Today's AFL-CIO press clips
MUST READ
'An American President Is Not a King': Judge Reinstates Labor Regulator Illegally Fired by Trump
Common Dreams
By Jessica Corbett
March 6, 2025
The president's attempt to fire Wilcox halted federal labor law enforcement in the United States. AFL-CIO president Liz Shuler celebrated Howell's ruling in a Thursday statement, saying that "more than a month after Trump effectively shut down the NLRB by illegally firing Gwynne Wilcox, denying it the quorum it needs to hold union-busters accountable, the court ordered Wilcox immediately returned to her seat, allowing the NLRB to get back to its essential work."
POLITICS
Court rules Trump’s firing of labor board official illegal, saying president is not a king
The Guardian
By Michael Sainato
March 6, 2025
The AFL-CIO, the largest federation of labor unions in the US, held a rally in support of Wilcox outside the courthouse during Wednesday’s hearing. “A week after taking office, President Trump effectively shut down the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and jeopardized the NLRB’s independence by illegally firing Wilcox, the first Black woman to serve on the Board,” said the AFL-CIO.
With strong union support, lawmakers reintroduce PRO Act
People’s World
By Mark Gruenberg
March 6, 2025
AFL-CIO President Shuler declared the time is politically right to pass the PRO Act. Organized labor’s popularity—a 70%-71% approval rating in the last two yearly Gallup polls, is at an all-time high. “Every other issue splits right down the middle,” she noted. Though Shuler didn’t say so, the mass and illegal firings of federal workers—union and non-union—by Trump and his puppeteer, Elon Musk, have driven union membership up since Trump took over.
US Agency to Cease Facilitating Easier Unionization Process
Bloomberg
By Josh Eidelson
March 6, 2025
The federal agency tasked with resolving workplace conflicts has decided to stop facilitating an easier process for unionization. The Federal Mediation & Conciliation Service confirmed it will no longer assist with card check, a process in which employers agree to recognize and negotiate with a union once a majority of employees sign up. It’s an alternative to secret ballot elections, which often come with contentious campaigning and allegations of anti-union coercion or retaliation, followed by legal appeals by the losing side.
Trump Is Said to Be Preparing Order That Aims to Eliminate Education Dept.
The New York Times
By Michael C. Bender
March 6, 2025
The American Federation of Teachers noted in a statement late Wednesday that the Education Department was “legally required” to distribute federal funds — money approved for poor students, those with disabilities and others — to states. “Any attempt by the Trump administration or Congress to gut these programs would be a grave mistake, and we will fight them tooth and nail,” said Randi Weingarten, president of the union.
Federal judge reinstates labor board member fired by President Donald Trump
AP
By Michael Kunzelman
March 6, 2025
A federal judge ruled Thursday that President Donald Trump acted illegally when he fired a member of an independent labor agency, and the judge ordered that she be allowed to remain on the job. U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell in Washington, D.C., found Trump did not have the authority to remove Gwynne Wilcox from the National Labor Relations Board. “An American president is not a king — not even an ‘elected’ one — and his power to remove federal officers and honest civil servants like plaintiff is not absolute,” Howell wrote.
NBC News
By Gary Grumbach, Chloe Atkins and Zoë Richards
March 6, 2025
A federal judge Thursday ordered the reinstatement of a National Labor Relations Board member and had harsh words for President Donald Trump in the process. Senior Judge Beryl Howell, of U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., said Trump lacks the power to freely fire members of the NLRB, in this case Gwynne Wilcox, the first Black woman to serve on the board.
Trump preparing to sign order to dismantle Education Department
CNN
By Kevin Liptak and Tami Luhby
March 6, 2025
President Donald Trump could decide this week to take the first steps to eliminate the Department of Education, people familiar with the matter said, as he looks to dramatically shrink the size of the federal government. White House officials have prepared an executive order directing Education Secretary Linda McMahon to begin the process of dismantling the department, the sources said. Trump has long signaled his intention to close the department, but fully eliminating it will require Congress to act, McMahon said during confirmation hearings earlier this year. She was confirmed Monday.
Draft executive order calls for closing Education Dept.
The Washington Post
By Laura Meckler
March 6, 2025
President Donald Trump is set to issue an executive order directing his newly confirmed education secretary to work to close the department she now leads, two people familiar with the situation said. A draft of the executive order that circulated on Wednesday recognizes that the president does not have the power to shutter the Education Department. It would take an act of Congress and 60 “yes” votes in the Senate, which is unlikely given that Republicans hold only 53 seats.
US federal workers hit back at Trump mass firings with class action complaints
Reuters
By Daniel Wiessner
March 6, 2025
U.S. government employees who have been fired in the Trump administration's purge of recently hired workers are responding with class action-style complaints claiming that the mass firings are illegal and tens of thousands of people should get their jobs back. Lawyers at two firms said on Thursday that they had filed six appeals with the federal Merit Systems Protection Board since last week and, along with other law firms, plan to bring about 15 more on an agency-by-agency basis on behalf of large groups of workers who were fired in recent weeks.
Judge Blocks Trump’s Funding Freeze, Saying White House Put Itself ‘Above Congress’
The New York Times
By Zach Montague
March 6, 2025
A federal judge on Thursday extended an order barring the Trump administration from withholding billions in congressionally approved funds to 22 states and the District of Columbia, finding that the administration had overstepped its authority in telling agencies to stem the flow of money for federal programs appropriated by Congress.
Trump expected to sign Education Department executive order
CBS News
By Fin Gómez and Jennifer Jacobs
March 6, 2025
Randi Weingarten, the head of the nation's largest teachers' union, the AFT, issued a statement Thursday morning noting an NPR/PBS News/Marist poll with 63% of respondents "strongly opposed" to dismantling the Education Department. "The Department of Education, and the laws it is supposed to execute, has one major purpose: to level the playing field and fill opportunity gaps to help every child in America succeed," Weingarten said. "Trying to abolish it — which, by the way, only Congress can do — sends a message that the president doesn't care about opportunity for all kids. Maybe he cares about it for his own kids or his friends' kids or his donors' kids — but not all kids."
As Trump Goes After Universities, Students Are Now on the Chopping Block
The New York Times
By Stephanie Saul
March 6, 2025
In the early weeks of the Trump administration’s push to slash funding that colleges and universities rely on, grants and contracts had been cut and, in a few cases, researchers had been laid off. In recent days, the fiscal pain has come to students. At the University of Pennsylvania, administrators have asked departments in the School of Arts & Sciences, the university’s largest school, to cut incoming Ph.D. students. In some cases, that meant reneging on informal offers, according to Wendy Roth, a professor of sociology.
Trump’s Cuts to Federal Work Force Push Out Young Employees
The New York Times
By Madeleine Ngo
March 6, 2025
Among the federal workers whose careers and lives have been upended in recent weeks are those who represent the next generation of civil servants and are now wrestling with whether they can even consider a future in public service.
DOGE plans to cut VA contracts may harm veterans' care, employees say
NBC News
By Gretchen Morgenson and Laura Strickler
March 6, 2025
Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency abandoned some of its plans to slash contract spending for veterans’ health care services this week after a revolt by front-line Veterans Health Administration employees who contended many of the cuts would imperil safety at the agency’s almost 1,400 hospitals and clinics.
Senate tees up final vote on Lori Chavez-DeRemer to lead Labor Department
The Hill
By Al Weaver
March 6, 2025
Former Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R-Ore.) is a step closer to winning confirmation to lead the Department of Labor after the Senate on Thursday voted on a bipartisan basis to advance her nomination. Senators voted 66-30 to limit debate on the nomination, paving the way for Chavez-DeRemer to be confirmed when the chamber reconvenes next week.
"This isn’t just a job to us": Fired federal workers decry the Trump-Musk assault on government
Salon
By Russell Payne
March 6, 2025
Federal workers are pushing back on President Donald Trump’s claims about the state of the country and the mass firing spree under his watch, warning it will undermine communities and leave people across the country with diminished access to the services that they rely on. At the news conference Wednesday, Paul Osadebe, a union steward with the American Federation of Government Employees Local 476, said that Trump’s lengthy State of the Union speech this week was but his latest attempt to “distract and to pit Americans against each other.”
MarketWatch
By Alessandra Malito
March 5, 2025
“Tonight, President Trump doubled down on Elon Musk’s debunked lies about Social Security supposedly paying benefits to the deceased,” said Richard Fiesta, executive director of the Alliance for Retired Americans. “Fewer than 100,000 Americans over the age of 100 receive Social Security benefits—about the same number of people who have actually reached that age.” Fiesta said that repeating these claims helps ”pave the way” for Social Security benefit cuts.
Judge says Trump illegally fired National Labor Relations Board member
The Washington Post
By Lauren Kaori Gurley and Julian Mark
March 6, 2025
A federal judge on Thursday blocked President Donald Trump from firing a Democratic member of the National Labor Relations Board, calling the dismissal “flat wrong” in a ruling that could set up a Supreme Court showdown over the parameters of presidential power.
US judge reinstates Democratic labor board member fired by Trump
Reuters
By Daniel Wiessner
March 6, 2025
A federal judge on Thursday said U.S. President Donald Trump's firing of a Democratic member of the National Labor Relations Board was illegal and ordered that she be reinstated to her post.
The decision by U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell in Washington, D.C., restores a quorum of three members at the labor board, which had been paralyzed and unable to decide cases involving private-sector employers after Trump removed Gwynne Wilcox in January.
Labor regulator Trump fired must be reinstated, judge rules
Politico
By Kyle Cheney and Nick Niedzwiadek
March 6, 2025
A federal judge repudiated President Donald Trump’s effort to remove the chair of the National Labor Relations Board, calling it an “illegal act” and “power grab” that misunderstands the limits of his authority. “An American President is not a king — not even an ‘elected’ one,” U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell wrote Thursday in a 36-page opinion, “and his power to remove federal officers and honest civil servants … is not absolute, but may be constrained in appropriate circumstances.”
WVIA
By Kat Bolus
March 6, 2025
Morale is low at the Tobyhanna Army Depot, and some of the approximately 3,000 employees – 30% who are veterans – are stressed that they might not be able to retire from the depot, said Ned George, the president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 1647.
Trump tells Cabinet that they, not Musk, should ‘go first’ in cutting workers
The Washington Post
By Emily Davies, Dan Diamond, Lena H. Sun, Hannah Natanson and Salvador Rizzo
March 6, 2025
President Donald Trump directed Cabinet members Thursday to be more involved in deciding which government workers are shed, rather than waiting for directives from Elon Musk, a subtle but important shift in the overhaul of the federal workforce that he and his billionaire adviser have championed.
Discussing the impact of the U.S. Department of Education
Spectrum News
BY Dan Reidy
March 6, 2025
The Trump administration is working to overhaul the U.S. Department of Education and potentially attempt to dismantle portions of it with an executive order as early as this week. The American Federation of Teachers is a union which advocates for high-quality public education. While it would require congressional approval to close the department of education, which is something President Trump has advocated for, we’re hearing any level of cutbacks will impact all levels of education from early to higher-ed. “The implications of what the Department of Education does," Jessica Tang said, "and how it will impact local school districts is something that we're very concerned about.”
DOGE wants them ‘gone’ but makes it hard for federal workers to move on
The Washington Post
By Danielle Paquette
March 7, 2025
They wanted to move on. But like a toxic ex, the workers joked, the federal government seemed hell-bent on sabotaging a clean break. “They want us gone,” lamented one government IT specialist who’d just been maybe-fired, “but they’re making it so hard to get away.”
War heroes and military firsts are among 26,000 images flagged for removal in Pentagon’s DEI purge
AP
By Tara Copp, Lolita C. Baldor and Kevin Vineys
March 6, 2025
References to a World War II Medal of Honor recipient, the Enola Gay aircraft that dropped an atomic bomb on Japan and the first women to pass Marine infantry training are among the tens of thousands of photos and online posts marked for deletion as the Defense Department works to purge diversity, equity and inclusion content, according to a database obtained by The Associated Press. The database, which was confirmed by U.S. officials and published by AP, includes more than 26,000 images that have been flagged for removal across every military branch. But the eventual total could be much higher.
LABOR AND ECONOMY
DOGE onslaught pushed layoff announcements to highest point since 2020
NBC News
By Rob Wile
March 6, 2025
An unofficial but closely watched measure of the U.S. labor market's health found February had the most layoff announcements since early in the pandemic, amid massive federal workforce cuts led by Elon Musk's DOGE effort.
Fed's Harker says warning signs emerging for US economy
Reuters
By Michael S. Derby
March 6, 2025
Philadelphia Federal Reserve President Patrick Harker said on Thursday that trouble may be brewing for a U.S. economy that is currently in good shape but showing signs of stress in the consumer sector and risks to the inflation outlook. Unemployment still low, still getting growth, but there are threats to this. We're starting to see that confidence is starting to wane" on both the consumer and business fronts, Harker said in remarks at his regional Fed bank.
Workers behind 'Sesame Street' learn of layoffs one hour after announcing union
The Chief
By Duncan Freeman
March 6, 2025
The dozens of Sesame Workshop employees who gathered in a small park near Lincoln Center Tuesday morning could hardly contain their excitement. Moments before the 10:30 gathering, 60 workers at the nonprofit behind “Sesame Street” had delivered a letter to management asking them to recognize their nascent union. The delivery to CEO Sherrie Westin was the culmination of 18 months of organizing more than 210 workers into a bargaining unit within Local 153 of the Office and Professional Employees International Union. Afterwards, employees jovially headed to the park to listen to speeches from coworkers, sing classic “Sesame Street” songs and dance to celebrate their first major step as a union.
NLRB
Shedd Aquarium workers’ union claims penguin trainer fired for activism
Chicago Sun-Times
By Amy Yee
March 6, 2025
The labor union representing Shedd Aquarium workers claimed management fired a penguin trainer in retaliation for her union activism, according to a charge filed on Wednesday. Shedd Workers United/AFSCME said aquarium management violated federal labor law by firing penguin and sea otter expert Michelle Nastasowski for joining coworkers to organize a union last year.
ORGANIZING
Second Baltimore Starbucks has voted to unionize
WBAL
By Trenice Bishop
March 6, 2025
Some Baltimore baristas are celebrating a win. That’s after workers at the Starbucks location at the Rotunda voted to join Starbucks Workers United. This makes the Rotunda the 11th Starbucks location in Maryland and the second in Baltimore to unionize. Over 150 Starbucks stores have voted to join the union since February 2024. More than 5,000 baristas took part in a strike in December 2024 that shut down over 300 stores across the country.
The Southern Women Handling 1-800-MEDICARE Calls Still Want a Union
Capital and Main
By Jesse Baum
March 5, 2025
Two days before the inauguration of President Donald Trump, Anna “Razor Blade” Flemmings took to a podium in pearls and a red Communication Workers of America union T-shirt and spoke her mind. “I want better for me, my coworkers and our children,” said Flemmings, 58, who handles calls to 1-800-MEDICARE for Maximus Inc., a government contractor. A couple dozen of her Maximus coworkers, mainly Black women working out of Hattiesburg, Mississippi, sat at round tables covered in white plastic tablecloths. Paper plates of baked chicken and macaroni and cheese sat before them and their guests, a handful of children and allies in other labor unions. Behind Flemmings, a projector balanced atop a box of Moonpies showed a photo of Maximus workers at a demonstration in front of the call center just a few miles away.
UNION NEGOTIATIONS
B&N Workers Ratify First Union Contracts at NYC Stores
Publishers Weekly
By By Ed Nawotka
March 6, 2025
The Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) announced that Barnes & Noble employees at three New York City locations have ratified their first union contracts. The agreements cover more than 200 workers across the flagship Union Square, Park Slope, and West 82nd Street locations. "Workers at Barnes & Noble should be incredibly proud of what they've accomplished together in these historic first union contracts,” RWDSU president Stuart Appelbaum said in a statement. “United in their fight for increased safety in their stores, it was their voices among others across our union that won increased protections for everyone in the industry through the Retail Worker Safety Act."
Adjunct faculty union pushes for pay raises in contract negotiations
The GW Hatchet
By Tyler Iglesias
March 6, 2025
A union of adjunct and part-time faculty are seeking pay increases and greater access to professional development as they negotiate a new collective bargaining agreement, which negotiators and University officials project to conclude by the end of the semester. The union, an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union Local 500, has been bargaining with University officials since October after the previous one expired in December. Kip Lornell, a professor emeritus of music, history and culture and a member of the union’s bargaining committee, said the University has been “professional” and “direct” during the negotiations, which he projects will conclude by the end of March.
GM-LG battery plant workers in Tennessee approve first UAW contract
Detroit Free Press
By Kalea Hall
March 6, 2025
The UAW said Wednesday that workers at a battery manufacturing joint venture between General Motors and South Korea's LG Energy Solution in Tennessee have overwhelmingly approved a first contract with the company. The agreement, approved by nearly 1,000 UAW members working for the Ultium Cells joint venture, improves upon gains achieved in the union's national contract with GM for those workers, the union said.
UAW members at GM-LG JV approve first union contract
Just Auto
By Staff
March 6, 2025
United Auto Workers (UAW) members working at the Ultium Cells battery plant in Tennessee, have voted in favour of their inaugural union contract. Ultium Cells is a joint venture (JV) between General Motors (GM) and South Korea’s LG Energy Solution. The ratification by nearly 1,000 UAW-affiliated employees at the Tennessee plant represents a significant step forward, enhancing the terms previously established in the national contract with GM.
Union workers and city at odds over contract negotiations in Mt. Pleasant
Southeast Iowa Union
By AnnaMarie Kruse
March 5, 2025
Tensions between municipal utility workers and the City of Mt. Pleasant continued to rise Tuesday, Feb. 25 over contract negotiations as workers and union supporters rallied outside City Hall before the scheduled Utilities Board meeting. Union supporters argue that the city’s proposals go beyond typical contract negotiations. In communications from President of the Iowa Federation of Labor AFL-CIO Charlie Wishman, he stated that the city's stance is “unprecedented,” and alleged that it seeks to “strip away all rights that are permissible for their employees.”