labor issues

When workers go on strike in Washington state, they don’t earn a dime. A new piece of legislation could change that. This bill would allow workers to eventually access unemployment benefits, starting the second Sunday after they began withholding their labor. Workers could claim up to four weeks of benefits through the state’s unemployment insurance, according to co-sponsor of the bill, state Sen. Steve Conway.

With just over two weeks left before the current United Parcel Service Teamsters contract expires, employees nationwide are preparing to go on strike. If they do, it would be the largest single-employer strike in United States history. In the Port of Tacoma, over 1,000 UPS employees from three distribution centers could walk off the job Aug. 1st, according to Brett Botts, staff organizer for Teamsters Local 313.

Skagit County tulip farmworkers entered a third day of a strike in Mount Vernon on Thursday.According to Familias Unidas por la Justicia, two crews of…