TA in Moses Lake | Medical neglect by ICE | Lessons from the BSCP

Monday, December 8, 2025

STRIKES

► From KREM — Moses Lake School District, teachers reach tentative agreement — Moses Lake School District teachers and students will be back in the classroom Monday, after the district and Moses Lake Education Association reached a tentative agreement late last night. The association will meet soon to discuss the agreement and vote on ratification. The details of that agreement won’t be announced until it is ratified.

► From the MLEA:

► From KOIN — Legacy APP healthcare workers to meet for mediation, but strike to continue — After four days of striking, Advanced Practice Providers with Legacy are now set to return to the bargaining table, the Oregon Nurses Association (ONA) announced Saturday. ONA, which represents about 135 providers in this bargaining unit, said its members offered to meet with Legacy every day to avoid the initial walkout on Tuesday, but Legacy previously declined…“In bargaining, they told us they didn’t care if APPs left, that we were welcome to go try to find jobs at OHSU and Kaiser, but that there weren’t enough for all of us,” Callister said. The APPs are prepared to strike “as long as it takes” to secure a new contract, Callister added.

► From KPTV — Oregon nurses rally to support striking specialists, practitioners at Legacy Health — The union representing the providers, Oregon Nurses Association, said they have been working to reach a contract agreement with Legacy for nearly two years…On Saturday, members of ONA held a solidarity rally in downtown Portland for a fair contract.

► From Starbucks Workers United:

One reason baristas are striking in 100+ cities: Starbucks has HUNDREDS of unresolved unfair labor practices.

The company has committed more labor law violations than any employer in modern history. On top of that, they’re paying baristas over $35M for breaking NYC labor laws! pic.twitter.com/7maWZVbxyN

— Starbucks Workers United (@SBWorkersUnited) December 8, 2025

TODAY’S MUST-READ

► From Jacobin — How One Black Labor Union Changed American History — The significance of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP) went far beyond one union and its members…The story of the BSCP illuminates the deep historical connection between the labor movement and civil rights. Through patient institution building and dogged determination, the union was able to shift the consciousness and balance of power within black communities to support unionization. This coalition was the backbone of the historic progress made toward civil rights during the mid-twentieth century. Rather than leave it in the past, this same coalition can provide the basis for fighting racial inequality today.

LOCAL

► From the Yakima Herald-Republic — Lower Valley farm to pay $300,000 in labor settlement with state attorney general’s office — Among the allegations is that Shinn & Son fired two crews of local farmworkers in the spring of 2023, shortly after the grower received approval from the U.S. Department of Labor to bring in foreign guest workers through the H-2A program, according to the state’s complaint filed in Yakima County Superior Court. The employer allegedly told the local farmworkers, most of whom were women, that there was no available work — even though 95 H-2A workers started working in the Shinn & Son fields in late April 2023, the complaint alleges.

► From the Seattle Times — WA health insurance buyers fret as ACA subsidies remain in limbo — Patrick Baumann, 60, has been buying coverage through the ACA exchange for over a decade. He and his wife, Anne Bertino, are self-employed; Baumann is a technical writer, and Bertino works in interior design……At their current income, they’ll pay just $4 per month for the plan they’ve chosen for 2026, according to the premium calculator on Washington Healthplanfinder, the official platform where residents buy insurance. That also gives them some buffer in case extra money comes in, such as through interest or investment withdrawals. However, if the couple ends up making more than the $84,600 threshold, they’ll have to pay over $2,300 per month instead for the same plan, Baumann calculated.

► From KUOW — ‘All the walls are falling.’ Shoreline Community College plans layoffs — Shoreline Community College is planning layoffs as it faces a $4 million three-year budget deficit…Even a small number of layoffs can hurt students, said Eric Hamako, multicultural studies professor and president of the Shoreline faculty union. “Cutting one faculty member from our medical lab tech program alone will have significant impact on our ability to offer a medical lab tech program at all,” Hamako said — a skill in that’s in high demand. Hamako said that while the fundamental problem is state underfunding of community and technical colleges, in Shoreline’s case, financial mismanagement is also to blame.

► From the Seattle Times — Tacoma detainee, set to be deported, lost toe suffering under ICE care — Sorio was expected to be deported and begin a 20-plus hour journey via a 9:30 p.m. flight Sunday. He boarded the plane but was ultimately pulled off the flight by officials with Philippine Airlines, after advocates notified the airline of Sorio’s medical condition, said Meesh Vergara, an organizer with Malaya Movement Seattle, late Sunday. As of 10:30 p.m., Sorio was being held at Sea-Tac International Airport by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Vergara said…“ICE lets something sit until it’s become a problem and then they might take you to the hospital. Often they prefer to deport you so if you are sick or you are dying that will not be while you’re in active custody.” Sorio was vomiting blood and complaining of bad stomach pains for months before detention facility officials finally brought him in for medical care, she said.

► From OPB — ICE agents under scrutiny after man’s legs allegedly crushed in Vancouver arrest — The Vancouver Police Department is investigating after a man appeared to have his legs run over by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement truck while being detained Thursday. In a press release Friday, police said they became aware of the incident through a cellphone video circulated by community members. The video appears to show the man being struck by an ICE agent’s vehicle while being arrested…In Washington state, another alleged ICE detention and assault has raised concern from U.S. Sen. Patty Murray. “Wilmer was mauled by an ICE attack dog even though he has consistently explained that he was not resisting arrest or attempting to flee,” Murray said in a written statement Friday. “For hours afterward, he was denied even basic medical care following this unprovoked assault.”

► From KUOW — Nine Alaska seismic stations to go dark in January, slowing West Coast tsunami alerts –Washington state officials say data from those stations is essential for fast and accurate tsunami warnings up and down the West Coast. “The Alaska-Aleutian subduction zone is very active,” University of Washington coastal hazards specialist Carrie Garrison-Laney said. “Much more likely to generate a tsunami that will head towards Washington’s coast than any other part of the Pacific Ring of Fire.” Tsunami experts say warnings of Alaska-bred tsunamis would still go out without the nine stations, but they could be less accurate or delayed, leaving people less time to flee to higher ground.

► From the Seattle Times — Tech pay soars in King County — and the gender gap grows wider — In 2015, men working in computer and mathematical occupations earned a median of $102,500, while women earned a median of $90,000 — a difference of about $12,500. By 2024, the gap had more than tripled: Men’s median earnings rose to around $178,500, while women’s increased to $140,600. The median pay difference is now around $37,900. Put another way, in 2015 women in tech made 87.9% of what men earned. In 2024, that figure fell to 78.7% at a time when many hoped gender parity in tech would be improving.

AEROSPACE

► From the Seattle Times — Boeing completes acquisition of key supplier Spirit AeroSystems — Boeing said Monday it had reacquired Spirit AeroSystems, the Wichita-based supplier that builds the entire fuselage for the 737 MAX, as well as the forward fuselage for other Boeing commercial planes and wing components, engine nacelles and pylons for Boeing jets.  As part of the acquisition, Boeing will add 15,000 employees and take over several Spirit operations, including all work done for Boeing commercial planes. It will bring Boeing’s largest parts supplier in-house, expanding Boeing’s maintenance, repair and overhaul business, as well as its aftermarket services portfolio.

CONTRACT FIGHTS

► From Forbes — Lockout Looms For 2027 Season If MLB, Union Can’t Come To Terms — The current Basic Agreement is set to expire on Dec. 1, 2026. Negotiations typically begin during spring training and will be the last for commissioner Rob Manfred, who says he will retire when his current contract expires on Jan. 25, 2029. The union is anticipating tough sessions and is preparing for at least an offseason lockout, a redux of what happened before the current contract was signed during the spring of 2022. While that season was delayed, games were not missed.

► From the PNW Newspaper Guild:

After just over a year of bargaining, @NoisyUnion employees at The Stranger, the Portland Mercury, EverOut, and Bold Type Tickets have just ratified their first-ever contract! 🧵

— Pacific Northwest Newspaper Guild (@PacNWGuild) December 4, 2025

ORGANIZING

► From Bloomberg — How Trump Pushed US Park Rangers to the Breaking Point—and a Union Drive — Park employees across the US say they’ve been pushed to their limit this year. Now many are pushing back. Workers at 24 National Park Service units and offices—including some of the busiest and best-known destinations such as Grand Canyon, Glacier, Rocky Mountain, Olympic, Joshua Tree and Crater Lake—filed petitions with the Federal Labor Relations Authority in November, asking to hold elections that could unionize more than 1,300 total staff. According to the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), which submitted the petitions, about 5,700 of the National Park Service’s roughly 13,000 eligible employees are already unionized. If this new round of petitions is successful, the freshly organized rangers, biologists, custodians and administrators could make the eligible staff in the park service majority-union for the first time.

NATIONAL

► From the Hollywood Reporter — Hollywood Labor Comes Out Swinging Against Warner Bros.-Netflix Deal: “This Merger Must Be Blocked” — The most severe in its criticism was the Writers Guild of America, which said in a statement that “this merger must be blocked.” The labor group’s East and West Coast branches collectively represent more than 20,000 writers, many of them screenwriters and television writers. “The world’s largest streaming company swallowing one of its biggest competitors is what antitrust laws were designed to prevent,” the union stated. “The outcome would eliminate jobs, push down wages, worsen conditions for all entertainment workers, raise prices for consumers, and reduce the volume and diversity of content for all viewers.”

► From Flying Magazine — Union Urges ‘Back-to-Basics’ Approach to Pilot Skills — The Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) is calling for a renewed emphasis on fundamental flying skills as automation becomes more common in air carrier operations. In a recent interview at the Skift Aviation Forum in Fort Worth, Texas, ALPA first vice president Wendy Morse, a Boeing 787 captain, said the union is advocating for pilots to “go back to our roots” by maintaining strong manual-flying proficiency throughout their careers. “So the biggest thing is [getting] back to basics…We have to maintain a basic level of flying, a basic level of flying skills, and we have to continue to maintain those basics,” Morse said. “This business about positive rate, gear up, [and] put on the autopilot is not a good idea. We have to keep flying the airplane so that we’re good at it.”

► From KEPR — Self-driving cars investigated for going around stopped school buses — Waymo self-driving cars are being investigated for driving around stopped school buses that had red lights flashing and stop arms deployed. Officials with the Austin Independent School District in Texas said they’ve been in communication with the company and have documented 20 incidents since the beginning of the school year. The school district said the latest incident occurred after Waymo said it had deployed a software fix on Nov. 17.

POLITICS & POLICY

► From the New York Times — Supreme Court to Hear Major Test of Trump’s Power to Fire Officials — The Supreme Court on Monday will consider whether President Trump can fire independent government officials despite laws meant to protect them from politics, a major test for the justices to determine how far to expand presidential power. The justices are being asked to overturn a landmark decision from 1935, which said that Congress could put limits on the president’s authority to remove some executive branch officials.

► From Time — Lincoln’s Lesson on Trump’s Birthright Citizenship Order — Most important of all, on the rights question: The Fourteenth Amendment vests every person born on American soil under the American flag with the right to be a free and equal citizen. This language directly derives from Lincoln’s and Lincoln’s allies’ most important words and deeds, beginning on Sept. 22, 1862. On birthright citizenship, we can thus follow Lincoln, or we can follow Trump. But we cannot follow both, because Trump is trying to undo precisely what Lincoln and his allies did, beginning eight score and three years ago.

► From the New Republic — How Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear Thinks Democrats Can Win Rural America — Andy Beshear: Our fastest growing industry in rural Kentucky is health care. And so the idea that the “big, ugly bill” would gut rural health care means it’s not only reducing options to get health care in rural America, but it’s attacking a foundation of the economy. Every rural hospital we have is the number one payroll in its community and the number two employer behind the public school…I think when it comes to jobs, they’re not Democrat or Republican, they’re not left or right. A green job to someone is a job that pays them enough to support their family. I remember that paper plant and the groundbreaking, and we’re in this former coal town, and the owner comes on through a Zoom on a massive screen and says, We’re bringing 350—and then he said the phrase “green jobs”—to Henderson. And everyone stood up and applauded, because they are great jobs where you can support a family. I believe that communities are ready.

► From the Spokesman Review — As Ferguson says he’s focused on cuts over tax hikes, some Democrats say cuts would be too deep — State Rep. Timm Ormsby, D-Spokane, chair of the House Appropriations committee, said in an interview Friday that “it’s not immediately clear” how big of a gap legislators need to account for…The governor’s approach to lead with cuts rather than new taxes, Ormsby said, “comes as no surprise.” “What is going to be more telling than the narrative that happened on Tuesday is the actual proposal that will be released sometime later this month,” Ormsby said. “That will be the most telling of what policy decisions the governor has decided in order to reconcile the budget problem. That is much more valuable to me than what someone says in a press event.”

► From the Washington State Standard — Ban on police face coverings pitched ahead of WA’s 2026 legislative session — Cortes hopes the legislation would build community trust in law enforcement and hold police accountable.  “Trust is essential for crime reporting. When folks trust their local law enforcement, they are going to be reporting more crime,” he said Thursday. “When we see ICE out there, when those masked agents are out in communities, they create fear and intimidation, and that discourages community members from interacting with any law enforcement, even when they need help themselves.” Cortes sees the proposed policy as consistent with existing state law requiring officers to be “reasonably identifiable,” meaning that their uniform displays their name and other information.

► From the Salt Lake Tribune — Lawmakers will repeal anti-public union law during a special session, GOP leaders say — Republican legislators are expected to repeal a controversial bill clamping down on public employee unions when they meet in a special session Tuesday, averting a showdown at the ballot box next year and the potential that voters could hand the Legislature a loss by repealing the measure. They are also planning to postpone the period for candidates to file for office — giving them time to ask the Utah Supreme Court to throw out a new court-ordered congressional map that creates a Democratic-leaning seat — and to propose a constitutional amendment weakening the citizens’ right to ballot initiatives.

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