Today's AFL-CIO press clips
MUST READ
NHL Players’ Association and Professional Hockey Players’ Association join the AFL-CIO
ESPN
By The Associated Press
Feb. 3, 2025
The National Hockey League Players’ Association and Professional Hockey Players’ Association are affiliating with the AFL-CIO and joining the labor organization’s sports council, they announced Monday. Their membership brings the number of unions involved in the AFL-CIO, the biggest labor federation in the U.S., to 63, representing more than 15 million workers. It comes as collective bargaining talks are ongoing at multiple levels of the sport. “Whether our work is on the rink, in the classroom or on the factory floor, every worker deserves a voice on the job and the power that comes with union membership,” AFL-CIO president Liz Shuler said. “We are thrilled to welcome the NHLPA and the PHPA into the federation and our Sports Council, and we look forward to supporting their work to ensure strong union contracts, fair wages, safe working conditions and professional development opportunities for professional hockey players.”
POLITICS
Treasury Employees union sues Trump administration over Schedule F executive order
Labor Tribune
By Tim Rowden
Feb. 3, 2025
“President Trump’s attack on federal workers began on his first day in office,” AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler said in response to the order. “Schedule F is a bureaucratic name for a simple idea Trump created during his first term and laid out as a priority in Project 2025: He is setting the table to clear out the hundreds of thousands of hardworking Americans who make our government actually work and replace them with political loyalists who will do his bidding. “Let’s be clear about who these federal workers are that Trump wants to be able to remove without due process. They are the people who care for our veterans at Veterans Affairs centers, make sure our families get their Social Security retirement and disability checks, protect our airports and passengers, inspect our food to ensure it’s safe to eat, and help survivors of disasters—like the North Carolina floods or California fires—get the support they need to rebuild.Eighty-five percent of them live outside our nation’s capital in towns and cities across every state in the country. Federal workers are our co-workers, friends and neighbors.” Shuler predicted the federal government’s failure to function with a skeleton crew of political cronies will have wide-ranging, life-changing consequences for hardworking Americans.
Elon Musk said Donald Trump agreed USAID needs to be ‘shut down’
CNN
By Jennifer Hansler, Alex Marquardt and Lex Harvey
Feb. 3, 2025
Elon Musk said President Donald Trump agreed the US Agency for International Development needs to be “shut down,” following days of speculation over the future of the agency after its funding was frozen and dozens of its employees were put on leave. “With regards to the USAID stuff, I went over it with (the president) in detail and he agreed that we should shut it down,” Musk said in a X Spaces conversation early Monday. Musk said he checked with Trump “a few times” and Trump confirmed he wants to shut down the agency, which dispenses billions in humanitarian aid and development funding annually. CNN has reached out to the White House and USAID for comment.
CFPB halts work after Trump appoints Bessent as acting head
The Washington Post
By Tony Romm
Feb. 3, 2025
President Donald Trump on Monday appointed Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent as the acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a powerful watchdog agency whose operations Bessent immediately halted pending a review. In an email to agency staff sent from the “acting director,” Bessent ordered the bureau to cease all work to craft regulations, issue guidance, conduct investigations or provide “public communications of any type,” citing a need to “promote consistency” with the goals of the new administration, according to a copy obtained by The Washington Post.
Judge Further Blocks White House Spending Freeze
The New York Times
By Charlie Savage
Feb. 3, 2025
A federal judge on Monday temporarily blocked the Trump administration from imposing a sweeping freeze on trillions of dollars in federal grants and loans, adding to the pushback against an effort by the White House’s Office and Management and Budget. The restraining order by the judge, Loren L. AliKhan of the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia, came hours after the Justice Department told a federal judge in Rhode Island who issued a similar order on Friday that the government interpreted his order as applying to all spending nationally, not just to funds for the states that brought that case.
Trump preps order to dismantle Education Dept. as DOGE probes data
The Washington Post
By Laura Meckler, Danielle Douglas-Gabriel and Hannah Natanson
Feb. 3, 2025
President Donald Trump is preparing an executive order aimed at eventually closing the Education Department and, in the short term, dismantling it from within, according to three people briefed on its contents. The draft order acknowledges that only Congress can shut down the department and instead directs the agency to begin to diminish itself, these people said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about internal issues.
State Dept. Fires About 60 Contractors Working on Democracy and Human Rights
The New York Times
By Edward WongMichael Crowley and Alan Rappeport
Feb. 3, 2025
The State Department has fired about 60 contractors who work for its democracy, human rights and labor bureau, a division whose programs have often been criticized by authoritarian leaders, according to two U.S. officials and two former officials. The dismissals deal a severe blow to the bureau, because the contractors were mostly technical or area experts whom senior officials relied on to do the day-to-day work of enacting the programs overseas.
Trump idles National Labor Relations Board with two firings
Michigan Advance
By Max Nesterak
Feb. 3, 2025
President Donald Trump ousted National Labor Relations Board Member Gwynne Wilcox on Monday in an unprecedented move that paralyzes the board while teeing up a constitutional challenge that could further weaken it. With Wilcox gone, the five-seat board now has just two members and lacks the necessary quorum to hear cases on alleged unfair labor practices in the private sector (although functions lower down in the agency may continue). NLRB members are supposed to be shielded from presidential removal, and Wilcox — a Biden appointee and one of two Democratic members — says she plans to challenge her removal. NLRB members may only be fired for neglect or malfeasance, and Wilcox was supposed to serve until 2028. But as Bloomberg reported, Trump ally Elon Musk’s SpaceX has argued that the restriction on firing NLRB members is unconstitutional as part of a broad assault on the board by businesses including Starbucks, Amazon and Trader Joe’s.
E.P.A. Tells More Than 1,000 They Could Be Fired ‘Immediately’
The New York Times
By Lisa Friedman
Feb. 3, 2025
The Trump administration has warned more than 1,100 Environmental Protection Agency employees who work on climate change, reducing air pollution, enforcing environmental laws and other programs that they could be fired at any time. An email, reviewed by The New York Times, was sent to staff members who were hired within the past year and have probationary status. Many of those employees were encouraged to join the E.P.A. under the Biden administration to rebuild the agency, which had been depleted during President Trump’s first term. Others are experienced federal workers who had taken new assignments within the agency.
'Act of intimidation': Education Dept. suspends officials following Trump's DEI order
USA Today
By Zachary Schermele and Terry Collins
Feb. 3, 2025
Dozens of U.S. Department of Education officials were suddenly put on paid administrative leave Friday night, their union said, due to President Donald Trump’s executive order banning diversity, equity and inclusion programs in the federal government. The employees worked in multiple offices across the agency and included civil rights attorneys, public relations and IT specialists, people who helped students defrauded by colleges and others, according to Brittany Holder, a spokesperson for the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE). The staffers were explicitly told by the Education Department that the decision to place them on leave was “not being done for any disciplinary purpose” but was pursuant to the president’s DEI-related executive order, according to a memo obtained by USA TODAY.
EPA tells 1,000 employees they could be fired ‘immediately’
The Hill
By Rachel Frazin
Feb. 3, 2025
More than 1,000 employees at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) were notified last week that they may be subject to immediate firing, according to an email obtained by The Hill. The email, sent Wednesday by EPA mission support official Kimberly Patrick, notifies impacted employees that they are “likely on a probationary/trial period.” “As a probationary/trial period employee, the agency has the right to immediately terminate you,” the email says. Nicole Cantello, president of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) Local Local 704, which represents EPA employees in the Midwest, said that more than 1,000 employees nationwide received the email.
Teachers unions mobilize for fund cuts battle
People’s World
By Mark Gruenberg
Feb. 3, 2025
Even before the official executive order from anti-union and anti-worker President Donald Trump, the nation’s two big public school teachers’ unions are girding for a battle over dollars—or lack of them—for public schools. Both Teachers/AFT President Randi Weingarten, a New York City civics teacher, and National Education Association President Becky Pringle anticipate Trump will issue yet another executive order mandating cuts in federal funding for public schools, with the money, via taxpayer-paid vouchers, going to private school parents instead.
Trump administration decrees union telework provisions ‘unlawful’
Politico
By Nick Niedzwiadek
Feb. 3, 2025
The Trump administration on Monday declared that union contract language that allows government employees to telework are invalid, escalating its hardball approach to exert control over the federal workforce. The Office of Personnel Management issued a guidance document asserting that both the availability of telework and the positions that are eligible for such flexibility are a “management right” that lays outside of the bargaining table.
Treasury sued over DOGE access to sensitive data
Axios
By Rebecca Falconer
Feb. 3, 2025
Three federal employees' unions are suing the Trump administration in an attempt to stop the Treasury from sharing confidential data with the Elon Musk-run Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Why it matters: The lawsuit that was filed in D.C. federal court on Monday alleges Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent let DOGE representatives access the Bureau of the Fiscal Service, which manages the U.S. government's accounting, central payment systems and public debt.
Unions sue to block Musk team’s access to Treasury payments
Politico
By Michael Stratford and Sam Sutton
Feb. 3, 2025
Federal employee unions on Monday sued to stop Elon Musk’s team from accessing a sensitive government system that controls the flow of trillions of dollars of payments as top Democrats stepped up their attacks on what they said was the billionaire’s “hostile takeover” of the Treasury Department. The lawsuit, which was filed days after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent agreed to a plan giving department officials allied with Musk access to the system, landed amid growing pushback to the Tesla founder’s slash and burn efforts to cut hundreds of billions in federal spending.
More than 1,000 EPA employees are told they could be dismissed immediately
NBC News
By Evan Bush
Feb. 3, 2025
About 1,100 employees received the email, according to Marie Owens Powell, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Council 238, a union that represents about 8,500 EPA staffers. Powell said she had received the list of employees from the agency. “No probationary employee has been let go yet,” Powell said. “It was scary for people to receive the message, as you can imagine, and we’re inundated with questions from those folks. The agency obviously can dismiss probationary employees, but it has to be for cause.”
Inside Musk’s Aggressive Incursion Into the Federal Government
The New York Times
By Jonathan SwanTheodore SchleiferMaggie HabermanKate CongerRyan Mac and Madeleine Ngo
Feb. 3, 2025
In Elon Musk’s first two weeks in government, his lieutenants gained access to closely held financial and data systems, casting aside career officials who warned that they were defying protocols. They moved swiftly to shutter specific programs — and even an entire agency that had come into Mr. Musk’s cross hairs. They bombarded federal employees with messages suggesting they were lazy and encouraging them to leave their jobs. Empowered by President Trump, Mr. Musk is waging a largely unchecked war against the federal bureaucracy — one that has already had far-reaching consequences.
ORGANIZING
DC Restaurant Workers Allege Intimidation and Retaliation for Union Push
Washingtonian
By Jessica Sidman
Feb. 3, 2025
Workers across five upscale DC restaurants—Le Diplomate, Pastis, and St. Anselm from restaurateur Stephen Starr and Rasika and Modena from Knightbridge Restaurant Group—announced plans to unionize last month. A labor organizing drive of this size is unprecedented in the local restaurant industry, and the unions could collectively represent 500 front- and back-of-house workers if they’re successful. So far, Knightsbridge and Starr Restaurants have said they will not voluntarily recognize the unions. Employees at some of the restaurants now claim that they are facing intimidation and retaliation in an attempt to quash their efforts—allegations that both restaurant groups deny.
UNION NEGOTIATIONS
'We deserve more': USPS union members vote to reject contract agreement
USA Today
By Saleen Martin
Feb. 3, 2025
NALC President Brian L. Renfroe said in a statement that the union plans to reopen negotiations within five days. “In a democratic vote, the will of NALC’s membership has been made clear,” Renfroe said. “The tentative agreement that represented the best offer the Postal Service put on the table is not good enough for America’s city letter carriers. We have earned more and we deserve more.”
UAW members at Detroit Axle ratify new contract
CBS News
By Paula Wethington
Feb. 3, 2025
The United Auto Workers members at Detroit Axle have ratified a contract with Daimler Truck of North America, the union reported. The vote took place Saturday, with 84% in favor of the new collective bargaining agreement. The contract covers about 400 workers at the Detroit Axle facility in Redford, which builds axles and transmissions. The union members had voted Jan. 15 to authorize a strike, the UAW reported earlier. The new contract secures profit-sharing and cost-of-living benefits for the first time at Detroit Axle. In addition, the agreement raises wages for some workers by as much as 50% during the terms of the agreement.
Providence reaches tentative agreement with women’s clinic nurses, providers
Oregon Capital Chronicle
By Ben Botkin
Feb. 3, 2025
The union representing physicians and nurses at Providence women’s clinic in the Portland area have reached a tentative agreement as thousands of nurses in the nonprofit’s eight hospitals continue a strike that started on Jan. 10. The Oregon Nurses Association and Providence Medical Group announced the tentative agreement late Sunday for the women’s clinic, which has six locations in the Portland area. The proposal covers 81 health care professionals total: 59 physicians and 22 nurses. It’s also the first contract for the health care workers at the women’s clinic. The union’s members will vote on it Monday and Tuesday.
Denver 7
By Óscar Contreras
Feb. 3, 2025
Hundreds of King Soopers employees across the Front Range plan to walk off the job and form picket lines outside their stores beginning Thursday as they demand an end to what they claim are unfair labor practices levied by the grocery chain. The announcement from representatives of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7 Union states picketing will begin at 5 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 6. Employees at unionized King Soopers stores throughout Adams, Arapahoe, Broomfield, Denver, Douglas, and Jefferson counties as well as King Soopers stores in the cities of Boulder and Louisville, will join the strike said UCFW spokeswoman Monique Palacios.
Graduate Students’ Union Weights Bargaining Priorities Ahead of Third Contract Negotiation
The Harvard Crimson
By Hugo C. Chiasson and Amann S. Mahajan
Feb. 2, 2025
Harvard graduate student union organizers presented articles for the union’s third contract in a general membership meeting on Thursday, the first major step toward bargaining with the University later this semester. Organizers from the Harvard Graduate Students Union-United Auto Workers — which represents roughly 5,000 teaching fellows, teaching assistants, course assistants, and research assistants — presented proposals to change appointment letter rules and grievance procedures as potential bargaining topics.
Beaumont firefighter's union nears new contract with city, vote expected in weeks
12 News Now
By Scott Eslinger
Feb. 3, 2024
Beaumont's firefighters are on the cusp of approving a new three-year labor contract after months of negotiations, with union leadership anticipating a membership vote in the coming weeks. The City of Beaumont and the International Association of Fire Fighters Local 399 have tentatively agreed to most contract terms, leaving only three articles pending final approval.
Unionized Colorado grocery store workers to begin two-week strike on Thursday
CBS News
By Jennifer McRae
Feb. 3, 2025
Unionized King Soopers employees in the Denver metro area announced a two-week strike that will begin on Thursday, Feb. 6, according to UFCW Local 7. That includes stores throughout Adams, Arapahoe, Broomfield, Denver, Douglas, and Jefferson counties as well as King Soopers stores in the cities of Boulder and Louisville. Last week, some union employees at King Soopers voted almost unanimously to authorize a strike. The grocery chain in Colorado is owned by parent company Kroger. The workers voted by 96% to authorize an Unfair Labor Practice strike after being in contract negotiations since October 2024 and their contract expired in January. The strikes include approximately 10,000 workers at 77 stores.
Union Kitchen settles with workers over wage theft claims
The Washington Post
By Tom Jackman
Feb. 3, 2025
The owner of Union Kitchen, a chain of locally owned grocery stores in the District and Virginia, has agreed to pay its workers more than $133,000 for illegally withholding tips paid by customers, settling a lawsuit filed nearly two years ago that alleged Union Kitchen stopped accepting tips after workers pointed out the discrepancy on their paychecks.
Mansfield City Employees Negotiate Contracts with City Officials
WMFD
Jesse Smith and Greg Kahl
Feb. 3, 2025
Employees of the City of Mansfield took to the streets on Monday with signs in hand to raise awareness of ongoing contract negotiations between their union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Ohio Council 8, and the city. Working without a new contract, negotiations have reached an impasse, prompting informational picketing and fact-finding, according to union and city officials. "The city's been cutting positions since 2010, and they've never replaced those positions with no consideration of what [employees] need to do the job," said Joe Daniels of AFSCME Ohio Council 8. "Our people have really done a very good job over those years working at half-staff. I mean, they literally are working 50% of the staff they did 15 years ago, but they're doing even more."
Colorado King Soopers workers to begin strike on Thursday
CPR News
By Sarah Mulholland
Feb. 3, 2025
After a vote of union grocery store workers wrapped up over the weekend, the UFCW Local 7 announced Monday that union members will strike. According to the union, about 10,000 workers in 77 stores in Colorado will go on strike at 5 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 6. That includes King Soopers workers in Adams, Arapahoe, Broomfield, Denver, Douglas and Jefferson counties and at stores in Boulder and Louisville.
'Equal Pay For Equal Work': PMBC Hospital Workers Picket On LI Monday
Patch
By Lisa Finn
Feb. 3, 2025
Close to 600 caregivers were expected to picket outside Northwell Health's Peconic Bay Medical Center in Riverhead Monday, demanding "equal pay for equal work." The workers, members of the 1199/SEIU United Healthcare Workers East union, were slated to picket from noon to 1 p.m. outside the hospital on Heroes Way.
JOINING TOGETHER
Graduate student unions gear up to protect gains under second Trump administration
Chicago Tribune
By Carolyn Stein
Jan. 3, 2025
But now, the administration of President Donald Trump could threaten some of the progress graduate student unions have made not only at UChicago, but at private universities across the country. In his first term, Trump’s administration sought to restrict graduate students’ abilities to be recognized as employees. That previous policy, combined with other legislation surrounding immigration and gender discrimination, poses a threat for unions. With this in mind, graduate student unions are gearing up for the second Trump administration — and feel more confident than ever in their ability to fight back. That looks like everything from educating members on their rights to showing up to local protests and, if necessary, holding protests of their own. New protections won under some contracts also provide an extra layer of protection for graduate students against threats of deportation by the Trump administration, among other issues.
STATE LEGISLATION
'Right-to-work’ vote looms at State House (Video)
WMUR 9
By Adam Sexton
Feb. 2, 2025
Greg Moore with Americans for Prosperity and Glenn Brackett with the New Hampshire AFL-CIO join WMUR's Adam Sexton on CloseUp to discuss the 'right-to-work' legislation.
Union collective bargaining bill stalls in Utah Senate amid mixed messages
KUTV
By Arielle Harrison
Feb. 3, 2025
A highly debated bill on union collective bargaining remains in limbo as Utah lawmakers failed to discuss it Tuesday, days after revisions were made to the measure. Senate leadership cited conflicting messages over whether unions support the latest substitute version of House Bill 267, also known as Public Sector Labor Union Amendments, which no longer includes an outright ban on public sector collective bargaining.
APPRENTICESHIPS & TRAINING
‘Just for a man’: Ex-apprentice explains why she’s one of the few female ironworkers in California
Cal Matters
By Denise Amos
Feb. 3, 2025
Out of nearly 2,500 iron and steel worker apprentices registered in California, 70 are women. That’s too few, says Rocio Campos, a single mother of two from Los Angeles County who today works as an ironworker after completing four years of an apprenticeship. She took a long and twisted path to her career, she said. She worked on an ambulance crew, trained and worked at drafting and design, and studied criminal justice — all to earn enough to support her family. She even worked in a liquor store before discovering she liked welding at a class she took at Antelope Valley College in Lancaster.
UNION BUSTING
Corporate union busting in plain sight
Economic Policy Institute
By John Logan
Jan. 28, 2025
Labor activism in the United States has had a remarkable resurgence over the last three years (NLRB 2022; Combs 2023). In the past few years, workers mounted successful organizing campaigns at a wide range of companies, including Amazon, Starbucks, Trader Joe’s, Apple, Barnes and Noble, Ben & Jerry’s, Chipotle, REI, and Volkswagen. Moreover, according to Gallup polls, 70% of the U.S. public—and almost 90% of young workers—approve of unions, a figure not seen since the mid-1960s (Saad 2023). Even more remarkable, unions are wildly popular despite their organizational weakness: In the mid-1960s, they represented almost one-third of private-sector workers, while today they represent fewer than 6%. At the bargaining table, unions have won record wage increases at companies such as UPS (Gurley 2023), the Big Three auto companies (Whalen 2023), Kaiser Permanente (Simmons-Duffin 2024), and Disney (Isidore et al. 2023; Rainey et al. 2024).