Today's AFL-CIO press clips
POLITICS
Federal Judge Rules Trump Mass Firing Order Was 'Illegal' and 'Should Be Stopped'
Common Dreams
By Jake Johnson
Feb. 28, 2025
Everett Kelley, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees, said Thursday that Alsup's ruling underscores the administration's "disdain for federal employees and desire to privatize their work." "Our union will keep fighting until we put a stop to these demoralizing and damaging attacks on our civil service once and for all," Kelley added.
White House seeks data on federal staffers’ union work, raising alarms
The Washington Post
By Lauren Kaori Gurley
March 1, 2025
The Trump administration is requesting data from all federal agencies about government resources devoted to union matters, potentially setting the stage for a showdown between the White House and federal unions. In a memo issued Thursday to the heads of all executive departments and agencies, the Office of Personnel Management requested data on the amount of government time and funds spent on union matters, such as contract negotiations and grievance proceedings. It also requested detailed information about federal employees with union responsibilities enshrined in collective bargaining contracts, including their pay, telework authorization, and work time spent on union matters.
Trump officials fire 800 employees at weather forecasting and oceans agency
CNN
By Ella Nilsen and Tami Luhby
Feb. 28, 2025
The Trump administration has its government-shrinking sights set on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, where around 800 employees have been tapped for termination, according to two sources close to the agency. More layoffs are possible Friday, one of the sources said, potentially costing the weather, climate and environmental agency more than a thousand employees by the end of the week.
Feds to start getting weekly emails asking what they did. Bosses will see if it fits Trump goals.
The Washington Post
By Emily Davies, Carol D. Leonnig and Hannah Natanson
Feb. 28, 2025
Federal workers are slated to receive a second email as early as Saturday asking them for a bullet-point description of what they did in the past week — only this time, a new strategy from the Trump administration means they might have to respond, according to three people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private talks. The emails are slated to become a weekly requirement, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post and a person briefed on the Office of Personnel Management’s decisions. In part, the responses will serve to gauge agencies’ alignment with President Donald Trump’s agenda and executive orders, according to the documents and the person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
Trump Administration Orders IRS Workers Back To Office, Ignoring Union Contract
HuffPost
By Dave Jamieson
March 1, 2025
The Trump administration has ordered employees who telework at the Internal Revenue Service to return to office this month, signaling it intends to ignore protections in the agency’s union contract. The Treasury Department, which includes the IRS, issued a memo Friday saying it would “cancel” all regular telework agreements on March 8 for people who live within 50 miles of an office. They would be expected to report to work on March 10. Many Treasury workers have remote-work protections in their collective-bargaining agreement. But the Treasury directive will require “100%” in-person work, “including members of a bargaining unit.” The National Treasury Employees Union, which represents thousands of IRS workers and other Treasury employees, sent an email to members Friday calling the mandate a clear violation of its agreement. It described the policy as “outrageous.”
CNBC
By Hugh Son
Feb. 28, 2025
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Trump-appointed leadership plans to fire nearly all its 1,700 employees while “winding down” the agency, according to testimony from employees. In a trove of statements released late Thursday, federal employees said that the mass layoff was discussed in meetings they attended this month with senior CFPB leaders and members of Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency.
Trump officials start dismantling civil rights offices, as part of DOGE’s secret plan
The Washington Post
By Julian Mark, Hannah Natanson and Danielle Abril
Feb. 28, 2025
Agencies across the federal government are dismantling offices that enforce civil rights and antidiscrimination laws under a Trump administration push to shrink the workforce, weakening the government’s ability to deliver on legal obligations to protect workers’ rights. The Social Security Administration this week announced it was closing its Office of Civil Rights and Equal Opportunity, where about 150 people worked investigating civil rights complaints, preventing harassment and ensuring accommodations for people with disabilities, according to two people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. Leaders at the Labor Department are planning to cut by 90 percent the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, which for decades has worked to ensure government contractors took affirmative action to end discrimination at their firms, documents obtained by The Washington Post show.
Education Dept. Workers Offered Buyouts Ahead of ‘Very Significant’ Layoffs
The New York Times
By Zach Montague
Feb. 28, 2025
Education Department employees received an email on Friday offering buyouts ahead of what were described as “very significant” layoffs. The email, sent to all of the department’s employees at 11:03 a.m., urged workers to consider a “one-time offer” of a taxable payment of up to $25,000 if they completed an application to retire or resign by the end of the day on Monday. The email, which was reviewed by The New York Times, noted that employees were receiving the offer before the department underwent “a very significant reduction in force.”
Judge Appears Skeptical of Claims That Musk Isn’t Driving DOGE
The New York Times
By Aishvarya Kavi and Zach Montague
Feb. 28, 2025
A federal judge said on Friday that it seemed “factually inaccurate” for the Trump administration to keep insisting that Elon Musk has no formal position in an operation that has led to mass firings of federal workers and the hobbling of the nation’s foreign aid agency. The judge, Theodore D. Chuang of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, prodded government lawyers repeatedly for additional clarity on Mr. Musk’s role in a case that directly challenges the constitutionality of the task force known as the Department of Government Efficiency, or the U.S. DOGE Service.
The Social Security Administration says it plans to cut some 7,000 jobs
KSMU
By Ashley Lopez and Jenna McLaughlin
Feb. 28, 2025
Rich Couture — a spokesman for AFGE SSA General Committee, a union representing roughly 42,000 Social Security workers — told NPR, "AFGE is adamantly opposed to any mass layoffs" of its workers, "whether frontline or support staff." Front-line workers directly support beneficiaries, the number of whom, he said, increases by 10,000 people daily. "SSA is at its lowest staffing levels in 50 years while taking care of more Americans than ever," Couture said in a statement. "We need to retain our frontline workers who directly serve the public as well as those workers who provide critical support for the frontlines. Any cuts will ultimately hurt the public and undermine delivery of Social Security benefits."
"Does not have any authority whatsoever": Judge rules Trump admin's mass firings likely illegal
Salon
By Griffin Eckstein
Feb. 28, 2025
“We know this decision is just a first step, but it gives federal employees a respite,” AFSCME President Lee Saunders said in a statement. “While they work to protect public health and safety, federal workers have faced constant harassment from unelected billionaires and anti-union extremists whose only goal is to give themselves massive tax breaks at the expense of working people.”
Fired federal workers, union leaders protest Trump administration firings in Detroit
Detroit Free Press
By Clara Hendrickson
March 1, 2025
"No one elected Musk, right?" AFGE National President Everett Kelley told the crowd outside the veterans hospital. "We need to tell Elon Musk it's time for him to go."
Federal workers told once again to justify their work to DOGE
Politico
By Danny Nguyen and Holly Otterbein
Feb. 28, 2025
Federal workers are again being asked to justify their jobs to the Department of Government Efficiency overseen by billionaire Elon Musk. Public-sector employees across the government, who have been buffeted in recent weeks by large-scale firings orchestrated by DOGE, received emails late Friday with an ominous subject line: “What did you do last week? Part II.”
Musk's DOGE fires federal tech team that built free tax-filing site
Reuters
By Raphael Satter
March 1, 2025
The Trump administration has pulled the plug on a team of tech-savvy civil servants that helped build the IRS’s free tax-filing service and revamped websites across government, according to an email sent overnight to employees. In an email to employees of the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) seen by Reuters, the GSA’s Director of Technology Transformation Services Thomas Shedd said the team — known as 18F — had been identified as “non critical.”
Judge says Trump cannot fire head of independent watchdog agency
The Washington Post
By Derek Hawkins
March 1, 2025
A federal judge on Saturday said President Donald Trump cannot summarily fire the head of an independent watchdog agency, setting up a likely Supreme Court battle over Trump’s sweeping attempt to reshape the federal workforce and expand presidential power. U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson’s ruling blocks the removal of Hampton Dellinger as head of the Office of Special Counsel, which investigates whistleblower reports filed by government workers and protects federal employees from retaliation, political coercion and other practices that are barred in the federal workplace.
Teachers Union Leader Aims to Hit Elon Musk Where It Hurts
Newsweek
By Peter Aitken
March 2, 2025
The American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the nation's second-largest teacher's labor union, is looking to hit billionaire Elon Musk in his pocketbook by requesting major asset managers to review Tesla's valuation, citing a drastic drop in its stock price. AFT President Randi Weingarten, who has led the union since 2008 following a decade as the president of the United Federation of Teachers in New York, issued the request on Thursday to BlackRock, Vanguard, State Street, T. Rowe Price, Fidelity and TIAA. The union urged the companies to take "immediate action to review investments in Tesla, a company in apparent severe decline and at grave risk of further devaluation." Union members have deferred wages invested in pension funds with these companies that total an estimated $4 trillion and include "a material amount of the automaker's shares."
Democrats Invite Fired Federal Workers to Trump’s Congressional Address
The New York Times
By Maya C. Miller
March 2, 2025
Rather than boycott President Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress, some Democratic lawmakers are inviting former federal workers to the speech on Tuesday as a way to protest the mass firings and funding cuts that have defined Mr. Trump’s first month back in office. Federal workers’ treatment by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has energized constituents across the country in recent weeks, with many overloading lawmakers’ phone lines and showing up at town halls to voice their displeasure.
DOGE Claims Credit for Killing Contracts That Were Already Dead
The New York Times
By David A. FahrentholdMargot Sanger-Katz and Jeremy Singer-Vine
March 2, 2025
Last week, Elon Musk’s restructuring team, called the Department of Government Efficiency or DOGE, said it had just canceled the long-dead Coast Guard contract — and in doing so, saved U.S. taxpayers $53.7 million. That claim, posted on the group’s “wall of receipts,” bewildered experts on federal contracting. And there were others like it. Even after Mr. Musk’s group deleted several large erroneous claims from its website last week, The New York Times found that it had added new mistakes — claiming credit for “canceling” contracts that had actually ended under previous presidents. “These are not savings,” said Lisa Shea Mundt, whose firm, The Pulse of GovCon, tracks federal spending. “The money’s been spent. Period. Point blank.”
How DOGE detonated a crisis at a highly sensitive nuclear weapons agency
The Washington Post
By Evan Halper and Hannah Natanson
Feb. 2, 2025
Amid the tumult of mass firings, the Trump administration’s dismissal of workers who maintain America’s nuclear weapons delivered perhaps the greatest shock. These are people with highly sensitive jobs, the Energy Department would later acknowledge, who should have never been fired.
Federal Judges Are Ordering Trump to Slow Down. Will He Listen?
The New York Times
By Mattathias Schwartz and Zach Montague
March 2, 2025
Justice Department lawyers, confronting an onslaught of legal challenges, have made a case in court that expansive executive power inherent in the Constitution buttresses the lawfulness of President Trump’s aggressive unilateral actions. Outside the courtroom, however, legal niceties have little to do with the strategies pursued by White House officials and their allies as they attack individual judges, question the legitimacy of the courts — and undermine the separation of powers that has been at the core of American governance since the nation’s beginning.
Trump administration questions federal employees’ use of official time for union activities
Federal News Network
By Drew Friedman
Feb. 28, 2025
The Trump administration is digging further into federal employees’ union activities, according to a memo the Office of Personnel Management published Thursday evening. OPM is asking agencies to submit information on federal employees’ use of “official time” — or on-the-clock hours that go toward union-related work such as negotiating contracts or resolving employee disputes. OPM is also asking for the names and job titles of all employees who are spending any of their work hours on official time.
LABOR AND ECONOMY
US consumer spending posts first drop in almost two years
Reuters
By Lucia Mutikani
Feb. 28, 2025
U.S. consumer spending fell for the first time in nearly two years in January and the goods trade deficit widened to a record high as businesses front-loaded imports to avoid tariffs, setting up the economy for weak growth or even a contraction this quarter. While the data from the Commerce Department on Friday also showed a moderation in annual inflation last month, prices showed some stickiness, with fairly solid monthly gains. In addition, President Donald Trump's administration is ratcheting up tariffs, which economists said would raise prices as businesses pass on the higher costs of imported goods to consumers.
ORGANIZING
Translators for deaf seek support for unionization drive
People’s World
By Mark Gruenberg
Feb. 28, 2025
Yet the translators, who are trying to unionize with the Office and Professional Employees, are underpaid, overworked and burned out because their call centers are short-staffed. There is insufficient privacy for the workers in the call centers, even as they deal with sensitive and personal information—such as bank balances and medical history—from their deaf and hard-of-hearing clients. There’s also poor-quality hardware, long wait times for service, insufficient training and “repetitive physical and mental injury” to the workers, a fact sheet says.
Penn State faculty ramps up efforts to form labor union
WJACTV
By Gary Sinderson
Feb. 28, 2025
At Penn State, there's a new effort to form a faculty labor union. The Penn State Faculty Alliance has gone online with the proposal, which is not unheard of, as Pennsylvania’s three other state-related universities - Pitt, Temple and Lincoln - all have faculty unions. At Penn State, the alliance says faculty from various campuses have already signed union authorization cards.
UNION NEGOTIATIONS
Alaska Air flight attendants ratify labor contract
Reuters
By Reuters
Feb. 28, 2025
Alaska Air flight attendants have ratified a new three-year labor contract, a union representing the workers said on Friday. The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, the union representing the attendants at the Seattle-based carrier, said that 95% of the votes cast supported the new agreement. The ratified agreement would provide attendants with pay increases ranging from 18.6% to 28.3%, boarding pay, 25 months of retroactive pay and two additional raises over the contract's duration, among other benefits, the union said.
After More Than Four Years of Talks, NBC News’ Digital Editorial Staff Gets Tentative Contract Deal
The Hollywood Reporter
By Katie Kilkenny
Feb. 28, 2025
NBC News‘ digital editorial staff will be able to delay a recent round of staff cuts and will have new layoff protections under the terms of a long-awaited first contract deal, reached on Thursday. The provisional three-year pact, announced on Friday, offers union members advance notice of layoffs and preferential treatment for rehire and a minimum of eight weeks of severance if they are cut from the job. The deal was reached just weeks after NBC News laid off dozens of employees, including 20 workers covered by the union, after previous rounds of layoffs in 2023 and 2024.
Skidmore College, non-tenure track faculty reach contract deal
WAMC
By Aaron Shellow-Lavine
Feb. 28, 2025
After two years of negotiations, non-tenured faculty at Skidmore College have reached a tentative contract agreement with the private college in Saratoga Springs. Nearly 200 non-tenure-track faculty, including artists-in-residence, librarians, and some music instructors, voted to unionize with SEIU Local200United in September of 2022. More than 40 bargaining sessions have been held since, with representatives of the college and the union finally reaching a tentative collective bargaining agreement Tuesday.
ATI, United Steelworkers negotiating contract set to expire
TribLive
By Tawnya Panizzi
Feb. 28, 2025
Contract negotiations between ATI and United Steelworkers continued Friday in an effort to reach an agreement before midnight, when the current deal is set to expire. Union representatives met with heads of the specialty materials company in Pittsburgh on Friday morning. It was unclear how long the two sides would be in meetings, according to a secretary at Local 1196 in Brackenridge.
Fontainebleau Las Vegas agrees to contract with Culinary Union; every Strip casino now 100% union
2 News
By 2 News Nevada Digital Team
Feb. 28, 2025
After 18 nonstop hours of contract negotiations, a tentative agreement has been reached between the Culinary and Bartenders Unions and the Fountainebleau Las Vegas. This agreement was reached on December 19, 2024 and ratified later on December 30. This means that for the first time in the Culinary Union's history, every casino resort on the Las Vegas Strip is unionized. The first-time union contract with the Fontainebleau, secured after just four months of negotiations, includes the standard union protections that are in place at every casino on the Las Vegas Strip - including things like Culinary Health Fund benefits, access to the Culinary & Bartenders Legal Service Fund, Culinary Union Pension and verbiage to protect workers' safety and security.
Henry Ford Rochester nurses protest over working conditions, stalled bargaining talks
Fox2 Detroit
By Hilary Golston and David Komer
Feb. 28, 2025
A group of nurses at Henry Ford Rochester Hospital picketed Friday over what they believe are unfair labor practices, stalled bargaining, and deteriorating working conditions. The nurses say it is affecting the quality of care they can offer, while waiting more than two years trying to have their issues addressed. In that span they say more than a dozen unfair labor practice complaints have been filed, without a satisfactory response. "It’s about safe patient care. It’s about the ability of the nurse to take good care of their patients," said Dina Carlisle, OPEIU Local 40.
Eastern Music Festival Cancels 2025 Festival Amid Contract Negotiations
The Violin Channel
By The Violin Channel
Feb. 28, 2024
Due to ongoing labor negotiations, the Eastern Music Festival (EMF) has withdrawn its 2025 season, which was set to run from June 28–August 2, 2025, in Greensboro, North Carolina. This news comes as the nonprofit’s management has been unable to reach a mutually acceptable collective bargaining agreement (EMF’s first) with the faculty members represented by Local 342 of the American Federation of Musicians. Among the union’s requests is that EMF faculty must always perform in a fully professional orchestra.
Baton Rouge bus workers to strike Monday, union says; CATS says service to continue
The Advocate
By Haley Miller
March 2, 2025
“We want the traveling public to stand with us in regards to fair working conditions, having a just, fair contract, so we can continue servicing the public,” ATU Local 1546 President George DeCuir said. “We want the public to have the best transit agency in the state of Louisiana.”
UC health clinicians, researchers, technicians lead two-day strike
Daily Nexus
By Lizzy Rager and Grace Medecki
March 1, 2025
University Professional and Technical Employees Communications Workers of America (UPTE-CWA) Local 9119 represents nearly 20,000 employees in various research labs and medical facilities across the UC system. Workers include nurse care managers, mental health counselors, optometrists, pharmacists, physical therapists, clinical researchers, IT analysts and animal health technicians.
Nurses call off strike at NYU Langone hospital
Becker’s Hopsital Review
By Kelly Gooch
Feb. 28, 2025
Members of the Federation of Nurses/United Federation of Teachers have approved a new labor contract with NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn, part of New York City-based NYU Langone Health. The two-year agreement, announced Feb. 28, averts a potential strike slated to begin March 1. Under the deal, nurses will receive a 9.25% wage increase effective March 1; and an increase of 6% effective March 1, 2026, for a compounded increase of 15.8% over 12 months, according to a union news release.
JOINING TOGETHER
Rowan University, North American’s Building Trades Union expand partnership
ROI-NJ
By ROI-NJ Staff
Feb. 28, 2025
NABTU President Sean McGarvey highlighted the long-term benefits of the initiative. “This exciting partnership between Rowan University and NABTU will continue expanding career opportunities for hardworking unionized building trades members,” McGarvey said. “By providing access to professional development courses and education credits, we’ll keep empowering construction professionals to strengthen their skills, advance their careers, and achieve their academic goals—all while ensuring affordability and accessibility.”
Local hospitality workers rally for livable wages ahead of Final Four
News4 San Antonio
By Taylor Whartnaby and Jarryd Luna
Feb. 28, 2025
Dozens of hospitality workers gathered outside City Hall Friday, demanding a livable wage as the city prepares to host the 2025 NCAA Men's Final Four in early April. The event is expected to generate significant revenue, but workers feel they are not receiving their fair share. William Gonzalez, Secretary Treasurer of the labor union Unite Here Local 23, emphasized the importance of the hospitality sector to San Antonio's economy. "We have hospitality workers behind us, hotel food service workers, and we're here today in City Hall because everybody knows how important the hospitality is to the economy of San Antonio," he said.
STATE LEGISLATION
Labor groups rally against 'right to work' bill at Montana Legislature
Longview News-Journal
By Seaborn Larson
March 1, 2025
Organized labor groups in Montana took to the Capitol steps on Friday to rally against the last bill standing aimed at disrupting union efforts. The groups have rallied the last several sessions against "right to work" legislation and this year also faced down two other bills they say could hobble a union’s ability to organize and bargain with employers."We’re all red-blooded Americans," said the AFL-CIO’s Adam Haight during Friday's rally in front of the state Capitol. "We’re just not bootlickers for billionaires."
OTHER UNION NEWS
Editorial: Unionization votes in The Triangle signal a shift in Southern labor relations
The Daily Tar Heel
By Editorial Board
Feb. 27, 2025
"Amid recent legislation passed by the federal government defunding industries and encouraging layoffs, unions are more important than ever. It is essential that workers have a platform to change workplace issues without risking their employment status. In the era of the ultra-wealthy, disappearing middle class and a drastic wealth gap, we need organized labor movements. Out of 50 states and the District of Columbia, North Carolina placed dead last in percentage of unionized laborers statewide, at 2.4 percent."