‘No confidence’ at Kaiser | SBWU strike goes global | Surveillance pricing

Tuesday, December 9, 2025

STRIKES

► From the BBC — Starbucks workers and unions in 10 countries to protest in support of US baristas — Starbucks workers and union members in England, Scotland and eight other countries are protesting on Wednesday in support of striking US employees, the company’s US union told the BBC…In the UK, rallies organised by the union Unite are set to take place in London, Norwich and Glasgow, the union said. Workers in Glasgow will join a work stoppage. Coordinated demonstrations are also planned at Starbucks stores and offices in cities across Australia, Brazil, Canada, Italy, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland and Turkey. Also on Wednesday, baristas are gearing up to protest at the largest Starbucks in the world, in Chicago.

► From the Willamette Week — Striking Legacy Health Workers Make (Slight) Headway — After insisting it would not meet with a group of striking advanced practice providers until their work stoppage ended, Legacy Health relented somewhat, agreeing to mediation…But the ensuing talks that took place Monday morning left the union underwhelmed. Its communications team wrote that, “while ONA arrived prepared to work—offering to meet every day until a fair contract is reached—Legacy flatly rejected that path. Their counteroffer? Refuse to return to the table until Dec. 18 unless the strike ends. That is 10 more days of unnecessary disruption, unsafe staffing, and uncertainty for patients and the workers who care for them.”

► From CNN Business — Starbucks workers are still without a labor deal four years after their first union win. Here’s why — But despite the momentum, there is still no labor contract, a key goal of union representation. Contracts can further workers’ voices and improve wages, benefits and other working conditions. US labor laws can’t help new unions force companies to reach a deal. The laws only require employers to bargain in “good faith,” meaning there are basically no penalties if companies drag out negotiations for years. Liz Shuler, president of AFL-CIO, told CNN that the lack of a contract at Starbucks after four years is a sign labor laws need changing.

LOCAL

► From OPB — Hundreds of Washington County students stage walkout over ICE activity — Southridge sophomore Mia Flores Martinez told OPB that immigration agents arrested someone in her neighborhood before she left for school Monday morning. “It really made our neighborhood shake with fear,” she said. “People can’t go out. People can’t go to work.” Jesserria Sandoval, another 10th grader, said one of her classmates recently switched to Flex online schooling because their father was detained. Her peer, who only gave her name as Emily, said she knows several students who recently returned to Mexico after being separated from family.

► From Oregon Live — ‘Absolutely appalled’: Judge blasts ICE for failing to feed detainee before court –When a 22-year-old woman in immigration custody took the witness stand Monday and said she hadn’t had anything to eat since she was rousted at 2 a.m. for the drive from a detention center in Tacoma to federal court in Eugene, the judge immediately halted the hearing. Aiken said she wouldn’t continue until federal officers fed her. The judge even offered up her own lunch so the woman wouldn’t go hungry…By the end of the hearing, Aiken ordered the woman’s immediate release from detention, finding far more than 90 days had passed since the government had ordered her removal when she was a child.

CONTRACT FIGHTS

► From the union-busting Columbian — ‘This is a clear signal from the frontlines that the status quo is failing’: Unionized Kaiser Permanente health care workers file no-confidence petition against CEO Adams — A majority of Kaiser Permanente’s unionized health care workers Monday morning took a vote of no confidence in the leadership of CEO Greg Adams…The union is requesting Kaiser Permanente’s board of directors immediately commission an independent investigation into Adams’ fitness to continue leading the organization and establish measures to settle fair national and local contracts. “This is a clear signal from the frontlines that the status quo is failing,” Roher said. “Staffing vacancy rates have soared, morale has plummeted, our workforce is exhausted and patient access is increasingly at risk.” The no-confidence petition follows a five-day strike by Kaiser Permanente’s health care workers in October where union members expressed similar concerns over fair wages, adequate staffing and patient caseloads.

► From Coyote Country — Las Vegas Airport Workers Threaten Strike Over Wages as Holiday Travel Season Begins — A protest and ongoing labor dispute at Harry Reid International Airport has intensified as Culinary Workers Union Local 226 and Bartenders Union Local 165 continue negotiating new contracts for disadvantaged business enterprise concessionaires. The unions represent about 400 hospitality workers across 21 outlets. On Nov. 12, members unanimously authorized a potential strike, which could be called at any time if no tentative agreement is reached, raising concerns about disruptions during the holiday travel season.

ORGANIZING

► From People’s World — Brick by brick, LEGO tears down unionization effort at Downtown Disney store –Two months ago, workers publicly announced their effort to unionize the flagship LEGO Store. Since that time, employees, referred to as “Brick Specialists” in LEGO corporate-speak, have reported that the company has attempted to undermine support for forming a union. A so-called “labor educator” has shown up at the store to lobby employees against the union. The UFCW alleges that this person refuses to tell workers their last name or who they are employed by. This individual is said to be attempting to meet with workers at the store one by one, working in “apparent coordination with store managers.” This comes on top of reports that LEGO has flown numerous company managers in from out of state to work in the store, despite workers’ complaints that they themselves are blocked from working more than 27 hours per week.

NATIONAL

► From Dollars & Sense — The American Dream, We Hardly Knew You — The promise that if you work hard and play by the rules, you will get ahead, or if you don’t, surely your children will, was broken long ago. And today’s economic hardships have left young adults distinctly worse off than their parents, and especially their grandparents. This long decline has stripped away much of what there was of U.S. social mobility, which never did measure up to its mythic renderings. Let’s look closely at what the economic evidence, compiled in many meticulous studies, tells us about what passed for the American Dream, its demise, and what it would take to make its promised social mobility a reality.

► From Politico — Immigration courts thrown into chaos as Trump administration purges dozens of judges — A massive purge of judges has left the federal government’s web of immigration courts decimated and in disarray. Ousted jurists believe that’s by design. The roster of those who’ve lost their jobs since President Donald Trump returned to office includes judges with higher than average rates of granting migrants asylum, judges with dual citizenship and those with a history of providing legal defense to immigrants. But not all of them fit that mold. “It’s about destroying a system where cases are carefully considered by people with knowledge of the subject matter,” said Olivia Cassin, a former New York immigration judge pushed out of her job late last month. “They’re firing everyone.”

► From More Perfect Union — We Had 400 People Shop For Groceries. What We Found Will Shock You. — We uncovered a secret corporate scheme to raise grocery prices. We found that Instacart is using AI algorithms to charge customers different prices for the same items. The scary part? It’s not just online. It’s in physical grocery stores, too. Our months-long investigation with Consumer Reports and Groundwork Collaborative found it could cost families $1,200/year.

► From NPR — After NIH grant cuts, breast cancer research at Harvard slowed, and lab workers left — In late 2024, Brugge and her colleagues identified specific cells in breast tissue that contain the genetic seeds of breast tumors…But this year, work in Brugge’s lab slowed way, way down. In April, her $7 million breast cancer research grant from the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) was frozen, along with virtually all federal money awarded to Harvard researchers…In September, the funding flow for the NIH grant was restored. But in the intervening months, the Trump administration said Brugge and other Harvard researchers weren’t allowed to apply for the next round of multiyear grants. A federal judge lifted that ban, but Brugge had missed the deadline to apply for renewal. So her current funding will end in August.

POLITICS & POLICY

► From Politico — GOP senators circulate health care frameworks ahead of vote on Dem plan — GOP Sens. Mike Crapo of Idaho and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana are privately floating a proposal that would expand eligibility for health savings accounts and provide funding for those accounts, according to a person granted anonymity to describe a plan that hasn’t yet been formally released. Spokespeople for Crapo, chair of Senate Finance, and Cassidy, chair of Senate HELP, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment…Republicans are not, however, likely to settle on a consensus proposal to put on the Senate floor Thursday, when the chamber will vote for the Democratic bill to extend the subsidies for three years.

► From the AP — Federal judge throws out Trump order blocking development of wind energy — A federal judge on Monday struck down President Donald Trump’s executive order blocking wind energy projects, saying the effort to halt virtually all leasing of wind farms on federal lands and waters was “arbitrary and capricious” and violates U.S. law. Judge Patti Saris of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts vacated Trump’s Jan. 20 executive order blocking wind energy projects and declared it unlawful.

► From the Government Executive — House strips its own provision protecting Defense civilians’ union rights from NDAA — House leaders have stripped a bipartisan provision aimed at protecting civilian Defense Department workers’ collective bargaining rights after Senate Republicans balked at the prospect of clashing with President Trump over his efforts to excise unions from most federal agencies. Matt Biggs, national president of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers said the provision’s exclusion from the likely final version of the NDAA was a “disappointment.” Although there are other avenues for lawmakers to nullify the anti-union executive orders, like the Protect America’s Workforce act, which is slated for a vote on the House floor in the coming weeks, including the measure on an annual must-pass bill was seen as the most realistic.

► From Bloomberg Law — Punching In: Labor Board’s Long-Awaited Quorum Is Almost Here — Republican senators put the NLRB on track to regain its operating quorum late last week. They added board nominee Scott Mayer, chief labor counsel at Boeing Co., to a mega-slate of nominees that already included James Murphy, a former NLRB attorney who came out of retirement to join the board, and the agency’s general counsel nominee, Crystal Carey of Morgan, Lewis, & Bockius. The Senate could begin a series of votes needed to clear the package of nearly 100 nominees, potentially confirming them this week.

► From the New York Times — Trump Promises Executive Order to Block State AI Regulations — President Trump said in a social media post Monday that he would issue an executive order this week to curb state laws on artificial intelligence, the latest win for a tech industry lobbying for deregulation…Some legal experts and opponents of a moratorium on state A.I. laws argue that the president doesn’t have the legal authority to intervene in state legislation. “The president cannot pre-empt state laws through an executive order, full stop,” said Travis Hall, the director for state engagement at the Center for Democracy and Technology, a think tank that promotes tech policy. “Pre-emption is a question for Congress, which they have considered and rejected, and should continue to reject.”

► From Range Media — Spokane City Council poised to create an eviction diversion program — Welcome to CIVICS, where we break down the week’s municipal meetings throughout the Inland Northwest, so you can get involved and speak out about the issues you care about. Some things that stick out to us this week include: Spokane City Council could pass an ordinance that would require landlords to provide tenants with eviction diversion program information and lays the groundwork for a city-operated pre-eviction diversion and mediation program. Spokane City Council could also approve their lobbying agenda for the upcoming state legislative session, which includes fighting for a Climate Commitment Act exemption for the Waste-to-Energy plant and seeking approval to run a land value tax pilot program.

INTERNATIONAL

► From the NW Labor Press — U.S. ranks near bottom in worker rights commitments — The United States is behind nearly every other nation in committing to basic workers’ rights principles through the International Labour Organization (ILO)…Only two other nations have ratified fewer fundamental ILO conventions than the United States — North Korea and Bhutan — and those are among the seven countries in the United Nations that aren’t also part of the ILO…Though in theory ILO conventions are legally binding, there’s no framework for enforcement. Instead they stand as formal commitments that countries strive to live up to. The United States is far outside the mainstream in that it doesn’t formally commit to observing most internationally recognized workers’ rights.

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