Today's AFL-CIO press clips
EDITOR'S NOTE: A recent Forward Kentucky story featuring Bill Londrigan is in the POLITICS section of the press clips.
MUST READ
Unions don’t have standing to block DOGE Service's access to DOL data, federal judge rules
Safety + Health Magazine
By Staff
Feb. 10, 2025
In a Feb. 7 press release, AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler says the decision is “a setback, but not a defeat.” She continued: “The AFL-CIO, our affiliated unions, partners and allies will provide further evidence of standing and renew our efforts to block DOGE from accessing sensitive data at DOL and through our government, continuing the fight for transparency, accountability and the protection of the fundamental rights generations of workers fought to enact.”
POLITICS
Labor unions sue to block DOGE access to sensitive information at US agencies
AP
By Collin Binkley
Feb. 10, 2025
A coalition of labor unions filed a lawsuit Monday asking a federal court to stop Elon Musk’s team from accessing private data at the Education Department, the Treasury Department and the Office of Personnel Management. The suit, led by the American Federation of Teachers, alleges the Trump administration violated federal privacy laws when it gave Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency access to systems with personal information on tens of millions of Americans without their consent. It was filed in federal court in Maryland.
Federal employees union files lawsuits over CFPB shutdown and DOGE access
CBS News
By Kathryn Watson
Feb. 10, 2025
A union representing employees across dozens of federal agencies filed two lawsuits on Sunday against the acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, with one seeking to block the apparent shutdown of the agency and another aimed at stopping Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency from accessing employee records and information. In one of its lawsuits, the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), which represents about 155,000 federal employees across three dozen agencies and departments, asked the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia to rule that Vought's directive that CFPB employees halt work is unlawful. The lawsuit cited Musk's Feb. 7 post on X, in which he wrote "CFPB RIP" with an emoji of a tombstone.
Forward Kentucky
By Berry Craig
Feb. 10, 2025
Former Kentucky State AFL-CIO President Bill Londrigan doesn’t pull punches about what he expects from the new Donald Trump administration: “Attacks on workers and unions.” Most union leaders say Trump was one of the most anti-labor presidents in decades. “The idea that Donald Trump has ever, or will ever, care about working people is demonstrably false,” AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler said. “For his entire time as president, he actively sought to roll back worker protections, wages, and the right to join a union at every level.”
Union sues Trump admin over CFPB shutdown attempt and DOGE access
Axios
By Avery Lotz
Feb. 10, 2025
Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought was hit with two union lawsuits on Sunday after he issued directives freezing much of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's (CFPB) work. The National Treasury Employees Union, which represents CFPB employees, filed two lawsuits against Vought in D.C. District Court on Sunday.
Federal workers watch for court action on day of new resignation deadline
The Washington Post
By Olivia George
Feb. 10, 2025
The Trump administration has given federal workers until the end of the day to decide whether to opt into its “deferred resignation program,” which promises pay through September if they quit now. Meanwhile, a federal judge is scheduled to hear arguments Monday on whether the offer is legal.
Trump has paralyzed agency that safeguards worker rights, labor experts and advocates say
CBS News
By Kate Gibson
Feb. 10, 2025
President Trump's firing of a member at the National Labor Relations Board leaves the federal agency unable to perform its duties protecting the rights of U.S. workers and monitoring union elections, according to labor experts. The agency is now down to two members, one below the minimum required to fully function, labor attorneys said, even as one of the country's largest companies, Amazon, presses the NLRB to void the results of a recent union election due to the board's downsizing.
Trump Is Running A Bulldozer Over Independent Federal Agencies
HuffPost
By
Dave Jamieson
Feb. 10, 2025
President Donald Trump’s attempt to abolish the U.S. Agency for International Development has stunned its employees and drawn outrage among Democrats on Capitol Hill. But it’s one of many brazen attacks on independent federal agencies as he seeks to expand executive power during his first days in office. On Jan. 27, the new president ousted a sitting Democratic member of the National Labor Relations Board, as well as two Democratic commissioners at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. He eliminated a quorum at both bipartisan bodies, making them unable to carry out their normal duties.
US consumer finance watchdog chief tells all staff to cease work
Reuters
By Douglas Gillison
Feb. 10, 2025
President Donald Trump's newly installed chief of the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau told all of the agency's staff on Monday to stay away from the office and do no work, according to an email reviewed by Reuters. The move followed a weekend decision to shutter the CFPB's Washington headquarters, idling a federal agency of nearly 2,000 workers tasked with enforcing consumer financial laws.
Judge Keeps Pause on Program Offering Federal Workers Incentives to Quit
The New York Times
By Noah Weiland and Maya Shwayder
Feb. 10, 2025
A federal judge said on Monday that the Trump administration’s deferred resignation program would remain paused until he ruled on its legality, hours before a deadline for roughly two million federal workers to accept incentives to quit. Federal officials had set a deadline of 11:59 p.m. Eastern time on Monday for employees to join the resignation program, known as “Fork in the Road,” part of an Elon Musk-led initiative to drastically slash the size of the federal government. Federal workers who take the offer would receive pay through September, according to the Trump administration.
What DOGE could mean for Medicare and Medicaid?
NPR
By Staff
Feb. 10, 2025
Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency is quickly expanding its reach through the federal government. It recently accessed systems at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Musk and his team now are looking at key payment and contracting systems for Medicare and Medicaid. That was first reported by the Wall Street Journal. On X, Musk said he believes quote "big money fraud is happening." Medicare insures older people. Medicaid offers insurance to low income people and those with disabilities.
Judge Keeps Federal Worker Exit Deal Paused as Ruling Looms
Bloomberg Law
By Allie Reed and Courtney Rozen
Feb. 10, 2025
The government “may continue to change the terms of their ultimatum right up until the last minute,” said Elena Goldstein, senior legal advisor at Democracy Forward, who represents the American Federation of Government Employees and other unions in the lawsuit.
Protests happening in the DC-area this week
WUSA 9
By Sophie Rosenthal
Feb. 10, 2025
The American Federation of Government Employees organized a lunch break protest to support civil service. According to a flier, AFGE president Everett Kelley will be in attendance, along with key lawmakers and labor leaders, though it does not say exactly who. Attendees do not need to be members of the union. The group will meet at noon Tuesday at 400 New Jersey Ave. and walk over to the park together.
Workers, Maryland leaders plan rally to protest Trump’s efforts to slash workforce
Fox Baltimore
By Sam Janesch
Feb. 10, 2025
“Federal workers, do not surrender,” Everett Kelley, the head of the largest union of federal employees, said Friday in a live Instagram conversation with U.S. Rep. Sarah Elfreth of Anne Arundel County. “We’re in this fight, and we need to fight. We need to fight like we’ve never fought before.”
Unions sue Trump admin in bid to stop DOGE access to sensitive data
Axios
By Rebecca Falconer
Feb. 10, 2025
"Elon Musk and his minions are stealing Americans' private personal and financial data in one of the biggest data hacks in U.S. history," AFT president Randi Weingarten said in an emailed statement Monday evening. "I suspect no one who voted for Donald Trump thought he would allow Musk permission to invade their privacy. This is a breach of our fundamental freedoms."
White House Failed to Comply With Court Order, Judge Rules
The New York Times
By Mattathias Schwartz
Feb. 10, 2025
A federal judge said on Monday that the White House had defied his order to release billions of dollars in federal grants, marking the first time a judge has expressly declared that the Trump administration is disobeying a judicial mandate. The ruling by Judge John J. McConnell Jr. in Rhode Island federal court ordered administration officials to comply with what the judge called “the plain text” of a ruling he issued on Jan. 29.
What Will DOGE’s Moves on Government Agencies Mean for OSHA?
The New Yorker
By Eyal Press
Feb. 10, 2025
DOGE’s incursions into U.S.A.I.D. and several other agencies were not met with preëmptive on-site protests, in part because they were conducted at breakneck speed, but a different scenario played out on February 5th, at the D.O.L., where hundreds of people showed up. Some of the protesters were members of the A.F.L.-C.I.O., which had helped spread word about DOGE’s impending visit. Others came from groups such as the National Employment Law Project, a workers’-rights organization with an office in Washington.
Trump Is Freezing Money for Clean Energy. Red States Have the Most to Lose.
The New York Times
By Lisa FriedmanBrad Plumer and Harry Stevens
Feb. 10, 2025
In less than three weeks, President Trump has thrown the U.S. clean energy industry into chaos, with much of the economic damage hitting Republican states and districts. In a quest to eliminate any funding linked to climate change, the Trump administration has frozen federal grants for everything from battery factories to electric school buses and issued executive orders that have halted federal approvals for wind and solar projects. Mr. Trump and Republicans in Congress are also working to repeal the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, which is projected to pour hundreds of billions of dollars over the next decade into low-carbon energy technologies through tax credits, loans and grants.
TRANSPORTATION
Union leaders to try again on rail safety; Corporate greed sidetracked it
People’s World
By Press Associates
Feb. 10, 2025
Titus and Cassidy joined AFL-CIO Transportation Trades Department President Greg Regan, who organized the session, along with co-sponsoring Reps. Emilia Sykes, D-Ohio, and Chris Deluzio, D-Pa. Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, sent a short video. All but Nehls discussed the massive Norfolk Southern derailment and venting of toxic chemicals into the. air and water precisely two years before, on Feb. 3, 2023, in East Palestine, Ohio. “The people of eastern Ohio have suffered so much from corporate greed,” Sykes said. “Our greatest fear is a train derailment can become a mass casualty event. But we have yet to see meaningful reform out of Congress” to force railroads to put safety and people over profits, said Regan.
LABOR AND ECONOMY
HuffPost Union issues statement on layoffs
Editor & Publisher
By Staff
Feb. 10, 2025
The following statement from HuffPost Union and Writers Guild of America East (WGAE) was issued late last week: This week, nearly 30 members of HuffPost staff lost their jobs, a majority of whom were part of the HuffPost Union with the Writers Guild of America East. News of the layoffs came as a shock to the newsroom on the heels of a year of record-breaking traffic and nonstop coverage of a divisive election. Management has insisted that these devastating cuts were financially necessary, but refused to share data to back up that claim or pursue cost-cutting alternatives. Management has chosen to slash our newsroom by over 20% at a time when the Trump administration is waging an unrelenting series of attacks on the most marginalized members of society, which is why it is so crucial that HuffPost continue to educate the public and hold those in power accountable — only now we are expected to do so with fewer reporters, editors and designers. Our newsroom is bearing the brunt of poor decision-making by those at the top of the Company.
Unemployment Rate for Veterans Spiked More than a Percentage Point to 4.2% in January
Military.com
By Richard Sisk
Feb. 7, 2025
The latest statistics from the BLS show "a pretty big jump" over the course of a month in unemployment rates that "has left a lot of veterans in a very uncertain place," Will Attig, executive director of the Union Veterans Council at the AFL-CIO, told Military.com in an interview. "It's a very big concern as we start to see furloughs and layoffs" at federal agencies, where veterans make up about 30% of the federal workforce, said Attig, a former Army sergeant who served two tours in Iraq.
ORGANIZING
Federal employees union grows to record size amid DOGE attacks
Michigan Advance
By Max Nesterak
Feb. 10, 2025
Federal workers say there’s never been a more confusing — and upsetting — time to work for the government, as they’re inundated with orders and memos at all hours of the day and night. “We feel very degraded and insulted. … We feel terrorized,” said Regina Marsh, a Minnesota-based claim specialist for Social Security. Marsh has worked at the federal government for her entire career — 37 years — starting right out of high school. She says it’s been a stable job and rewarding to help administer benefits to Americans who’ve recently become disabled or diagnosed with a terminal illness; people who have lost a spouse, and children who have lost a parent.
As Off Broadway Crews Unionize, Workers See Hope, Producers Peril
The New York Times
By Michael Paulson
Feb. 10, 2025
A unionization wave sweeping across Off Broadway is poised to reshape the economics of theater-making in New York — for workers as well as producers. Striking stage crews have idled the nonprofit Atlantic Theater Company — the birthplace of the musicals “Spring Awakening,” “The Band’s Visit” and “Kimberly Akimbo,” which all transferred to Broadway and won Tonys. The strike, which began last month, comes amid a drive to unionize stage hands and crews at Off Broadway theaters. The drive is being spearheaded by the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, or IATSE, which represents workers on Broadway and in Hollywood. It has won union contracts at two long-running commercial Off Broadway shows: The crew of “Titaníque,” a musical that spoofs the film “Titanic” and the pop star Celine Dion, approved a contract last October, and the crew at “Little Shop of Horrors,” a revival of the sci-fi musical comedy, did so in January.
PS (PopSugar) Recognized as Part of Vox Media Union
The Wrap
By Kayla Cobb
Feb. 10, 2025
Add PS to the Vox Media Union. The editorial employees of the company formerly known as Pop Sugar won voluntary recognition from management at Vox Media, meaning they will officially be part of the organization’s union with the Writers Guild of America East (WGAE). On Jan. 22, the first day of negotiations, the 300-member Vox Media Union demanded that the 20-member PS unit be granted union recognition.
UNION NEGOTIATIONS
UPTE-CWA 9119 labor union begins strike authorization vote
UCSD Guardian
By Isaac Burge
Feb. 10, 2025
The labor union University Professional and Technical Employees CWA Local 9119, representing approximately 20,000 University of California healthcare, research, and technical employees, have begun the voting period to authorize a statewide strike. After eight months of negotiations with the UC bargaining team regarding unfair labor practices, UPTE-CWA 9119 made the decision to begin a vote to authorize a strike. The voting period began on Feb. 3 and will continue until Feb. 13, when the final vote will be counted. The University of California is the nation’s largest academic health system and hosts the largest health sciences instructional program, facilitated and taught by professionals represented by UPTE-CWA 9119.
UAW Contract Negotiations At VW Focus On Higher Wages, Health Care, Retirement
Chatanooga Pulse
By Danielle Smith
Feb. 10, 2025
The United Auto Workers union is negotiating its first union contract with Volkswagen at its Chattanooga plant, covering more than 4,000 members. The union said its key demands include higher wages, affordable health benefits and retirement protections. Steve Cochran, co chair of the bargaining committee, said the workers should have the same pay structure as the other automotive groups recognized in contracts with the United Auto Workers.
UR Medicine Home Care workers vote to authorize strike
WHEC
By Evan Bourtis
Feb. 10, 2025
Professional and clinical workers at UR Medicine Home Care have voted to authorize a strike after going nine months without reaching a contract agreement. The union representing the workers, 1199SEIU, now has permission to issue a 10-day notice for a strike if there continues to be no agreement. The strike can last up to three days. The union has been at the bargaining table with administration since May. The union says there has been no agreement yet to reduce workers’ high patient caseloads and costly health insurance. 1199SEIU filed an unfair labor practice against UR Medicine Home Care in January, accusing them of bargaining in bad faith.
In Major Year for Labor, Five Campus Unions Head to Bargaining Table
The Harvard Crimson
By Hugo C. Chiasson and Amann S. Mahajan
Feb. 10, 2025
More than 10,500 Harvard workers, represented by five unions, will negotiate new contracts with the University in 2025, setting the stage for a remarkable year in Harvard labor relations. Three established unions, representing graduate student workers, custodial staff, and Harvard University Police, are set to begin negotiations over succeeding contracts before their current contracts expire later the year. Two more newly created unions representing undergraduate workers and non-tenure-track members of Harvard’s faculty are currently bargaining for first contracts. All five unions will push for wage increases that compensate for record post-pandemic inflation and the rising cost of living in Boston and Cambridge. Arbitration clauses for discipline and discrimination protections are also likely to be shared demands in the coming months.
WORKPLACE SAFETY AND HEALTH
Miami VA Medical Center Elevators Injured At Least 12 in 2 Years
Campus Safety Magazine
By Amy Rock
Feb. 10, 2025
The most recent injury occurred in late 2024, but the National Nurses United Miami VA chapter said issue has persisted for years. “Every time I step into an elevator, it’s like playing Russian roulette,” Eurys Gamez, a registered nurse who works at the hospital and is a local safety officer for the the union, told the Herald. “Is it gonna take me where I need to go or is it gonna drop on me and I’m gonna get hurt?” The VA previously asserted that all the issues were resolved. However, during a recent meeting, management officials said they are still addressing elevator safety. In part, officials said they have instructed several companies that deliver items to not put pallet jacks in some elevators that can only handle a certain weight, according to Jeffrey Jones, president of the Miami VA’s local chapter of the American Federation of Government Employees.
Jones and Bill Frogameni, a registered nurse who works at the hospital and is the director of National Nurses United Miami VA chapter, said they plan to monitor the situation to ensure the issue is solved.
OTHER UNION NEWS
Amazon faces union vote at North Carolina warehouse
Reuters
By Greg Bensinger
Feb. 10, 2025
Amazon is facing its second workers’ union vote in as many months as laborers at a warehouse in suburban Raleigh, North Carolina, decide this week whether they wish to collectively bargain with the retail giant. Workers at the five-year-old warehouse in the city of Garner will vote through Friday to join or reject the upstart Carolina Amazonians United for Solidarity and Empowerment, or CAUSE, which seeks to push Amazon for higher wages, longer breaks and more scheduling flexibility, among other things. They will need a simple majority among voters to join the union.