SEA ratifies | Medicare AI | No on I-645

Wednesday, September 16, 2026

LOCAL

► From the Daily — Judge orders release of UW Medicine worker held by ICE after stroke-risk emergency — Robert Sidhe, 43, has worked at UW Medicine since 2025 as a patient care technician. He was allegedly detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)…A doctor in Kenya before coming to the U.S., Sidhe founded a nonprofit aimed at broadening access to healthcare. According to a legal filing submitted on his behalf, he entered the U.S. legally on five separate occasions using visas — including one stint as a fellow in a U.S. Department of State program for promising young African leaders, which offers professional development at American educational institutions.

Editor’s note: Robert is a member of WFSE, which has advocated for his release and to protect his job at UW Medical Center while detained. 

► From the Seattle Times — Medicare AI program hit WA with ‘staggering’ denial rate, records show — At the start of the year, Medicare launched an artificial intelligence-enabled prior authorization program for certain medical services in six states, including Washington…In Washington, the program’s denial rate was 53% in its first three months, the documents show…Doctors and hospitals have expressed concerns that the program motivates contractors to turn down medically necessary care to earn more payments. As it turns out, CMS’ own staff raised similar worries over a year ago, long before the program was rolled out.

► From Real Change News — Union workers in labor dispute against Hunters Capital and Exxel Pacific — Listed among the examples is a class-action lawsuit filed on June 26 against Exxel Pacific that alleges a systematic scheme of wage and hour abuses against hourly and non-exempt workers. This includes unlawful wage deductions and a failure to provide required rest and meal periods, pay minimum wage for all hours worked, pay overtime wages, accrue and allow use of paid sick leave, reimburse employee expenses, pay all wages due upon termination and maintain accurate payroll records. Another lawsuit filed against Exxel Pacific on Aug. 4 alleges negligent hiring, training and supervision after a construction lift door dropped on an electrician’s “head/hard hat” at the Ondina Apartments job site, causing severe injuries.

► From the Seattle Times — Tacoma mayor calls second Fred Meyer closure in city a ‘gut punch’ — Some Washington political leaders and labor and community groups have criticized Kroger for the closures, linking them to a failed merger with another grocery giant. Two courts blocked a proposed $25 billion Kroger-Albertsons merger in 2024 over antitrust concerns. After the merger failed, Kroger incurred significant costs but authorized $7.5 billion in stock repurchases. Local unions accused Kroger of prioritizing paying out shareholders and artificially boosting short-term stock value over keeping stores running.

► From KUOW — ICE flights out of Boeing Field surge, alarming families, immigrants rights’ groups — Since late August nearly 500 people have been flown out of Boeing Field, according to county records. Detainees who spoke to KUOW said they’re often notified a night before a flight is supposed to happen. During the night, communications are shut down between detainees and the outside world, so they have no way of letting their lawyers or family know about plans to relocate them. The abrupt flight plans also interrupt the flow of immigration hearings scheduled in the courtrooms of the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma.

CONTRACT FIGHTS

► From the Seattle Times — Seattle teachers approve contract that narrowly avoided a strike — “We’re really proud of the work every member did to get us to this agreement,” said Ibi Idowu, a special-education teacher and president of the Seattle Education Association. “We can make gains even in times of budget challenges when we prioritize our students and our classrooms.” With a union ratification, the Seattle School Board is planning to approve the contract Wednesday evening at its regular board meeting. The deal includes wage increases for union members totaling about 10% over three years. The agreement also addresses staffing concerns by guaranteeing full-time counselors or social workers will be present at all elementary schools that have more than 350 students.

► From the Stranger — Suite Deal — There is now a labor-management committee that can address emergency situations when ICE shows up at the hotel. Additionally, employees who lose their jobs because their work authorizations expire can return to their jobs within two years. The union won these concessions after a few months where the union and management barely communicated, says Adsuara.

NATIONAL

► From the AP — Former Amazon employees sue over alleged discrimination against pregnant warehouse workers — “Denying a pregnant worker a stool, a lighter workload, or a bathroom break is a violation of federal law — it’s that simple,” said Inimai Chettiar, president of A Better Balance, a nonprofit organization that is representing the plaintiffs along with the law firm Emery Celli Brinckerhoff Abady Ward & Maazel. “Amazon has built an empire on speed and efficiency — speed and efficiency that too often sacrifices the rights of pregnant workers it refuses to accommodate.”

► From the Boston Globe — Logan Airport workers push Massport for better health insurance coverage — Service workers at Logan Airport are calling on the Massachusetts Port Authority to improve the health care benefits their employers provide. The health care standards for people working for airport subcontractors have left them with fewer options than their peers at other major travel hubs and made available choices unaffordable, they claim. Last week, workers rallied at Logan to air their concerns before Massport’s board and launched a letter-writing campaign laying out their demands. Health coverage has become a key issue in the continuing negotiations between employers and 32BJ SEIU, the union representing subcontractor employees.

Editor’s note: here in Washington, SEA airport workers are pushing the Port of Seattle to require airport contractors to provide healthcare insurance. SEA is the only major airport on the West Coast that doesn’t have that requirement. 

POLITICS & POLICY

► From the Seattle Times — OPINION: Seattle Times recommends ‘No’ on I-645, ‘millionaires tax’ repeal — While previous income tax proposals have failed in the state, a November 2025 poll conducted by DHM Research found 61% of respondents, including 54% of Republicans, are supportive of such a tax on millionaires. With President Donald Trump in the White House and a Republican Congress gutting the federal social safety net, a majority of Washingtonians appear to believe the state should step in and meet that obligation.

► From States Newsroom — Labor unions are growing, but where depends on state politics — Last year, the nation added more than 411,000 union members — the largest annual growth since 2008, according to a study published just ahead of the Labor Day holiday by the Illinois Economic Policy Institute and the Project for Middle Class Renewal at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign…“What seems to be the number one driver is the state of the state,” said one of the study authors, Robert Bruno, who leads the labor education program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. “If the policy is anti-union, it suppresses worker will. Where the law allows worker will to flourish, as I would argue it should, then you see higher numbers. So you can’t ignore politics. You can’t ignore policy.”

► From the Washington State Standard — Prime-time debates set for WA income tax repeal measure, high-stakes US House race –On Oct. 8, a former congresswoman and the leader of a statewide labor organization will square off on Initiative 645, which, if passed, would repeal the income tax on households earning more than a million dollars a year. Jaime Herrera Beutler, a Republican former state lawmaker who also served six terms in Congress, will represent initiative supporters. April Sims, president of the Washington State Labor Council, will make the case against the measure.

► From Front Office Sports — Behind the Lobbying Battle Over the Bipartisan Senate College Sports Bill — In addition, labor groups including the AFL-CIO (and its sports council, which includes 10 professional sports unions) and SEIU, as well as civil rights groups, including the NAACP, have begun using their lobbying power against the legislation. They have argued college athletes should have collective bargaining rights to establish rules, rather than Congress, and have raised civil rights issues with capping athlete pay in basketball and football…Players, including Maryland women’s basketball player Oluchi Okananwa, LSU women’s basketball player Jada Williams, and Temple football player Jackson Pruitt, said they wanted rules and regulations in college sports just as much as coaches and administrators—but that they wanted to be involved in the negotiating process through collective bargaining.

► From the AP — Trump’s push to restrict mail ballots has failed. Other efforts to reshape the midterms are ongoing — Recently, the Department of Justice ordered officials in more than two dozen states to preserve records from the 2024 election as part of a campaign to force them to turn over detailed voter data despite repeated court losses. And lacking the sensitive voter data the administration wants from many states, the Department of Homeland Security has launched its own probe to find noncitizen voters on state rolls, an effort that a federal whistleblower says is rushed, error-ridden and potentially violating state laws.

► From the Spokesman Review — Lawmakers subpoena Oracle executives after they skip hearing on $27 billion VA computer system tested in Spokane — After a testy hearing on Sept. 2 where both Republicans and Democrats grilled VA officials and expressed frustration with the project’s exploding costs, eight of the panel’s 14 Republicans joined all 11 Democrats in a vote to subpoena Larry Ellison, Oracle’s chairman and a close ally of President Donald Trump, and Mike Sicilia, the company’s CEO…In his statement, Takano linked the Trump administration’s move to boost Oracle’s pay to Ellison donating $45 million to a political nonprofit that supported Trump’s election efforts in 2024, as the Wall Street Journal reported in June.

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