Today's AFL-CIO press clips
POLITICS
Federal Judge Bars Elon Musk’s Team From Student Loan Databases
The New York Times
By Zach Montague
Feb. 24, 2025
“We brought this case to uphold people’s privacy, because when people give their financial and other personal information to the federal government — namely to secure financial aid for their kids to go to college, or to get a student loan — they expect that data to be protected and used for the reasons it was intended, not appropriated for other means,” Randi Weingarten, the group’s president, said in a statement.
Some Trump Appointees Resist Musk’s Ultimatum to Federal Workers
The New York Times
By Chris Cameron and Maggie Haberman
Feb. 24, 2025
In a scathing letter on Sunday, Everett B. Kelley, the president of the American Federation of Government Employees — the largest federal employee union — told the acting director of the Office of Personnel Management that the email sent to federal employees was “plainly unlawful” and “thoughtless.” Mr. Kelley demanded that the order be retracted, and noted, “By allowing the unelected and unhinged Elon Musk to dictate O.P.M.’s actions, you have demonstrated a lack of regard for the integrity of federal employees and their critical work.”
US judge blocks Musk's DOGE team from accessing Education Department, OPM data
Reuters
By Nate Raymond
Feb. 24, 2025
A federal judge on Monday blocked the government downsizing team created by President Donald Trump and spearheaded by billionaire Elon Musk from accessing sensitive data maintained by the U.S. Education Department and the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. .S. District Judge Deborah Boardman in Greenbelt, Maryland issued the temporary restraining order, opens new tab at the behest of a coalition of labor unions who argued the agencies wrongly granted Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency access to records containing personal information on millions of Americans.
Judge blocks 2 federal agencies from disclosing personal records to Trump adviser Musk’s DOGE
AP
By Staff
Feb. 24, 2025
A judge agreed on Monday to temporarily bar two federal agencies from disclosing records containing sensitive personal information to representatives of billionaire Trump adviser Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman in Greenbelt, Maryland, ruled that the Department of Education and the Office of Personnel Management likely violated the Privacy Act by disclosing people’s personal information to DOGE without their consent. Boardman issued a temporary restraining order requested by attorneys for unions and groups representing current and former federal employees.
Judge blocks Department of Education, federal personnel office from sharing data with DOGE
NBC News
By Rebecca Shabad
Feb. 24, 2025
A federal judge in Maryland has blocked the Department of Education and Office of Personnel Management from sharing the personal information of plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the Trump administration with Elon Musk's so-called Department of Government Efficiency. U.S. District Judge Deborah L. Boardman issued a temporary restraining order Monday on both agencies and wrote in an opinion that the plaintiffs in the case, which include members of several major unions, showed that the Education Department and OPM "likely violated the Privacy Act by disclosing their personal information to DOGE affiliates without their consent."
Federal workers sue over "what did you do last week" email
Axios
By Emily Peck
Feb. 24, 2025
The federal agency that sent out an email over the weekend asking workers what they accomplished last week can't fire those workers for not responding, claims an amended lawsuit filed Monday on behalf of federal employees. Why it matters: It's the latest potential legal stumbling block for DOGE and Elon Musk's slash-and-burn workforce strategy.
The White House said Musk had no authority. Then came the emails.
The Washington Post
By Aaron Blake
Feb. 24, 2025
One of the biggest legal questions looming over the Trump administration right now is whether Elon Musk is illegally wielding power over the American government. This weekend suggested he is wielding significantly more power than the White House has let on in court. Either that, or President Donald Trump’s own political appointees are defying Trump’s wishes. It’s all rather complicated, but the events of this weekend crystallize the chaotic and legally dubious nature of Musk’s sudden elevation to a hugely influential player in American politics and government.
Union Leader Rips Agency Chief for Letting 'Unelected and Unhinged' Musk Threaten Workers
Common Dreams
By Jake Johnson
Feb. 24, 2025
Everett Kelley, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), noted in a letter to Acting OPM Director Charles Ezell that the email "fails to identify any legal authority permitting OPM to demand the requested information." "Federal employees report to their respective agencies through their established chains of command; they do not report to OPM," Kelley wrote. "Federal employees have a duty to ensure that sensitive information, data, and records are only used and disclosed for authorized purposes. The email was nothing more than an irresponsible and sophomoric attempt to create confusion and bully the hard-working federal employees that serve our country." "By allowing the unelected and unhinged Elon Musk to dictate OPM’s actions, you have demonstrated a lack of regard for the integrity of federal employees and their critical work," Kelley added. "We believe that employees have no obligation to respond to this plainly unlawful email absent other lawful direction."
Judge temporarily blocks DOGE access to sensitive information at two agencies
The Washington Post
By Danielle Douglas-Gabriel
Feb. 24, 2025
The lawsuit alleges that the Trump administration violated the Privacy Act by giving Musk’s team sensitive data for reasons beyond its intended use. DOGE has had access to databases that include home addresses, Social Security numbers and driver’s license numbers, among other information. The union says such access poses security risks. In addition to AFT, the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers are also plaintiffs in the lawsuit.
Trump’s Medicaid flip-flop should worry any American on Social Security (Opinion)
MSNBC
By James Downie
Feb. 24, 2025
Donald Trump has always had trouble keeping a story straight. But even by his own standards, the president’s flip-flop last week on Medicaid cuts was executed with dizzying speed. That pirouette should worry not only the millions of Americans on Medicaid, but those drawing Medicare and even Social Security benefits as well. On Tuesday, Trump and unofficial co-president Elon Musk sat for an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity. “Social Security won’t be touched, other than this fraud or something we’re going to find,” Trump said. “It’s going to be strengthened but won’t be touched. Medicare, Medicaid, none of that stuff is going to be touched.” On his Truth Social platform the next morning, however, Trump posted an endorsement of the House GOP’s budget plan. “The House Resolution implements my FULL America First Agenda,” Trump wrote with his trademark restraint. “It will, without question, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” That endorsement created a contradiction that, according to Politico, “sent aides scrambling to figure out what Trump meant.” Despite the president’s promise the night before on Fox, the House GOP budget leaves Medicaid anything but “untouched.”
AFGE President Everett Kelley condemns Trump Administration’s mass firing of federal employees
Labor Tribune
By Staff
Feb. 24, 2025
American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) National President Everett Kelley is condemning the Trump Administration’s mass firing of probationary federal employees, calling the firings “reckless” and vowing to fight for all impacted employees. “This administration has abused the probationary period to conduct a politically driven mass firing spree, targeting employees not because of performance, but because they were hired before Trump took office,” Kelley said.
Government Employees’ battle with Trump and Musk bosses escalates
People’s World
By Mark Gruenberg
Feb. 24, 2025
The battle over the future of the nation’s 2.4 million federal workers is escalating, with their main union, the Government Employees (AFGE), declaring the latest move by their Trumpite boss is illegal, while also turning to outside groups and the country at large for backing. Charles Ezell, acting director of the Office of Personnel Management—the government’s human resources agency—led the latest escalation with two insolent and, AFGE says, illegal demands. The first, on February 23, declared every worker must send to OPM by 11:59 pm on February 24, “five bullet points” on “What did you do last week?” That interferes with vital services. “A VA surgeon’s attention belongs in the operating room and an air traffic controller’s attention on keeping the skies safe, not on dealing with this unclear and unlawful distraction,” AFGE President Everett Kelley wrote.
'Hell No!' Postal Workers Protest Illegal Trump Takeover Scheme
Common Dreams
By Jake Johnson
Feb. 24, 2025
Postal workers and labor movement allies rallied in Washington, D.C. on Monday to protest U.S. President Donald Trump's reported plan to seize control of the independent and beloved Postal Service, a move that could pave the way for full privatization of the country's mail operations. Monday's rally was organized by the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC), which said last week that Trump's proposal to bring the Postal Service under the purview of the Commerce Department is "unconstitutional and illegal." "The 295,000 active and retired members of the National Association of Letter Carriers have a message to deliver to the White House: Hands off the Postal Service," the organization said in a statement after The Washington Postrevealed details of the executive order Trump is reportedly preparing to sign.
Judge Questions Constitutionality of Musk’s Cost-Cutting Operation
The New York Times
By Alan Feuer
Feb. 24, 2025
A federal judge in Washington said on Monday that the way the Trump administration set up and has been running Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency may violate the Constitution. The skepticism expressed by the judge, Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, did not come as part of a binding ruling, but it suggested that there could be problems looming for Mr. Musk’s organization, which is also known as the U.S. DOGE Service.
How White House firings are hurting veterans
Axios
By Emily Peck
Feb. 24, 2025
"This is the largest attack on veteran employment in our lifetime," says William Attig, executive director at the Union Veterans Council, a labor group that represents many of these workers. Attig, who was deployed in Iraq from 2003 to 2009, has been talking to newly unemployed members, trying to get a tally of everyone who's lost a job.
Trump and Musk's job cuts threaten veterans in the federal workforce
KPAX
By Maya Rodriguez
Feb. 24, 2025
“Veterans have been trained and learned to work with teams; work for a bigger objective than just simply getting a paycheck on Friday,” said Will Attig, executive director of the Union Veterans Council. Veterans make up approximately 30% of the federal workforce. With the Trump administration moving to drastically shrink the federal workforce, Attig said thousands of veterans might soon be out of a job. "We do not know exactly right now the amount of people who have been fired,” Attig said. “But we do know that if there are large groups of federal workers being laid off, there are going to be veterans being laid off."
Government Watchdog Moves to Protect Probationary Federal Workers
The New York Times
By Abbie VanSickle
Feb. 24, 2025
A government watchdog lawyer whose dismissal by President Trump has been stalled by the courts announced on Monday that his office would seek to pause the mass firings of some probationary federal workers. The lawyer, Hampton Dellinger, who leads the Office of Special Counsel, a government agency that protects whistle-blowers, said his office had determined that the firings might violate the law.
‘Embarrassing,’ ‘cruel,’ ‘absurd,’ ‘extortion’: GOP moderates find voices on Trump
The Washington Post
By Aaron Blake
Feb. 24, 2025
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) last week issued a challenge to fellow Republicans who might be concerned about what President Donald Trump and his administration are doing — but haven’t been willing to say so. Basically, she said it can’t just be me. “It requires speaking out. It requires saying, ‘That violates the law,’ ‘That violates the authorities of the executive,’” Murkowski said. She added: “So it requires speaking out and standing up. And that requires, again, more than just one or two Republicans.”
Philly congressman, union leaders, workers protest Trump's federal layoffs
NBC Philadelphia
By David Chang
Feb. 24, 2025
“These are not federal jobs,” Rep. Boyle (D-Pennsylvania) said during the rally, which began at 11 a.m. on the north side of Chestnut Street between 5th and 6th streets. “These are Pennsylvania jobs. These are Philadelphia jobs. That is what is at stake.” Boyle was joined by several union leaders, including Everett Kelley, the National President of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), as well as Karen Ford-Woods, the local AFGE president who represents workers at the Veterans Medical Center.
US personnel office walks back email ultimatum from Musk to workers
The Guardian
By Chris Stein and Ed Pilkington
Feb. 24, 2025
The US government’s human resources office has walked back an ultimatum issued by Elon Musk that would have forced its workers to resign if they did not submit a bullet-point list of their recent accomplishments, in one of the first signs of internal pushback to the Tesla billionaire’s campaign to downsize the federal workforce. The demand, made in an email sent to million of government employees over the weekend and quickly sued over by a coalition of labor and advocacy groups, represented the latest salvo by the “department of government efficiency” (Doge), the Trump-sanctioned cost-cutting initiative Musk chairs.
LABOR AND ECONOMY
Fed expected to respond strongly to inflation, job market conditions, research shows
Reuters
By Reuters
Feb. 24, 2025
Investors and economists expect the U.S. central bank to respond "strongly and systematically" to changes in inflation and the labor market, according to research published on Monday by the San Francisco Fed that underscores the current sensitivity of financial markets to U.S. economic data. The Fed's perceived responsiveness to economic data picked up notably in 2022, driven first by inflation data and, last year, by labor market data, based on the analysis of perceptions embedded in professional forecasts and in bond market moves published in the regional Fed bank's latest Economic Letter.
NLRB
Apple to Push for Free Speech Tests in Labor Case at Fifth Cir.
Bloomberg Law
By Robert Iafolla
Feb. 24, 2025
Apple Inc.’s federal court appeal of an NLRB ruling that it illegally interrogated a worker includes an effort for new legal standards that would make it more difficult for the agency to police employers’ coercive questioning of employees. The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit will hear oral argument Tuesday over Apple’s challenge to the National Labor Relations Board’s decision. The technology giant urged the court in its brief to use US Supreme Court precedent from First Amendment cases involving criminal threats and alleged defamation to guide its review of the board’s ruling in a labor law dispute.
ORGANIZING
Interns and Residents Are Unionizing at a Rapid Clip
Jacobin
By Benjamin Y. Fong
Feb. 24, 2025
For those elections tallied in January, twelve involved 250 or more workers, and ten were successful, involving the unionization of 5,628 workers. One was the much-discussed unionization of 297 Whole Foods workers in Philadelphia. The rest were all in health care, and a whopping six were run and won by Service Employees International Union’s (SEIU) Committee of Interns and Residents (CIR). In one month, CIR gained 3,862 new members.
Boston Doctors Lead the Medical Unionization Wave
The Harvard Crimson
By Hugo C. Chiasson and Amann S. Mahajan
Feb. 24, 2025
After more than a year of negotiations over their first contract, residents at Mass General Brigham sensed growing momentum for a strike in January. Such a decision, made by 2,700 doctors working at the state’s largest private employer, would have major ramifications for the healthcare industry. While strikes at health care practices are rare — and require days’ notice — they have also become more frequent in recent years. But for MGB Housestaff United, a Boston-area medical union formed in 2023 under the Committee of Interns and Residents, a local of the Service Employees International Union, President Donald Trump’s inauguration — and subsequent decision to fire two high-ranking officials at the National Labor Relations Board — forced them to reconsider.
UNION NEGOTIATIONS
Keystone Ski Patrol Union votes to ratify new contract following negotiations
CPR News
By Haylee May
Feb. 24, 2024
Nearly all 81 members of the Keystone Ski Patrol Union voted to accept a new contract with Keystone Resort that will last through the 2026-2027 ski season. The announcement follows months of back and forth between management at Vail Resorts and the union that formed in 2024. Union bargaining team member Jake Randall said that after workers at Keystone’s sister resort in Park City Utah went on strike, Vail Resorts was ready to come to the table. “We actually came to an agreement pretty quickly after the strike ended,” Randall said. “We put it to a vote with overwhelming support. We did have a couple no votes in there, but the sentiment of the group is that we made a lot of progress with this contract.”
Albany Med nurses resume contract talks, still pushing for improved hiring and retention
CBS6 Albany
By Jana DeCamilla
Feb. 24, 2025
Nurses at Albany Med are returning to the negotiating table today for the second time this year, seeking a fair union contract aimed at improving hiring and retention at the hospital. The nurses have been without a contract since July of last year. The nurses union rejected hospital officials' final contract' proposal offer in December 2023, after months of failed negotiations and growing frustrations. Albany Medical Center nurses said in December they refused to be bullied into accepting Dr. McKenna’s so-called 'final offer' ultimatum, with the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) saying it does not do nearly enough to guarantee safe staffing, fair wages, benefits, and a union voice.
California workers for marijuana operator Eaze secure 3-year bargaining pact
MJBiz Daily
By MJBizDaily Staff
Feb. 24, 2025
Nearly 500 California-based workers at marijuana operator Eaze have ratified a new three-year collective bargaining agreement. “The workers at Eaze stood strong through uncertainty and came out with a contract that protects their wages, benefits, and rights,” UFCW Local 135 Secretary-Treasurer Grant Tom said in a statement.
Picketing May Have Peaked but Union Strike Totals Remain High
Bloomberg Law
By Robert Combs
Feb. 24, 2025
Unions led fewer strikes against US employers last year than in 2022 or 2023, according to Bloomberg Law labor data. But the 236 walkouts called in 2024 still represent the third-highest annual total in almost two decades, suggesting that the post-pandemic trend of labor unrest is still far from over. After unions initiated only 86 strikes in shutdown-riven 2020, strikes took place with increasing frequency in the ensuing three years—from 164 in 2021 to 317 in 2022 to 356 in 2023—as workers sought to assert more control over their job security and compensation. It took until 2024 for the tide of strikes to subside (to 236) rather than rise.
Two unions at UCSD set to strike Wednesday
The San Diego Union-Tribune
By Paul Sisson
Feb. 24, 2025
Thousands of UC San Diego workers in health care and beyond plan to strike for better wages and benefits Wednesday, participating in overlapping statewide pickets at University of California campuses statewide. It is just the outcome threatened by members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299, whose members held a demonstration in August on the final day of their contract. Last summer, workers said that a work stoppage would occur if initial contract proposals, which were said to include a 5% wage increase and a $25 minimum hourly wage across the board, were not improved.
Contract between UAW, Rolls-Royce in Indianapolis set to expire Wednesday night
WISH TV
By Hernan Gutierrez
Feb. 24, 2025
United Auto Workers at Rolls-Royce in Indianapolis are approaching a major deadline as its contract with the company is set to expire Wednesday night. Last week, the UAW said 99.5% of its workers at Local 933 voted to authorize a strike. The local’s website says they already have a list of picketing assignments ready for its members. UAW Local 933 represents more than 800 workers at Rolls-Royce’s aircraft engine facilities in Indianapolis. It is looking to negotiate a new five-year deal.
JOINING TOGETHER
Portland postal workers rally against Trump USPS changes, ‘degraded’ conditions
KOIN
By Ariel Salk and Jenna Deml
Feb. 23, 2025
Tina Fisher has been delivering mail for nearly a decade in Portland. She comes from a long line of letter carriers. “My mother and my grandmother both retired from the post office and I thought, OK, I’m going to be set. This is a place to be when I need to retire,” Fisher told KOIN 6 News. But now, “not so much.” With the current postal union contract, she had to take a second job as a cashier at a grocery store to make ends meet.
STATE LEGISLATION
Missouri AFL-CIO monitoring bill to cut unemployment benefits from 20 weeks to eight
Labor Tribune
By Sheri Gassaway
Feb. 24, 2025
The Missouri AFL-CIO is currently monitoring a senate bill that would cut unemployment benefits from 20 weeks to eight weeks, a move that would be devastating to working families. Senate Bill 8 (SB 8), filed by Missouri Senator Mike Bernskoetter (R-Cole County), would modify the duration an individual can receive benefits by basing it on a graduated scale of the Missouri average unemployment rate. Some form of the bill has been filed in the Missouri legislature almost every year since 2015. “We’ve been fighting this for several years, and it’s back again,” Missouri AFL-CIO President Jake Hummel told St. Louis Labor Council delegates at the council’s meeting Jan. 28 meeting. “We’ve been successful in blocking the bill the last few years, but there appears to be a new found energy to revive it.”
Ohio GOP brings back ‘Right to Work,’ unions prepare to fight: Capitol Letter
Cleveland.com
By Anna Staver
Feb. 24, 2025
If at first you don’t succeed: Unions and Democrats worry that the lesson Republicans learned from the defeat of Senate Bill 5 back in 2011 was to pass labor reforms in pieces. Anna Staver reports on how three bills and one section of the governor’s budget would combine to transform Ohio’s collective bargaining laws. Republicans say it’s coincidence not coordination and a total overhaul of union rights aren’t on their agendas.
Unions consider strikes, referendums on bill banning public employee collective bargaining
Fox13
By Ben Winslow
Feb. 24, 2025
Meanwhile, other labor unions are exploring a referendum on House Bill 267, which bans collective bargaining among public employee unions. Governor Spencer Cox who expressed disappointment in the negotiations over the bill but signed it into law anyway. "Definitely there is the process of running a referendum to overturn the law," said Brad Asay of the American Federation of Teachers. "Which is a big lift — thanks to our legislature — that makes it more difficult to do referendums."
IN THE STATES
Federal layoffs in Madison hit dairy research, VA hospital
The Cap Times
By Andrew Bahl
Feb. 24, 2025
If studying alfalfa isn’t your idea of a dream job, it was for Christina Arther. Arther worked for two and a half years at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Dairy Forage Research Center, looking for ways to enhance the cover crop fueling the cows that cemented Wisconsin’s status as America’s Dairyland. In January, however, it dawned on her that her dream job might soon turn into a nightmare, as President Donald Trump began mounting a push to slash the federal workforce. On Feb. 13, Arther opened an email from human resources telling her she was out of a job, alongside other workers still in their probationary period, which at the Dairy Forage Research Center is three years.
LABOR LEADERSHIP
Brooke Shields on Her Role as the President of Actors Equity Association | SAG Awards 2025 (Video)
The Hollywood Reporter
By Staff
Feb. 24, 2025
Brook Shields tells THR that she’s attending the 2025 SAG Awards purely as a supporter, because as the elected President of Actors Equity Association, she feels that it’s important that actors have a sense of community and support throughout the industry. She also tells us about her opinions of A.I. and how actors should handle it.
LABOR AND ENTERTAINMENT
8 things you missed from the SAG Awards
The Washington Post
By Herb Scribner
Feb. 24, 2025
Fonda, who received a life achievement award, spoke at length during her acceptance speech about the importance of unions, particularly as she said workers’ rights are under attack.
LABOR AND COMMUNITY
UAW Local 659 hosts Annual Black History Month dinner
ABC12
Feb. 23, 2025
UAW Local 659 held a Black History Month dinner at its location on VanSlyke Road in Flint. The annual dinner is free and open to the community. There were several notable people at Sunday's event, including Flint Mayor Sheldon Neely. The keynote speaker this year was Michigan Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist.