Fed. workers job hunt | Apple shutters union store | Contract at JBS

Monday, April 13, 2026

LOCAL

► From the Washington State Standard — Trump approves disaster declaration for WA flooding — The much-anticipated decision makes money available for individuals, nonprofits and state, tribal and local governments. This could include grants for temporary housing, home repairs and low-cost loans to cover those recovering from the disaster, and cost-sharing for emergency work on public facilities damaged by the storms…A FEMA press release doesn’t specify how much money Trump is opening up for Washington.

► From NW Public Broadcasting — Hanford radioactive waste disposal site hits new milestone  — This is the first radioactive waste that is being disposed of in a new engineered dump in Central Hanford. It marks an accomplishment sought since Hanford cleanup began…The plant now employs about 3,000 people and state of the art technology. After its testing and slow start-up phase is through, the plant will kick out three to four containers of glass per day when running at full tilt. There are 177 tanks at Hanford, each the size of a modest home. And there’s still 56 million gallons of radioactive waste left that needs to be bound up into glass or grout.

► From the Seattle Times — OPINION: ‘Get them all’: Why are WA farmers blindsided by an ICE crackdown? — A year before the 2024 election, in November 2023, the media outlined what Trump planned to do. “Sweeping raids, giant camps and mass deportations: Inside Trump’s 2025 immigration plans,” The New York Times reported. Did people not hear this — are we all in information silos? Did they not expect it to happen? Or did they rationalize it, as the commenter up above said, as something that would only happen to others. You’d think farmers who employ undocumented immigrants would be less prone to this empathy deficit, if for no other reason than immigration is central to their business interests.

► From the Cascadia Daily News — ‘Corporate medicine at its best’: The PeaceHealth emergency rooms Oregon is fighting to avoid — PeaceHealth is receiving widespread, national opposition from the public, staff and state officials in Oregon over the hospital’s decision to replace a local emergency department staffing group with a multi-state corporation linked to an investment company…PeaceHealth’s decision triggered a lawsuit from physicians who requested a federal judge block the transition, a letter from the Oregon governor asking the hospital to reconsider its decision, and a request from state lawmakers for an official review.

CONTRACT FIGHTS

► From KUSA — JBS and union ratify new agreement following 3-week strike — On Sunday, the union said they ratified the tentative two-year collective bargaining agreement. According to the union, the new agreement secures wage increases, defends workers against increases in health care costs and protects workers from having to pay for personal protective equipment that should be paid for by JBS. “The tentative agreement represents a contract with all gains, countless improvements, and not a single concession,” the union said in a media release on Sunday. “By standing together, workers secured wage increases over the next 2 years some 33% higher in this tentative agreement than JBS had offered Greeley workers in its pre-strike final offer.”

► From the Los Angeles Times — LAUSD reaches deal with second of three unions, talks continue with third to avert strike  — The tentative agreement with Associated Administrators of Los Angeles was the second milestone of the day. In the early morning, the district and the teachers union announced a tentative agreement. That leaves, as of Sunday night, one major union contract to resolve with Local 99 of Service Employees International Union. If Local 99 does not reach a deal before Tuesday, the strike is expected on Tuesday. Both of the unions that settled on Sunday are expected to honor Local 99 picket lines by carrying out sympathy strikes.

NATIONAL

► From the Guardian — Federal workers struggle to find roles a year after Trump cuts: ‘I’ve applied to over 250 jobs’ — The Guardian spoke to current and former federal government employees who said they were dealing with a difficult job market, flooded with other former government workers. The cuts have also left remaining government workers scrambling to keep important government functions afloat as they absorb the workloads of those who left…One worker had moved from Michigan to Washington DC for a new job at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Because the role was considered probationary, the job was soon cut once Trump took office. “This was that kind of opportunity that [was] hard to get into, but I took the chance, moved and I’ve been wholly unable to find something adequate in DC. The job market has just collapsed,” the worker, who requested anonymity, said. “I’ve applied to over 250 jobs.”

► From WBAL — Apple closing Towson Town Center location, union outraged — “The IAM Union is outraged by Apple’s decision to close its Towson, Md., store—the first unionized Apple retail location in the United States and abandon both its workers and a community that relies on it for critical services and its unique access to public transit. Apple’s claim that the collective bargaining agreement prevents relocation is simply false and raises serious concerns that this closure is a cynical attempt to bust the union. We are exploring all legal options and will work with elected officials and allies to hold Apple accountable…”

► From the IAM:

.@Apple begged for tariff exemptions on its China-made products—and cashed in with $112 billion in profits.

Now it’s ditching U.S. workers at a profitable union store.

Record profits. Zero loyalty. https://t.co/NnYuNtMIjY

— IAM Union (@IAM_Union) April 11, 2026

► From ABC News — New air traffic control hiring campaign targets gamers to address longtime staffing shortage — The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said they’re targeting young adults with transferable skills, like high cognitive functions, multitasking, spatial awareness, strategy and problem solving. In controller exit interviews, the FAA said, several controllers have pointed to gaming “as an influence on their ability to think quickly, stay focused, and manage complexity.” The agency said only about 25% of controllers have a college degree, so they’re targeting outreach to focus on people pursuing alternative career paths.

POLITICS & POLICY

► From the New York Times — Where Mail Voting Began, Worries Spread Over Trump’s Attacks — The American system of voting by mail can, like flannel and grunge rock, trace its roots to the 1990s Pacific Northwest, where Washington and Oregon moved to adopt mail-in balloting as the statewide default, driven in part by Republicans hoping to improve turnout among rural populations. But like so much in contemporary politics, what was once bipartisan has broken down into familiar battle lines, as President Trump declares war on voting by mail…[WA] State leaders transitioned fully to mail-in ballots in 2011, when most in Washington were already choosing it. Studies have found that mail-in balloting increases participation, with scant evidence of fraud. “You can suppress the vote in so many ways on Election Day,” said Oregon’s junior Democratic senator, Jeff Merkley. “Vote by mail removes most of those options.”

► From KOMO — State GOP looking to change voting laws, secretary of state calls fraud ‘incredibly rare’ — Walsh points to a 2024 race in Clark County for state senate, where he said the number of disputed votes “outnumbered the margin of victory.”…But the Secretary of State’s Office said to-date, there is no evidence of non-citizen voting in the 2024 election and noted that ultimately, the superior court dismissed the related lawsuit in May 2025. “There is no credible evidence of fraud in the 2024 election in Clark County. Election officials in Washington regularly update voter rolls to ensure that they reflect the most current information, relying on information from many sources, including the Department of Licensing and USPS,” the office’s statement reads. “A lawsuit challenging a 2024 election in Clark County was based on allegations that relied on out-of-date information and speculation.” The Secretary of State’s Office said that “no ballot is counted until the voter’s ID – such as a driver’s license or Social Security Number – has been verified,”

► From the Government Executive — Appeals court removes limits on DOGE access to SSA data despite ‘alarming’ revelations — A majority of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit said that three organizations suing SSA weren’t able to show that irreparable harm was likely without action from the court, reversing a lower court’s preliminary injunction from last year that had blocked DOGE from accessing data. This follows a January court filing in which the government conceded that DOGE associates may have improperly accessed sensitive data at the agency.

► From the New York Times — Labor Secretary Faces Civil Rights Complaints From Department Staff — The complaints were filed in recent weeks by three women who have worked at the top of the Labor Department, including in the secretary’s executive office. They contain a range of allegations and, taken together, describe a hostile work environment under Ms. Chavez-DeRemer, including claims of sexual harassment by her husband, retaliation for taking part in an official investigation and abuse of official resources.

► From the New York Times — Democrats Denounce Trump’s Plan to Use Foreign Steel in White House Ballroom — Groups representing U.S. steel companies and workers have also bristled at the idea of foreign steel in the White House, particularly for a president who has promised to revive domestic mills. Roxanne Brown, the president of the United Steelworkers union, said that “tens of thousands of American steelworkers stand at the ready to supply our nation with high-quality products.” “Any changes, any renovations, any updates to it should first draw on the resources our domestic workers proudly provide,” she added, referring to the White House.

► From NPR — How a $75 billion windfall from Congress has insulated ICE — Two months ago, Democrats in Congress said they would not give immigration enforcement agencies another cent without reforms to limit the tactics of their officers. But 59 days into a record-long Department of Homeland Security shutdown, that strategy has resulted in none of the policy changes they have demanded, while President Trump’s immigration crackdown is still operating at full speed. That is thanks to congressional Republicans, who gave Immigration and Customs Enforcement a $75 billion windfall last year with few strings attached — money that has helped insulate ICE from congressional pressure and oversight.

INTERNATIONAL

► From The Chronicle Herald — ‘We don’t have any other options’: Thousands of Nova Scotia nursing home, residential care workers set to strike — Even over their megaphones, there was no mistaking their primary messaging: frustration with the provincial government’s unwillingness to pay them a fair salary. “Our support services make $18.77 an hour but the living wage in Halifax is $29 an hour,” Loppie said. “People can’t afford groceries. They can’t afford bills. People are living out of their cars. We have people working full-time here and then picking up part-time jobs elsewhere just to make ends meet.” The 5,000-plus CUPE-led workers have also been working on an expired collective agreement since 2023, which effectively means there’s been a pay freeze for roughly the past three years.

► From Euro News — German pilots’ union calls for two-day Lufthansa strike action on Monday and Tuesday — Set to begin on 13 April at 12:01 am local time and end on 14 April at 11:59 pm local time, the “strike call” applies to VC members at Deutsche Lufthansa AG, Lufthansa Cargo AG and Lufthansa CityLine, the union said in a news release issued on Saturday. It also said that Eurowings GmbH flights that take off from German airports between 12:01 am and 11:59 pm on 13 April will be on strike.

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