instagram post. AFSCME Local 3299 began contract negotiations in January 2024 – five months before UPTE-CWA 9119 – and neither union has reached a contract agreement with the UC. “Like us, they have been affected by UC’s bad-faith bargaining, which has been preventing them from reaching a fair and just contract,” the post said. “We won’t stand by.”

ORGANIZING

► From the New York Times — ‘Sesame Street’ Faces Uncertain Future Amid Funding Cuts and Layoffs — Despite the troubles facing the organization, the timing of the job cuts was still notable to staff. Much of Sesame Workshop’s administrative work force — which includes education experts, fund-raisers and paralegals — had been preparing to declare a union for months. On March 4, the employees announced that they were forming a union and kicked it off with a rally outside the nonprofit’s Midtown Manhattan offices. Immediately after the rally, workers assembled for a staff meeting where they learned about the cuts. “We really went from our highest highs to our lowest lows that day,” said Phoebe Gilpin, a senior director of formal learning at Sesame Workshop, who was laid off.

POLITICS & POLICY

► From the Washington State Standard — After fatal accidents, WA Fish and Wildlife workers press Ferguson on agency appointee — A labor union representing most employees at Washington’s Department of Fish and Wildlife says it’s troubled that a member of a commission that oversees the agency may not get reappointed after Gov. Bob Ferguson hit the brakes on his nomination. The union is raising its concerns after a series of incidents at the Department of Fish and Wildlife that resulted in deaths and injuries. Two department employees drowned in separate on-the-job accidents in the past 18 months — in September 2023 and January 2024.

► From the Washington State Standard — Tax plan from WA House Democrats could raise nearly $15B for state budget — House Democrats want to impose a new tax on individual wealth and a surcharge on certain businesses while allowing for larger hikes in property tax rates than the current 1% cap. The proposals would generate $5.1 billion for the 2025-27 budget and $14.8 billion over the next two budgets. That would cover much of a budget shortfall estimated as high as $16 billion over the next four fiscal years after accounting for the latest revenue forecast.

► From the Seattle Times — Frank Chopp, former WA House speaker and tireless advocate, dies at 71 –Former Gov. Jay Inslee recalled Chopp as “one of the most effective and consequential legislative leaders in the whole nation” in a post on X. “He led our march of progress in health and housing for years with unmatched ambition, compassion, and results. His spirit will inspire us.”

► From the Washington State Standard — Judge overturns Washington natural gas measure approved by voters — Superior Court Judge Sandra Widlan ruled that Initiative 2066 is unconstitutional because it runs afoul of a provision limiting citizen initiatives to no more than one subject and requiring them to contain the full text of the portion of state laws they would alter. In issuing her decision from the bench, Widlan said the purpose of the single subject requirement is to prevent “logrolling”’ or pushing through “undesirable legislation by attaching it to desirable legislation.”

► From CBS — U.S. to revoke legal status of more than a half-million migrants, urges them to self deport  — The move will affect immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela who flew to the U.S. under a Biden administration program, known as CHNV, that was designed to reduce illegal immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border by giving would-be migrants legal migration avenues.

► From the Washington Post — Why DOGE is struggling to find fraud in Social Security — But less than 1 percent of Social Security’s payments in recent years were determined to be improper — often the result of an accidental oversight or change in benefit status, according to a report last year by the agency’s inspector general. That works out to about $9 billion a year, and more than two-thirds of the mistaken payments were eventually clawed back…Social Security is among the most scrutinized and audited agencies in government, with frequent probes by its 500-person Office of Inspector General.

► From the Seattle Times — Judge blocks DOGE from accessing sensitive information at US agencies — A federal judge on Monday temporarily blocked billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency from accessing people’s private data at the Education Department, the Treasury Department and the Office of Personnel Management. The judge found the Trump administration likely violated the law. She said the government failed to adequately explain why DOGE needed access to “millions of records” to perform its job duties.

► From MSNBC — VIDEO: Tracker says Trump has already implemented nearly half of Project 2025 policies — On the campaign trail, President Trump distanced himself from the writers and content of Project 2025, but just two months into his presidency, much of what was laid out in the sprawling document has been enacted. Atlantic staff writer David Graham, who has written on Project 2025, joins Katy Tur to discuss how far along the Trump administration is in the conservative playbook.

► From the AP — Trump administration asks Supreme Court to halt judge’s order to rehire probationary federal workers — The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Monday to halt a ruling ordering the rehiring of thousands of federal workers let go in mass firings aimed at dramatically downsizing the federal government. The emergency appeal argues that the judge can’t force the executive branch to rehire some 16,000 probationary employees. The California-based judge found the firings didn’t follow federal law, and he ordered reinstatement offers be sent as a lawsuit plays out.

TODAY’S MUST-READ

► From Jacobin — Wells Fargo Is Plotting to Privatize the Post Office — A newly released memo from the banking giant Wells Fargo outlines a predatory scheme to dismantle the USPS: sell off profitable parts, slash union jobs, and raise prices by up to 140 percent…A privatized postal system would also take aim at the Universal Service Obligation, which requires mail to be delivered to every address six days a week. Such dedication to equitable service “would be a challenge for a third-party operator to profitably move mail and packages,” the memo complains.

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