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Chaos at the VA | Workers’ bill of rights | Wildland fire fighting

Tuesday, March 11, 2025

 

LOCAL

► From Cascade PBS — Washington-based U.S. Forest Service rangers reinstated — for now — But this week, those workers got word they have been temporarily reinstated for 45 days by the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board on March 5. But Forest Service rangers like Kyle Warden, Xander Demetrios and Jaelle Downs say they know very little beyond that, and haven’t been notified on the local level about when their work will resume, just weeks away from the beginning of the 2025 season.

► From MyNorthwest — Union president hopeful King County Metro to tackle violence — Appearing on “The Gee and Ursula Show” on KIRO Newsradio, Greg Woodfield, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 587, said everyone “wants to get in a room and start coming up with solutions.” He expressed optimism about the task force’s potential to implement meaningful changes.

► From Cascade PBS — WA AG sues Adams County for cooperating with federal immigration — According to the lawsuit, Adams County has held people in custody based only on their immigration status, helping federal immigration agents question people in custody and routinely sharing residents’ confidential personal information. “Washington has the right and the responsibility to decide for itself how to use its own resources to keep residents safe and the economy strong,” Brown wrote in the lawsuit.

► From the Spokesman Review — Protesters gather at Rep. Baumgartner’s office over Trump’s elevation of Musk — McKinney, 71, likened the protests to that of the Vietnam War. “Republicans are not doing their jobs,” he said. “People must stand up against it. It’s Congress’ job to make appropriations, and they’re not doing their job – they’re letting DOGE do it.”

 

AEROSPACE

► From the Seattle Times — Boeing delivered 44 jets in February, outpacing the start of 2024 — That monthly rate of production is crucial to gauge Boeing’s recovery following the panel blowout and whether the company is nearing the Federal Aviation Administration’s production cap of 38 737s per month. Boeing executives are confident it will reach that threshold this year and seek FAA’s approval to continue increasing production.

► From the Honolulu Star-Advisor — In a disastrous 2024, Boeing executives got millionaire compensation — Friday’s filling shows former CEO Dave Calhoun, who retired in August, got $11.3 million in 2024, including $10 million from stock awarded in previous years that vested last year. Calhoun’s total compensation awarded in 2024, including new stock grants with a projected future value $13.2 million, came to $15 million — down from $32.8 million in 2023, the filing shows. Boeing also detailed millions paid to former Commercial Airplanes CEO Stan Deal, who was ousted last March, and Defense & Space CEO Ted Colbert, who was fired in September. New Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg, who started in August tasked with the tough job of turning the ailing plane-maker around, got total compensation of $18.4 million.

► From Airline Geeks — Union: FedEx Shipping Pilot Jobs Overseas — Pilots at FedEx – who have been negotiating a new contract since 2021 – say the carrier is outsourcing flying jobs to foreign contractors. The company’s nearly 6,000 aviators are represented by the Air Line Pilots Association. “FedEx management has steadily slashed European mainline 757 flying, and with the April schedule release, all those routes once flown by FedEx ALPA pilots have transitioned to foreign, third-party contract carriers,” ALPA’s release continued. Negotiations between ALPA and FedEx have been underway for around four years. Their contract became amendable in November 2021.

 

ORGANIZING

► From KKLZ — Las Vegas Strip Reaches Full Union Coverage as Fontainebleau Signs First Labor Deal — The Culinary and Bartenders Unions have reached a historic agreement with Fontainebleau Las Vegas, marking the first time in the 90-year history of the Las Vegas Strip that all casino resorts are 100% unionized. This milestone results from a year-long process and the dedicated efforts of thousands of hospitality workers.

 

NATIONAL

► From the Guardian — Chaos on campuses as schools warn Trump cuts could harm US ‘for decades’ — “Our admissions have been paused for a number of big grad departments,” said Levin Kim, a graduate worker; chair of Higher Education Labor United, a coalition of labor unions representing more than 200,000 academic workers; and president of UAW Local 4121 representing academic workers at the University of Washington, which is one of the largest public recipients of federal research funding. “We’re seeing a lot of uncertainty. Careers are being curtailed right now. It’s not like once things are funded, it can just pick right back up. It’s wreaking havoc throughout the whole pipeline.”

► From Reuters — Policy uncertainty tests US labor market resilience — The Labor Department’s closely watched employment report on Friday, the first under President Donald Trump’s watch, showed a broader measure of unemployment surging to near a 3-1/2-year high last month as the ranks of part-time workers swelled. The share of workers holding multiple jobs was the highest since the Great Recession. Economists said the Trump administration’s whiplash trade policy was making it difficult for businesses to plan ahead.

► From Axios — Nearly 100 immigration court staff retiring, resigning amid swelling backlog — Nearly 100 U.S. immigration court professionals are resigning or retiring, on top of the around 30 immigration judges and senior staff recently fired by the Trump administration, a union for immigration judges said Friday. The staff reduction will likely add to the historic backlog of cases and slow President Trump’s mass deportation plan, even as he asks Congress for more resources.

► From the Washington State Standard — Firefighters aren’t the only federal workers needed to fight blazes — A Region 1 Forest Service employee in Montana who asked for anonymity to protect their job said that 30% of their district staff were terminated. Many of them had red cards or worked other fire support jobs without them. “In a busy season, we would definitely be leaning on those people that were terminated,” they said. “They could help with evacuations, post information at trailheads, shuttle people or supplies to a trailhead, or take stuff back and forth to the airport for helicopters to deliver to on-the-ground firefighters.” “I don’t see us having the ability to help outside of our own forest nearly as much as we have in the past,” they said. All of this could have a cascading effect this summer, if forests are forced to keep their primary firefighters close to home and larger fires in other regions are unable to summon the usual number of shared resources.

► From The Valley Labor Report:

 

POLITICS & POLICY

Federal updates here, local news and deeper dives below:

► From the Washington State Standard — Unemployment benefits for striking workers gain approval from Washington Senate — “Affordability is the number one issue for Americans right now,” said the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Marcus Riccelli, D-Spokane, adding his legislation is about “making sure people who do important jobs and important work have good benefits, good pay, safe work conditions.” The version of the bill the Senate approved included an amendment from Riccelli that would limit unemployment benefits for striking workers to 12 weeks. Normally, unemployment insurance is available for up to 26 weeks over a year. Riccelli’s amended bill also calls for the availability of benefits to striking and locked-out workers to expire after 10 years. The bill would take effect on Jan. 1, 2026.

► From the Washington State Standard — Unemployment insurance for immigrants falls short in Washington Legislature — The plan was for a third-party administrator to run the program and for applicants to self-attest how many hours they’d worked, providing written documentation for the administrator to verify their claim. By not looping in businesses, it would protect the privacy of immigrants and prevent employers from being held liable for knowingly hiring immigrants without legal immigration status. According to Saldaña, there wasn’t enough time this session to add amendments to the bill to create auditing systems for the administrator to help prevent fraud. The legislation made it further in the legislative process this time around than in past years.

► From the Seattle Times — Thousands of highly trained WA teachers could have their pay cut — Gov. Bob Ferguson has repeatedly said he will not cut K-12 funding during this budget cycle. Ferguson’s office did not respond to requests for comment about the legislation. Washington Education Association’s spokesperson Julie Popper said the union would view suspending the stipend as a K-12 funding cut. “The state budget should not be balanced on the backs of teachers and the students we serve,” Popper said..if a teacher in small district such as Waterville makes $65,000, losing the $11,000 would result in a 17% pay cut, according to the Washington Education Association.

► From the Tacoma News Tribune — Worker’s Bill of Rights, $20 minimum wage in Tacoma? Union begins gathering signatures — To get on the ballot, Worker’s Bill of Rights advocates need to gather signatures from at least 10% of people who cast votes in the last election cycle. UFCW 367 community and labor organizer Colton Rose told The News Tribune on Friday they would have to gather about 5,000 signatures in favor of the initiative. Their goal is gathering at least 8,000 signatures by early July, he said. Rose said UFCW 367 is also pushing for a similar Worker’s Bill of Rights in Olympia and would need to gather at least 15,000 signatures there by early July to put it on the ballot.

 

► From the New York Times — Chaos at the V.A.: Inside the DOGE Cuts Disrupting the Veterans Agency — While Trump administration officials have promised to preserve core patient services, initial cuts at the V.A. have nonetheless spawned chaotic ripple effects. They have disrupted studies involving patients awaiting experimental treatments, forced some facilities to fire support staff and created uncertainty amid the mass cancellation, and partial reinstatement, of hundreds of contracts targeted by Mr. Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency…This account of the early days of DOGE-led cuts inside the V.A. is based on more than two dozen interviews with hospital administrators, current and recently terminated employees, heads of independent foundations that support the veterans’ health system, government contractors and research scientists.

► From Common Dreams — ‘Dangerous Union-Busting’: Trump Rescinds Collective Bargaining for Air Safety Union — Workers at TSA, which Congress created in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, do not enjoy the same union rights as employees at most other federal agencies. Bargaining rights can essentially be extended or rescinded at the will of the administrator. AFGE—which represents TSA security officers—has filed numerous lawsuits in a bid to thwart Trump administration efforts, led by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, to terminate thousands of federal workers and unilaterally shut down government agencies under the guise of improving outcomes.

► From the AP — Trump doubles planned tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum to 50% as trade war intensifies — Trump said on social media that the increase of the tariffs set to take effect on Wednesday is a response to the price increases that the provincial government of Ontario put on electricity sold to the United States. “I have instructed my Secretary of Commerce to add an ADDITIONAL 25% Tariff, to 50%, on all STEEL and ALUMINUM COMING INTO THE UNITED STATES FROM CANADA, ONE OF THE HIGHEST TARIFFING NATIONS ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD,” Trump posted Tuesday on Truth Social.

► From the New York Times — Why Do Republicans Want to Dismantle the Education Department? — The Education Department’s primary role has been sending federal money to public schools, administering college financial aid and managing federal student loans. The agency enforces civil rights laws in schools and supports programs for students with disabilities…In a draft of an executive order aimed at dismantling the department that circulated in Washington this week, Mr. Trump’s only specific instructions for Education Secretary Linda McMahon were to terminate any remaining diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

► From the Huffington Post — Official Fired By Trump Returns To Work To Cheers After Judge Orders Reinstatement — Employees at the NLRB’s headquarters in Southeast Washington lined the sidewalk as Gwynne Wilcox showed up for her first day at work since Jan. 27, when Trump removed her from office and eliminated the board’s quorum. They held signs that said “Welcome Back Gwynne” and “We Need The NLRB.”

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