Connect with us

NEWS ROUNDUP

No Kings | Kaiser strike ends | SNAP

Monday, October 20, 2025

 


STRIKES

► From KOIN —  Kaiser healthcare worker strike ends, bargaining for fair wages continues — Thousands of Kaiser Permanente nurses and healthcare professionals in Oregon and Southwest Washington are now back at work after their five-day strike ended Sunday morning…Sarina Roher, president of OFNHP, also released a statement, noting this will be a “continuation of the fight for fairness.” “The strike may be over, but our fight for our patients and for fairness in healthcare is far from finished. What this strike proved was the incredible unity and courage of Kaiser healthcare workers, standing together with our community, other labor unions and our elected officials. Kaiser needs to come back to the table this week, ready to truly listen to the people who deliver the care.”

► From St. Louis Public Radio — Union and Boeing returning to negotiations after unfair labor complaint filing — Boeing and the St. Louis machinists union have agreed to resume negotiations with a federal mediator on Monday. This comes after the union filed an unfair labor practice complaint against the company on Thursday saying it wasn’t negotiating in good faith. Monday will mark the beginning of the 12th week that Boeing workers have been on strike. It’s been nearly three weeks since the last negotiation meeting.

 


LOCAL

► From the Spokesman Review — No Kings 2.0 Rally in Spokane — Thousands of Trump protesters line North Division Street during the No Kings rally on Saturday in Spokane’s B.A. Clark Park…As thousands of Trump protesters lined North Division Street, drivers in cars honked their horns and showed other forms of support during the No Kings 2 rally, Saturday, October 18, 2025, in Spokane’s B.A. Clark Park.

► From KUOW — Scenes from Seattle’s second ‘No Kings’ protest — The local protest was among many held nationwide to denounce President Donald Trump and his policies. “Trump is trying to divide, distract, and dominate us,” said protest organizer Kathleen Carson of Seattle Indivisible. “We know this playbook — dictators divide to conquer. We unite to resist.” Protesters outlined several demands of the Trump administration, including the removal of troops from U.S. cities, expanded health care access, an end to workplace ICE raids, and funding to rebuild Gaza.

► From NW Public Broadcasting — See how the Northwest demonstrated for the No Kings protest — Thousands across the Pacific Northwest took part in the national “No Kings 2.0” protests Saturday. Demonstrations happened in nearly every major city in the region and in many small towns, including in places that voted for President Donald Trump in the 2024 election. In Kennewick, Washington, people lined both sides of Columbia Center Boulevard for over half a mile throughout the morning and into the afternoon. The busy boulevard is a main thoroughfare through Tri-Cities. Kennewick is in Benton County, where nearly 60% of residents voted for Donald Trump in the last presidential election.

► From the Yakima Herald-Republic — ‘No Kings’ rally stretches down Union Gap Main Street  — Multiple issues brought people out, said rally organizer Scott Dolquist. He is chair of the steering committee for Yakima Indivisible, a pro-democracy group, and is a retired principal and school teacher. People are upset about cuts to health care programs and Trump’s deportation policies. They also care about the Constitution and the rule of law, he said…Dolquist said the group estimated the turnout throughout the day at 2,700 to 3,000 people.

► From the Wenatchee World — More than 1,500 people rally for ‘No Kings’ in Wenatchee — Karen Keleman, an organizer for the rally said people are exercising the First Amendment right to protest. She said she wants people to take back their power and make their voice heard. “There are about a thousand people here with costumes and thoughtful signs that they’ve made expressing their ideas and concerns,” Keleman said. “This has a huge purpose in connecting people and giving hope. There are many ways we can work together to make a better future.”

► From the Columbia Basin Herald — Hundreds rally in Moses Lake to protest Trump admin. — Almost 300 people turned out Saturday for the “No Kings 2.0” rally in Moses Lake, according to Grant County Democrats Vice Chair Jill Springer Forrest, considerably more than the rally held in June.

► From the union-busting Columbian — Latest No Kings protest against Trump administration draws crowds to east Vancouver — Some were compelled to go out to the rally to protest specific policies and actions. Noellia Martinez, 45, said she went to protest ICE’s stepped-up enforcement. “It’s my culture they’re against, and I don’t like it,” Martinez said. “I was born and raised in Washington, and yet you can get picked up for no reason. That’s not OK.”

► From the Kitsap Sun — A second ‘No Kings’ draws thousands out across Kitsap — They carried signs, honked horns, drummed bongos, blew bubbles, and dressed from military attire to inflatable costumes, as an estimate of more than 1,000 people took to the Manette Bridge in Bremerton to join thousands of other American communities in the second wave of “No Kings” protests on Saturday, Oct. 18.

► From SEIU Local 925:

► From the Yakima Herald-Republic — OPINION: From Where I Sit: Growers’ gripes about labor costs overlook key facts — If policymakers genuinely want to preserve family farming in Washington, the focus should shift from cutting the last available cost — labor — to creating a fairer and more balanced marketplace. That means policies that let small farms compete on equal footing while ensuring that the people who pick the fruit earn a decent living. Those two outcomes — a level field for growers and a fair wage for workers — are not too much to ask. But under the new H-2A wage rules, we move closer to neither.

 


AEROSPACE

► From the Seattle Times — Looking for problems at key Boeing supplier Spirit Aero takes a toll — In June 2024, Smith sent a defect-riddled fuselage — line unit No. 9040 — back to Spirit mechanics to be reworked, chalking up a small victory and, to Smith, illustrating the very reason the final checkpoint was needed. Weeks later, though, a colleague approached Smith with a concern; a mechanic in Boeing’s Renton factory texted him to complain about a fuselage shipped from Wichita, according to a screenshot of the conversation viewed by The Seattle Times. “Ouch!” Smith’s colleague responded, and asked for the line unit number to check Spirit’s records. No. 9040, the mechanic responded. The fuselage Smith thought had been sent back for repairs had instead arrived in Renton with the same defects he had spotted, he said. Spirit, it seemed to Smith, was overriding the very system set up to limit the flow of defective aircraft parts into the Renton factory.

 


CONTRACT FIGHTS

► From the New York Times — Broadway Actors Reach Deal, but Musicians Still Threaten Strike — Details of the agreement between Actors’ Equity Association and the Broadway League, which represents producers and theater owners, were not immediately available. The union had been seeking higher wages and greater health care benefits…“After a marathon mediation session lasting until 6 a.m., Equity and the Broadway League have reached a tentative agreement on the production contract,” the union’s executive director, Al Vincent Jr., said in a statement, referring to the contract that governs work by actors and stage managers working on for-profit Broadway shows.

 


NATIONAL

► From the Guardian — Biggest US labor unions fuel No Kings protests against Trump: ‘You need a voice to have freedom’ — Some of the largest labor unions in the US are involved in organizing the No Kings protests, with more than 2,700 demonstrations planned across all 50 states, with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and American Federation of Teachers anchoring events. “Unions understand that a voice at work creates power for regular people at work. Unions understand that a voice in democracy creates power for regular folks, for working folks in a society,” said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers. “These are two of the main ways that regular folks have any power. “We and labor understand that you need to have a voice to have freedom. Freedom does not come without a voice.”

► From PBS — Americans are more worried about their chances on the job market under Trump, AP-NORC poll finds — High prices for groceries, housing and health care persist as a fear for many households, while rising electricity bills and the cost of gas at the pump are also sources of anxiety, according to the survey. Some 47% of U.S. adults are “not very” or “not at all confident” they could find a good job if they wanted to, an increase from 37% when the question was last asked in October 2023.

► From the New York Times — Wealthy Americans Are Spending. People With Less Are Struggling. — The divide between rich and poor is hardly new, in Chicago or the rest of the country. But it has become more pronounced in recent months. Wealthier Americans, buoyed by a stock market that keeps setting records, have continued to spend freely. Lower-income households — stung by persistent inflation and navigating a labor market that is losing momentum — are pulling back. The top 10 percent of U.S. households now account for nearly half of all spending, Moody’s Analytics recently estimated, the highest share since the late 1980s.

► From the Washington Post — ICE amps up its surveillance powers, targeting immigrants and antifa — The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency has been rapidly building out its surveillance capabilities in recent weeks, signing a string of contracts for technologies to identify individuals by their irises or facial features and to monitor their cellphone activity, social media posts and physical movements, according to a review of federal spending disclosures. The blitz of surveillance purchases is motivated in large part by ICE’s intensive, nationwide campaign to find and deport undocumented immigrants. But documents show that some of the technology may also be used to target what the administration regards as anti-ICE extremist groups.

 


POLITICS & POLICY

► From CNN — Millions of Americans are at risk of losing food stamps next month amid shutdown — Roughly 42 million people are at risk of losing critical food assistance in November amid the federal government shutdown. And it’s not clear whether the Trump administration will step in to find the funds to continue paying benefits, as it has with other priorities. The food stamp program will run out of money in two weeks, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins told reporters at the White House on Thursday. “So you’re talking about millions and millions of vulnerable families, of hungry families that are not going to have access to these programs because of this shutdown,” she said.

► From the New York Times — Higher Obamacare Prices Become Public in a Dozen States — People shopping for coverage can now preview the costs they face from potentially expiring subsidies and sharply rising premiums in many markets, including California, New York, Nevada, Maryland and Idaho. Some consumers also found out that they would have fewer choices because their insurers dropped out of some markets for 2026. Based on the newly posted information, a family of four making $130,000 in Maine would face an increase of $16,100 in annual premiums next year because they would no longer qualify for more generous subsidies, said Gideon Lukens, a health policy researcher for the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, which supports extending the subsidies.

► From E&E News by Politico — Judge expands order banning RIFs during shutdown — The restraining order, which initially included employees represented by the American Federation of Government Employees and AFL-CIO, will be extended to federal workers represented by the National Federation of Federal Employees, Service Employees International Union and National Association of Government Employees. “My recommendation to defense counsel is to tell the defendants they should err on the side of caution, and I don’t think any RIFs should be happening during the time that the TRO is in effect,” Illston said. “A good lawyer, I think, would tell the client to be careful. … This is a terrible situation, and we ought not make it worse.”

► From the New York Times — Shutdown Fight Reopens Debate in G.O.P. Over Health Care — Democrats in Congress are holding fast to their position that they will not agree to a spending deal unless Republicans include an extension of expiring Affordable Care Act tax credits that would stave off premium increases and the loss of coverage for millions of Americans. In doing so, they have forced the G.O.P. to wrestle publicly with its divisions about what to do with the health care law, which most Republicans revile but many recognize would be impossible to unravel without bringing political disaster to their party.

► From the Washington Post — Union reaches deal with Trump administration over student loan forgiveness — The Trump administration reached an agreement Friday with the American Federation of Teachers to expand the resumption of student loan forgiveness to several repayment plans. If the courts approve the agreement, the Education Department will continue to process loan cancellations for borrowers who are eligible to have their debts cleared through the Income-Contingent Repayment and Pay As You Earn plans. Cancellation under those federal student loan plans, which tie payments to earnings and family size with the promise of loan forgiveness after 20 or 25 years of payments, has been paused since February.

 


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

CHECK OUT THE UNION DIFFERENCE in Washington: higher wages, affordable health and dental care, job and retirement security.

FIND OUT HOW TO JOIN TOGETHER with your co-workers to negotiate for better wages, benefits, and a voice at work. Or go ahead and contact a union organizer today!