Today's AFL-CIO press clips
POLITICS
Trump's In-Office Mandate: 'Act First and Figure It Out Later'
Bloomberg Law
By Parker Purifoy
Jan. 24, 2025
President Donald Trump’s mandate to get federal workers back into the office is on course to collide with union bargaining agreements, anti-discrimination laws, and geographic realities that create a patchwork of policies to navigate.
Trump's rapid changes in US government stun federal workers
Reuters
By Tim Reid
Jan. 24, 2025
Everett Kelley, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees - the largest federal employee union representing 800,000 federal and D.C. government workers - said members are worried. "The members I've heard from are anxious and uncertain about what the future holds for their employment and for their families," Kelley said.
Trump’s Moves to Upend Federal Bureaucracy Touch Off Fear and Confusion
The New York Times
By Erica L. GreenCampbell Robertson and Noam Scheiber
Jan. 25, 2025
The directive noted that such employees “can be terminated during that period without triggering appeal rights,” and that managers should determine whether they should be retained, according to a copy obtained by The New York Times. Jacqueline Simon, the policy director for the American Federation of Government Employees, which has about 300,000 active members across dozens of agencies, said that attempts to terminate federal employees still in their probationary periods could have damaging effects on government services.
Government workers dismayed by Trump's return-to-office mandate
NBC News
By Rob Wile and Alexandra Byrne
Jan. 25, 2025
“Rather than undoing decades of progress in workplace policies that have benefited both employees and their employers, I encourage the Trump administration to rethink its approach and focus on what it can do to make government programs work better for the American people,” Everett Kelley, the president of the American Federation of Government Employees, said in a statement. The AFGE’s contracts with major government firms, including the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Education, establish procedures for telework and remote work in accordance with the 2010 law. The union said the order “doesn’t appear to violate any collective bargaining agreements,” and whether it would file a lawsuit depends on how the policy is implemented. “If they violate our contracts, we will take appropriate action to uphold our rights,” the AFGE said in a statement.
AFGE President Everett Kelley: 'This president told us this is exactly what he was going to do' (Video)
MSNBC
Jan. 26, 2025
American Federation of Government Employees President Everett Kelley joins MSNBC's Rev. Al Sharpton to discuss the elimination of DEI programs from companies and the impact on its workers.
‘I am terrified’: Workers describe the dark mood inside federal agencies
Politico
By Liz Crampton, Nick Niedzwiadek, Kevin Bogardus, Nahal Toosi and Alice Miranda Ollstein
Jan. 25, 2025
President Donald Trump’s executive orders targeting the federal workforce have injected a fresh wave of anxiety among employees across the bureaucracy — stoking fears the president is coming for their jobs. Just a few days into Trump’s second term, some federal workers are contemplating quitting. Others are preparing to file grievances with their unions or moving communications with each other to secure platforms like Signal. Some, fearing they’ll be caught up in the White House’s purge of diversity programs, are leaving their names off of memos and documents they worry could be labeled as DEI-adjacent.
Trump Fires at Least 12 Inspectors General in Late-Night Purge
The New York Times
By Maggie HabermanCharlie Savage and Annie Karni
Jan. 24, 2025
The firings defied a law that requires presidents to give Congress 30 days’ advance notice before removing any inspector general, along with reasons for the firing. Just two years ago, Congress strengthened that provision by requiring the notice to include a “substantive rationale, including detailed and case-specific reasons” for the removal...Agencies and departments whose watchdogs were said to have been removed included the departments of agriculture, commerce, defense, education, housing and urban development, interior, labor, transportation and veterans affairs, along with the Environmental Protection Agency and the Small Business Administration.
Trump Administration Begins Immigration Arrests in Chicago
The New York Times
By Devlin BarrettJulie Bosman and Hamed Aleaziz
Jan. 26, 2025
The Justice Department announced Sunday it had begun a multiagency immigration enforcement operation in Chicago, as the Trump administration sought to show it is quickly fulfilling a campaign promise to ramp up arrests and deportations.
Trump officials issue quotas to ICE officers to ramp up arrests
The Washington Post
By Nick Miroff and Maria Sacchetti
Jan. 26, 2025
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have been directed by Trump officials to aggressively ramp up the number of people they arrest, from a few hundred per day to at least 1,200 to 1,500, because the president has been disappointed with the results of his mass deportation campaign so far, according to four people with knowledge of the briefings.
5 ways Project 2025 appeared in Trump’s presidential directives
The Washington Post
By Clara Ence Morse
Jan. 25, 2025
Many of the directives mirrored the priorities of Project 2025, the plan for a second Trump term that was spearheaded by the Heritage Foundation and written largely by alumni of the first Trump administration. A Washington Post analysis identified more than two dozen presidential directives containing language that resembled text published in Project 2025 — that amounts to more than half his directives since taking office, excluding pardons and appointments.
ORGANIZING
Amazon’s Fight With Unions Heads to Its Grocery Aisles
The New York Times
By Danielle Kaye
Jan. 25, 2025
At a sprawling Whole Foods Market in Philadelphia, a battle is brewing. The roughly 300 workers are set to vote on Monday on whether to form the first union in Amazon’s grocery business. Several store employees said they hoped a union could negotiate higher starting wages, above the current rate of $16 an hour. They’re also aiming to secure health insurance for part-time workers and protections against at-will firing.
Beth Israel Medical Center Physicians and Fellows Vote to Unionize
The Harvard Crimson
By Hugo C. Chiasson and Amann S. Mahajan
Jan. 24, 2025
Physicians and fellows at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center voted to unionize with 83 percent in favor on Wednesday, joining the Service Employees International Union’s Committee of Interns and Residents. Sixty-one percent of the 811-member bargaining unit — which includes interns, residents, chief residents, and physician fellows at BIDMC — participated in the mail-in election, which was run by the National Labor Relations board from Dec. 19 to Jan. 17. The vote passed by a margin of 407-85. CIR-SEIU organizers wrote in a press release that the BIDMC house staff unionized “to gain a seat at the table to advocate for themselves and their patients, especially immigrant and refugee patients, and other folks coming from working-class communities of color who often face the highest barriers to care.”
Delta workers push for a vote to unionize in MN
KARE 11
By Jessica Hart
Jan. 25, 2025
Delta airline workers rallied in St. Paul to push for a vote to unionize. “It’s important because 80% of the industry is unionized. Only 20% of Delta is and that’s only our pilots,” said Pat Gores with the Delta International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers organizing committee. Gores has worked as a baggage handler for nine years.
Planned Parenthood workers become first to unionize in Michigan
WLNS
By Trevor King
Jan. 25, 2025
Planned Parenthood of Michigan (PPMI) leaders have reached a collective bargaining agreement with workers seeking unionization after months of negotiation. These workers were the first Planned Parenthood employees in Michigan to unionize after the contract was ratified on Jan. 22. PPMI reports that the employees were represented by the United Food and Commercial Workers United International (UFCW). PPMI and UFCW reached an agreement after four months.
UNION NEGOTIATIONS
U-M Health Sparrow union workers ratify three-year contract
CBS News
By Paula Wethington
Jan. 24, 2025
Union members representing nearly 2,000 nurses and other healthcare workers at University of Michigan Health-Sparrow have ratified a new three-year contract. The contract ratification voting began Monday and ended Thursday for members of the Professional Employee Council of Sparrow Hospital-Michigan Nurses Association, the union reported. The union is an affiliate of National Nurses United and AFL-CIO.
Alaska Airlines flight attendants to vote on an improved contract offer
The Seattle Times
By Dominic Gates
Jan. 24, 2025
More than two years into extended contract negotiations between Alaska Airlines management and the Association of Flight Attendants, the leadership of the Alaska unit of the union decided Friday to put a new agreement to a vote of its members next month. Last August, a two-thirds majority of the rank-and-file flight attendants rejected a previous tentative agreement as not sufficiently addressing the very low pay of the newer flight attendants. Many junior Alaska Airlines flight attendants have struggled to get by on poverty-level wages, building up debt and scrambling to make rent.
Bus union unhappy with CATS contract negotiations; votes to go on strike
WBRZ
By Brittany Weiss
Jan. 24, 2025
Capital Area Transit System bus operators are asking for more money and a safer work environment, but contract negotiations have stalled. The bus operators are unionized and Friday voted to go on strike. Ninety-one percent of the union membership voted in favor of the strike.
The Amalgamated Transit Union says their contract ended at the end of 2024 and CATS bus operators are currently working without one. Anthony Garland is the international vice president of the ATU and flew in from Maryland for the vote. CATS bus operators start at $18 an hour and can make up to $27.07 an hour.
By 99 percent margin, workers at Detroit Axle authorize strike against Daimler Truck
People’s World
By Cameron Harrison
Jan. 24, 2025
After a strike authorization vote that saw a 99% yes margin, more than 400 workers at Daimler Truck’s Detroit Axle plant, members of United Auto Workers Local 163, are prepared to take to the streets against the truck company Friday at midnight. The workers at this plant produce front and rear axles, transmissions, and supply parts for the Freightliner, Western Star, and Thomas Built Buses. They face a significant pay disparity compared to other Daimler workers, however. Tiered wages is a major sticking point in negotiations. Detroit Diesel workers are in the same plant but earn $10 more per hour for performing the same assembly work. Both groups are members of UAW Local 163 but are covered under separate contracts.
Striking Ski Patrollers Won Big Against a Resort Giant
Jacobin
By Elliot Benjamin and Oren Schweitzer
Jan. 26, 2025
After nearly two weeks on strike, the patrollers, represented by the Park City Ski Patrol Association, a unit of CWA 7781 United Mountain Workers, reached a tentative agreement, approving it unanimously. The strike made waves throughout the winter-sports community. It was a strike not just against Park City but also its parent company, Vail, which has a $6 billion market cap, owns forty-two resorts around the world, and has upended the ski industry over the past three decades.
ONA launches survey for Providence patients cared by replacement staff
KOBI5
By Maximus Osburn
Jan. 25, 2025
Saturday is day 16 of the state’s largest healthcare worker’s strike, with ONA represented nurses still on the picket line in multiple Providence locations, including Medford. The ONA said it is concerned about quality of care provided by temporary replacement staff. This comes after the union says it learned about a report from the Oregonian/OregonLive where Providence may have attempted to waive a patient’s hospital bills after media members brought up that patient’s experience being cared by strike-breaking nurses and providers.
UNION BUSTING
Union Leaders Critique Hotels’ Skipped Room Cleanings
The Dallas Express
By Kellen McGovern Jones
Jan. 26, 2025
Is skipping hotel room cleanings saving the environment or a scam for hotels to save on labor costs? Union leaders are calling out hotels for their supposed concern for the environment, arguing that this is nothing more than a ruse to allow customers to expect less while paying the same price. Lizzy Tapia, president of Unite Here Local 2, a San Francisco-based hotel workers union, explained on a recent broadcast of America’s Workforce Union Podcast that “previous to the pandemic, [Marriott Hotels] used to have what they called ‘The Green Choice Program’ [that allowed guests to choose not to have their rooms cleaned every day but]… after 3 days or 5 days of not having your room cleaned, your room is sticky and dusty and dirty–– end it requires double the amount of work, not to mention the chemicals and water, and all of that stuff. So, The Green Choice Program was a hoax.”