Nicolle Orozco Forero | TA in Camas | Dismantling the DOE

Tuesday, July 15, 2025

STRIKES

► From FOX 13 — Trash piles up in Renton amid nationwide Republic Services strike — To better understand the origins of the dispute, FOX 13 spoke with Will Zekus, a transfer station equipment operator in Lacey, where the local picket line first formed. “We’re a small group down here in Lacey,” Zekus said. “We have six equipment operators and six drivers.” Zekus said workers are asking for wages that better reflect local living costs. What began as a modest labor action has since disrupted waste collection in other communities reliant on Republic Services, like Renton.

LOCAL

► From the 19th News — After a child care worker is detained by ICE, a community is left reeling — Orozco Forero had experience working with kids who had autism back in Colombia, so Wishon had her come in for a trial run and hired her after the first day…And people like Orozco Forero are exceptionally rare. Already, the staffing shortage in child care is near crisis levels. It’s far worse for children with disabilities — about a third of those families say they face significant difficulty finding care for their kids, partly because there are too few people with the ability, expertise or desire to work with their children. Immigrant women like Orozco Forero have been helping to fill that void. They now make up 20 percent of all child care workers.

► From Cascadia Daily News — Detained Northwest WA farmworker activist ‘Lelo’ will voluntarily depart to Mexico — On Monday, he talked about the poor living conditions inside the Tacoma facility. “They’re supposed to give us three meals per day, but the food is bad and sometimes we wouldn’t get our dinner until one or two a.m. the next morning.” Juarez Zeferino said getting access to medical care was also difficult. Multiple people he was detained with would spend weeks asking to see a doctor, only to have to wait even longer or not see one at all. Every conversation with friends and family who had come to see his hearing ended the same way, whether spoken in English or Spanish: “We’ll see you in Mexico. This isn’t over.” Many cried as they handed the phone to the next person.

CONTRACT FIGHTS

► From the union-busting Columbian — Camas School District, teachers’ union reach tentative contract agreement  — Beth Ceron, president of the Camas Education Association, said Monday that the union’s more than 400 members will review the proposed agreement in August. By email, Ceron said the two sides “shared mutual concern over limited state funding to address the evolving needs of our students, schools and communities” and had waited until the close of the Washington Legislature’s 2025 session to tackle the contract’s major financial issues.

► From Variety — ‘Saturday Night Live’ Visual Effects Artists Ratify Historic First Union Contract — After successfully organizing in October 2024, contract negotiations began in April 2025. The first-ever agreement brings significant improvements, including established minimum wage scale, secured ongoing healthcare benefit, annuity contribution, “Kill fees” for artists hired for projects canceled before completion, a robust grievance process and critical AI and outsourcing protections.

► From Yahoo Sports — WNBA players and the league are far apart on new CBA talks ahead of in-person discussions — “We got a proposal from the league, which was honestly a slap in the face,” Phoenix Mercury forward and union rep Satou Sabally said. Increased salaries, revenue sharing and roster size are three areas where the union expect to see major changes from the current CBA that will expire at the end of this season after the players decided to opt out last year. Nearly all the players who aren’t on rookie scale contracts right now will be free agents after this season and looking for big salary increases.

NATIONAL

► From the AP — Baseball players’ union head hopeful of major leaguers participating in 2028 Olympics — Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred and players’ union head Tony Clark say plans are moving ahead exploring the possibility of using major leaguers in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, a tournament that could be played on an extended All-Star break…“There’s a lot of work that still needs to be done,” Clark told the BBWAA in a separate session. “We do know players are interested in playing, whether it’s for the Team USA or any number of other teams around the world. … There’s just a lot of conversation that needs to be had sooner rather than later to see how viable this is, but we’re hopeful that we can figure our way through it for the benefit of the game.”

► From the AP — The tariff-driven inflation that economists feared begins to emerge — Consumer prices rose 2.7% in June from a year earlier, the Labor Department said Tuesday, up from an annual increase of 2.4% in May. On a monthly basis, prices climbed 0.3% from May to June, after rising just 0.1% the previous month…“You are starting to see scattered bits of the tariff inflation regime filter in,” said Eric Winograd, chief economist at asset management firm AllianceBernstein, who added that the cost of long-lasting goods rose last month, compared with a year ago, for the first time in about three years.

POLITICS & POLICY

► From the AP — How Trump plans to dismantle the Education Department after Supreme Court ruling — The justices on Monday paused a lower court order that had halted nearly 1,400 layoffs and had called into question the legality of President Donald Trump’s plan to outsource the department’s operations to other agencies. Now, Trump and McMahon are free to execute the layoffs and break up the department’s work among other federal agencies…Democracy Forward, which represents plaintiffs in the lawsuit, said it will pursue “every legal option” to fight for children. The group’s federal court case is proceeding, but the Supreme Court’s emergency decision means the Education Department is allowed to downsize in the meantime. “No court in the nation — not even the Supreme Court — has found that what the administration is doing is lawful,” said Skye Perryman, president and CEO of the group, in a statement.

► From NPR — More immigration judges are being fired amid Trump’s efforts to speed up deportations — Fifteen immigration judges learned they would be put on leave and their employment would terminate on July 22, according to two people familiar with the firings and confirmed by the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, a union that represents immigration judges. The two people spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals…”It’s outrageous and against the public interest that at a time when the Congress has authorized 800 immigration judges we are firing large numbers of immigration judges without cause,” said Matt Biggs, president of the IFPTE union. “This is hypocritical, you can’t enforce immigration laws when you fire the enforcers.”

► From the Washington Post — ICE declares millions of undocumented immigrants ineligible for bond hearings — The Trump administration has declared that immigrants who arrived in the United States illegally are no longer eligible for a bond hearing as they fight deportation proceedings in court, according to documents reviewed by The Washington Post…Immigration lawyers say the Trump administration is expanding a legal standard typically used to hold recent arrivals at the U.S.-Mexico border to a much broader group — including immigrants who have lived in the United States for decades. Many have U.S. citizen children, lawyers say, and probably have the legal grounds to defend themselves against deportation. Forcing them to remain in detention facilities often in far-flung areas such as an alligator-infested swamp in Florida or the Arizona desert would make it more difficult to fight their cases, because they will be unable to work or easily communicate with family members and lawyers to prepare their cases.

► From the AP — Employees at the nation’s consumer financial watchdog say it’s become toothless under Trump — The lights are on at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau across the street from the White House, and employees still get paid. But in practice, the bureau has been mostly inoperable for nearly six months. CFPB employees say they essentially spend the workday sitting on their hands, forbidden from doing any work by directive from the White House…Companies that committed wrongdoing, or had open investigations, have lobbied the bureau and the White House for their punishments to be rescinded…“Companies are lining up to get out of repaying harmed customers,” said Eric Halperin, former enforcement director at the bureau, who resigned earlier this year.

► From NBC Sports — Pro sports unions urge Congress not to give antitrust exemptions to colleges — “Since many of today’s college athletes will become our future members, we have a vested interest in ensuring they are protected now,” the unions said in a statement. As the Energy and Commerce Committee considers the Student Compensation and Opportunity through Rights and Endorsements (SCORE) Act, the Players Associations strongly urge Committee Members to reject any antitrust exemption or legal liability shield from legislation regulating college athletics,” the unions said. “Whatever progress the athletes have made has been a result of their use of the antitrust laws. The SCORE Act would take that weapon away from them. . . . Granting an antitrust exemption to the NCAA and its members gives the green light for the organization and schools to collude and work against student athletes.

► From the Washington State Standard — Business groups are spending big to oust two Democrats in WA Senate — As of Monday, political committees funded largely by businesses had shelled out $330,000 on mailers, texts and digital ads opposing two appointed Democratic state senators: Deb Krishnadasan and Victoria Hunt. The groups hope Republicans can unseat both this fall. Enterprise Washington, which advocates for pro-business policies in Olympia, is funneling money through its political committee, Jobs PAC, to separate committees in each race. The political committee has raised $305,000 this calendar year on top of $138,000 unspent from last year. The largest contributions to Jobs PAC in 2025 have come from the Washington State Dental PAC and the Washington Hospitality Association. Other donors include Puget Sound Energy, Koch Industries, Chevron Corp., Associated General Contractors, the Washington Retail Association and Washington Realtors.

Editor’s note: the Washington State Labor Council has endorsed both Sens. Hunt and Krishnadasan.

► From the Tri-City Herald — Rep. Michael Baumgartner defends federal cuts in meeting at Walla Walla VFW — “I think a lot of these activists are primarily there for political reasons, they want to create the political optics that things aren’t going well, but I really think we’re off to a great start in Congress and doing really well,” Baumgartner said…However, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a nonpartisan research and policy institute, the changes will affect low-income veterans. Those unable to document meeting the work requirements – or who struggle to prove they qualify for an exemption – could risk losing coverage. This may especially impact veterans whose military experience doesn’t easily translate to civilian employment.

INTERNATIONAL

► From the Korea Times — UAW steps up pressure on Korean battery makers in US — The United Auto Workers’ (UAW) recent deployment of its leaders to Korea has signaled that union influence could become stronger in regards to joint ventures between Korean battery manufacturers and U.S. carmakers…In solidarity with the militant KMWU, the UAW appears to be ramping up pressure on BlueOval SK, the joint venture between SK On and Ford Motor, which remains the only union-free company among the joint ventures between Korean battery manufacturers and U.S. automakers.

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