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LRI Consulting Services
Labor Community Briefing
September 17, 2026
lrionline.com
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| NLRB |
Aerospace |
Legislation |
Hospitality |
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Here are the highlights from our September Labor Community Briefing call. Want the full analysis, the data behind these headlines, and the chance to ask questions in real time? Join us on the next call.
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01
Boeing Strike Averted? SPEEA's Tentative Deal
The Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA) picked up where the Machinists left off. After 17,000 members, including 13,000 engineers and 4,000 analysts, designers, and technicians, rejected a 3% offer in late August, members authorized a strike across Boeing's Puget Sound, Oregon, California, and Utah facilities. On September 12, the two sides reached a tentative four-year deal before a single day was lost.
| 10% |
Wage increase on Oct. 16, the first of four raises through 2030, plus annual merit increases. Members vote Sept. 24–Oct. 1, ahead of the Oct. 6 contract deadline. |
| For comparison, two recent Machinists settlements: 2025's 101-day St. Louis strike (24% over five years, $6,000 bonus) and 2024's 53-day Seattle-area strike (38% over four years, $12,000 bonus). |
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02
Clearing the Backlog: the NLRB's 3-1 Majority Takes Shape
James Macy's confirmation delivers the 3-1 Republican majority needed by tradition to start reversing precedent. General Counsel Crystal Carey's GC Memo 26-04 reports the case backlog, 9,247 pending as of January 7, more than half cleared, with five newly appointed administrative law judges brought on to speed up what remains.
| 50%+ |
Of the January backlog cleared, per Carey's latest memo. The Board now has 30 judges, down from 36 in 2023. |
| Carey's overturning wish list: McLaren Macomb on severance confidentiality (Valley Radiology), Stericycle on handbook scrutiny (Honeywell International), the Amazon captive audience ban (UPS Supply Chain Solutions), plus the longer-term targets, Cemex, Thryv, and Lion Elastomers, that still need new litigation vehicles to reach the Board. |
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03
Successor Bar Fallout: NLRB Pushes Back, SCOTUS Stays Out
The Board is fighting the D.C. Circuit's ruling that it lacked statutory authority to create the successor bar, filing an en banc petition that argues the court misread Loper Bright and that the NLRA does grant policymaking authority "subject to limited judicial review." It is not gaining ground elsewhere: the Sixth Circuit's Brown-Forman ruling found the Abruzzo Board overstepped with Cemex, and the Supreme Court denied certiorari in both Red Rock Casino and Macy's (the Thryv remedies case), leaving a live circuit split unresolved.
| Where each fight stands: en banc review pending at the D.C. Circuit, Cemex headed back to the Board itself through Amazon.com Services, and three more circuit splits still open, the Board's own constitutionality (Fifth, Ninth, Third Circuits) and 10(j) injunctions (Starbucks v. McKinney, Sixth and Second Circuits) among them. |
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04
Sectoral Bargaining and Gig Driver Unions Keep Advancing
Littler's Alex MacDonald joined the Left of Boom Show to walk through two trends worth watching. Labor peace agreements, once narrowly confined to cannabis licensing in at least eight states, are spreading to any industry that requires a state or city license. Meanwhile, Harvard's Model State Sectoral Bargaining Laws, co-drafted by former NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo, could require as few as 1,000 signatures to unionize an entire industry regardless of size. MacDonald covers the full argument in his LRI Ink article, "The Honest Paternalism of Sectoral Bargaining."
| The "active driver" math let a minority of signatures bind every gig driver in a state to a union constitution and dues, with no change to their contractor classification. SEIU is pushing the same model next in Illinois and Minnesota. |
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05
Hotel Strikes Heat Up as Seattle's 85-Day Walkout Ends
Washington's longest hotel strike ended September 11 after 85 days. The settlement raises housekeeper pay to $31.03 an hour by January 2027 (23.3% over four years), adds $1 an hour for tipped workers, and extends healthcare coverage to part-time workers above 24 hours. UFCW, SEIU, and the Seattle Education Association joined the picket line, and reporting put the cost to one nearby business at roughly $18,500 a week in lost bookings. UNITE HERE is now threatening to put up to 7,000 workers on strike across 40 Chicago hotel properties.
| 85 |
Days on strike, the longest hotel walkout in Washington history, running June 18 to September 11. |
| Earlier this year, a Vegas Rio Casino deal averted a Teamsters strike with 15% raises over four years, a pattern now echoed in the Seattle settlement. |
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06
Also Mentioned
| • NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani's Labor Day executive order created a new Mayor's Office of Worker Power, led by longtime ILA organizer Tony Perlstein, and Mamdani has said he would sign a City Council bill phasing the minimum wage to $30 by 2030 (current NYC minimum: $17). |
| • California's union density rose to 16.7%, up from 16.3% in 2024, per a joint UCLA/UC Berkeley report, with the Los Angeles/Long Beach/Anaheim area highest at 33%. |
| • The Henry Ford Genesys strike is nearing its one-year mark, roughly 750 nurses and case workers have been out since last September, and replacement nurses have now filed a petition to decertify Teamsters Local 332. |
| • Kaiser Permanente nurses held informational pickets at 22 hospitals this month, roughly 250 Banner Health providers voted to join a physicians' union, and about 150 Allina Health doctors in Minnesota went on a four-day strike. |
| • The Teamsters' 37-year federal monitorship formally ended. Separately, ex-Boilermakers officers await a delayed December sentencing; a former IBEW Local 98 official had his sentence commuted; and a former AFGE local president was convicted in a six-figure embezzlement scheme. |
| • A Department of Labor Inspector General report examined workplace culture and spending practices under Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer, citing travel that exceeded federal per diem limits and unapproved gifts. |
| • LRI Institute pilot weeks are scheduled for November 9–13 (Campaign Preparedness) and November 16–20 (Contract Administration). Learn more → |
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LRI Consulting Services | Labor Community Briefing | September 2026
Highlights from the September 17 community call.
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