Cascadia today: Sick-out shuts down WA ferries + PDX looks to close schools + did port of Astoria help ICE?
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WA ferries shut down after engineer sick-out
Protesting excessive overtime and long hours, engineers within the Washington state ferry system staged what appeared to be a coordinated sick-out yesterday, essentially shutting down most of the ferry system across the Salish Sea. The popular Edmonds-Kingston, Seattle-Bainbridge, and Vashon Island routes were cancelled, as well as others, and normal service resumed again today. Washington State Ferries lashed out at the engineers on social media, claiming they're already highly paid. However, a union spokesperson said in a statement, ""Engineers, all of whom are already scheduled to work 84 hours per (seven-day) workweek, must inevitably confront exhaustion when asked to work the numbers of overtime hours required by the current stopgap system."
WSF has been plagued with older vessels needing constant repair and employees aging out of key positions, including engineers. In related news, Chum News has a regular column by a ferry worker called Ferry Tales – the latest details getting stalled vehicles off the boats and seeing orcas along the route.
Portland announces school closure scenarios
Willamette Week reports on Portland public schools announcement of two options for school closures to deal with budget crunches and declining enrollment. One would close 11 schools and another would shutter 14. Of the ten elementary schools that would close in both plans, six are Title 1 schools with high numbers of students from low-income families. One reason for the closures: inadequate state funding, which may be why Democratic governor candidate Tina Kotek did not receive an endorsement from the Oregon Education Association.
Cascadia residents want good schools, affordable housing and health care, and reliable transit. Maybe try to deliver on those.
Did port of Astoria help ICE?
OPB reports an incident at the port of Astoria in June in which ICE goons kidnapped several people and pepper-sprayed observers. Port officials claim they didn't assist ICE, which is illegal under Oregon's sanctuary law, but the Oregon Dept of Justice is investigating.
Meanwhile, as ICE abductions continued to soar to new levels in Washington state last week, the Stranger reports that the nonprofit Washington Immigration Solidarity Network (WAISN) has resisted unionization of its employees and laid off half its staff. Though WAISN operates an ICE alert hotline and supposedly provides assistance to impacted immigrants, other immigrant mutual aid groups have criticized WAISN for being part of the bloated non-profit industry. If you want to support immigrants in King County, consider donations to La Resistencia, Superfamilia KC, and the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project.
At this Wednesday's Subduction spoken word performance at Vermillion in Seattle sponsored by Cascadia Democratic Action, we'll be raising funds for La Resistencia's direct mutual aid efforts. Please join us.
WA voters support genital exams for girls playing sports
KNKX reports that new polling show that that Brian Heywood's anti-trans ballot measure in Washington that would require all girls playing school sports to undergo genital exams is leading slightly, at 56%. Fewer than ten trans athletes currently compete in school sports across the state. Please vote no on this cynical initiative and donate to No Hate in WA State, the org opposing I-001 & I-638.
GOP congress targets environmental orgs for investigation
Columbia Insight reports on how the Republican-control House committee on natural resources is targeting 19 environmental orgs (including seven in the greater Cascadia bioregion including Montana) for investigation on flimsy charges of fee-shifting. With harsh wording such as "radical" the right-wing congressmen are calling for investigation of Alliance for the Wild Rockies, Cascadia Wildlands, Montana Environmental Information Center, Native Ecosystems Council, Oregon Wild, Western Watersheds Project and Wilderness Watch.
Please support these excellent organizations so they can fend off these harassing and baseless attacks and continue protecting the environment of western North America.
Portland's badass Queen of Thorns wrestling tournament
Over at the Portland Mercury check out a great article and photo essay on Portland's annual Queen of Thorns tournament for femme and nonbinary wrestlers.
“Being able to represent a part of the population that is actively being targeted and spoken against by every level of power in the country—especially as an athlete—it feels great to just be accepted and recognized in my womanhood and it not be debated,” – Lucy Luxx, Black trans wrestler
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