Transit Fight in Grays Harbor
Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 1765 is the latest public-sector union in our area to be embroiled in contentious negotiations with a recalcitrant employer. ATU 1765 represents transit drivers in Thurston, Grays Harbor, and Pacific Counties in western Washington. Their current contract negotiations with Grays Harbor Transit (GHT) have been ongoing since August of 2025, and drivers are feeling the pressure as management refuses to make a fair deal. Works in Progress sat down with ATU 1765 President Mark Neuville and Executive Board member Kenny Farver to discuss the situation.
According to Neuville, the union’s key concerns in Grays Harbor are around wages and scheduling. Under the current contract, new drivers with GHT start at $24 an hour and are often only given a part-time schedule. However, they are expected to be on-call 24/7, making it difficult for them to find supplemental employment or plan their lives. These conditions also hinder the recruitment of new drivers, aggravating GHT’s labor shortage and placing additional pressure on existing drivers. A convoluted system for assigning work shifts has also made it easier for management to engage in favoritism rather than following seniority.
Growth Board Showdown: Bird Alliance vs. Thurston County Over Quarry Rezone
A more than 20-year effort to protect sensitive salmon habitat and one of the largest populations of Oregon spotted frogs in Washington entered a new phase in December, when Thurston County commissioners, by a vote of 4 to 1, approved an industrial rezone of approximately 270 acres in the Black River corridor, overriding a recommendation from the county’s Planning Commission to deny a rezone.
The change allows uses such as meat processing, pesticide distribution, fertilizer manufacturing, and landfills on land largely surrounded by a national wildlife refuge. South Sound Bird Alliance is now appealing the decision before the Growth Management Hearings Board.
Tacoma Tenants Launch Fourth Union
Kenny is a self-proclaimed “hot head.” Living with mold, leaking windows and holes in the walls of his Newcastle Apartment haven’t done much to calm him down — then his landlord banned his cat, and he’s not the only one. “Everybody’s pissed, but I’ve got a certain righteous fury that’s downright biblical, man,” he said when speaking with the Seattle Worker. Kenny and the residents of the Newcastle Apartment Tenant Union (NTU) are banding together and demanding satisfaction. They are but one of four tenant unions that have launched in the last several months in Tacoma.
Unionized Tacoma tenants are following in the footsteps of New York Apartments Tenant Union (NYTU), Tacoma’s first tenant union, which launched December of last year. Newcastle Tenant Union, New York Apartments Tenant Union, and recently launched North Slope Tenant Union (NSTU) are a part of the same portfolio owned by absentee landlords Ann Linborn, Rob Hoover, and Candy Hoover. All together, these unions make up roughly 75% of tenants in Hoover-Linborn owned properties, and control $50,000 in monthly income to their landlords. For reference, the Hoovers own over $22 million dollars worth of property in Pierce County, a yacht, an art gallery, and a permanent residence in Huntington Beach, California. The cost of repairs is not beyond them.
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