Today's AFL-CIO press clips
POLITICS
Trump labor appointees paint unclear picture for future
HR Brew
By Adam DeRose
March 12, 2025
“We urge Chavez-DeRemer to use her position in the Trump Cabinet to advocate forcefully for working people who depend on the Department of Labor to vigorously defend our wages, health and safety, and freedom to join a union,” AFL-CIO president Liz Shuler said in a statement.
Social Security scraps far-reaching cuts to phone services after Post report
The Washington Post
By Hannah Natanson, Lisa Rein, Elizabeth Dwoskin and Faiz Siddiqui
March 12, 2025
The Social Security Administration late Wednesday abandoned plans it was considering to end phone service for millions of Americans filing retirement and disability claims after The Washington Post reported that Elon Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service team was weighing the change to root out alleged fraud. The shift would have directed elderly and disabled people to rely on the internet and in-person field offices to process their claims, curtailing a service that 73 million Americans have relied on for decades to access earned government benefits.
House OK’s budget allowing Musk chainsaw to continue illegal cuts
People’s World
By Mark Gruenberg
March 12, 2025
AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler, Teachers/AFT President Randi Weingarten, National Education Association President Becky Pringle and AFGE all criticized the firings at the Education Department. Weingarten wants “Congress and the courts to step in and stop the cuts.” In a prior statement, AFGE President Everett Kelley predicted Musk’s meat-axe approach to firing workers—which the money bill allows–would hurt everyone in the country.
E.P.A. Plans to Close All Environmental Justice Offices
The New York Times
By Lisa Friedman
March 12, 2025
The Trump administration intends to eliminate Environmental Protection Agency offices responsible for addressing the disproportionately high levels of pollution facing poor communities, according to a memo from Lee Zeldin, the agency administrator. In the internal memo, viewed by The New York Times, Mr. Zeldin informed agency leaders that he was directing “the reorganization and elimination” of the offices of environmental justice at all 10 E.P.A. regional offices as well as the one in Washington.
Are Schools Succeeding? Trump Education Department Cuts Could Make It Hard to Know.
The New York Times
By Dana Goldstein and Sarah Mervosh
March 12, 2025
Deep cuts to staff and funding in the Department of Education will deal a major blow to the public’s understanding of how American students are performing and what schools can do to improve. On Tuesday evening, at least 100 federal workers who focus on education research, student testing and basic data collection were laid off from the Department of Education, part of a bloodletting of 1,300 staffers. Outside of government, at least 700 people in the field of social science research were laid off or furloughed over the past week, largely as a result of federal cuts to education research.
What’s being lost with the DOGE cuts? These fired feds can tell you.
The Washington Post
By Kyle Swenson, Rachel Roubein and Amudalat Ajasa
March 12, 2025
One was the person behind the welcome desk at a Massachusetts Veterans Affairs outreach center, the first face struggling veterans saw when they came for help. Another was the Energy Department employee responsible for knowing the thousand-page permit required for the disposal of hazardous waste. Another, the U.S. Forest Service employee responsible for hiring local teenagers each summer to keep national park trails clean.
'Project 2025 in Action': Trump Administration Fires Half of Education Department Staff
Common Dreams
By Jake Johnson
March 12, 2025
The Trump administration on Tuesday took a major step toward dismantling the U.S. Department of Education by firing roughly half of the agency's workforce, a decision that teachers' unions and other champions of public education said would have devastating consequences for the nation's school system. The department, now led by billionaire Linda McMahon, moved swiftly, terminating more than 1,300 federal workers on Tuesday including employees at the agency's student aid and civil rights offices.
Senators to Trump Social Security nominee: ‘You will be responsible’ if benefits are interrupted
CNBC
By Lorie Konish
March 12, 2025
Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Ron Wyden of Oregon are warning Frank Bisignano, the nominee to lead the Social Security Administration, that he will be responsible if staff cuts interfere with the agency’s ability to process and disburse benefit checks. President Donald Trump has nominated Bisignano, chief executive of payments and financial technology company Fiserv, to serve as commissioner of the agency, which is responsible for sending monthly benefit payments to more than 72 million Americans.
Layoff plans are due Thursday. Feds are terrified.
Politico
By Robin Bravender
March 12, 2025
Agencies across the federal government are facing a Thursday deadline to submit plans for sweeping workforce cuts and reorganizations. President Donald Trump ordered agencies last month to draft plans for “large-scale reductions in force,” and his administration gave agencies a March 13 deadline to hand over plans for “initial agency cuts and reductions,” with another round due in April.
Postal Workers Unions Ready to 'Fight Like Hell' Against Trump-Musk Attack on USPS
Common Dreams
By Eloise Goldsmith
March 12, 2025
On March 20, postal workers who are represented by the American Postal Workers Union (APWU) and their allies will hold a day of action to resist "threats of privatization and political interference to the public Postal Service," according to the union's website. Locals around the country are participating. Meanwhile, the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC), which represents U.S. Postal Service employees who are city letter carriers, will host local rallies on March 23 at NALC branches to "fight like hell" against "dismantling" the widely cherished public delivery service.
What parents, teachers and school choice groups think of Education Department cuts
NPR
By Nicole Cohen
March 12, 2025
Reaction to massive job cuts at the U.S. Department of Education came swiftly, with teachers unions and some parents groups condemning the moves, while supporters of school choice cheered them. Employees of the department help send federal funding to high-poverty districts and students with disabilities; they make sure students aren't being discriminated against at school, and they help college students pay for their degrees.
Postal workers protest Trump administration’s potential privatization of USPS
WLOX
By Destiny Polster
March 12, 2025
The next entity at risk of being dissected by the Trump Administration is the United States Postal Service. Across the country, the staple light blue uniform is being traded for these red shirts, reading “fight like hell”. To match, a number of firm chants defend the USPS as it faces the potential threat of being dismantled and privatized. “The president mentioned some sort of a merger with a private sector. We are 100% opposed to any sort of privatization,” says Brian Renfroe. Renfroe is the president of the National Association of Letter Carriers. He visits Biloxi from the association’s headquarters in Washington, D.C.
Donald Trump Is Trying to Bust the Airport Screeners’ Union
Jacobin
By Jenny Brown
March 12, 2025
In a memo that that one TSA employee said sounded like “a teenage blogger writing about someone they don’t like,” the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced March 7 that it was canceling the union contract for 47,000 workers at the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) signed its contract with TSA in May 2024, and it wasn’t set to expire until 2031.
Trump Labor Department Cuts Child Care Programs For Its Own Employees
HuffPost
By Arthur Delaney and Dave Jamieson
March 12, 2025
The U.S. Department of Labor will no longer give its employees backup child care and certain other perks, according to internal announcements obtained by HuffPost. Emergency backup day care, child care subsidies, on-site health clinics and an employee mental health program are apparently the latest casualties in efforts by billionaire Elon Musk to slash the federal bureaucracy for President Donald Trump.
What the Education Department layoffs could mean for students with disabilities
NBC News
By Tyler Kingkade and Adam Edelman
March 12, 2025
Massive layoffs initiated this week at the Education Department could hamstring the federal government’s efforts to assist students with disabilities, former officials and education experts said, citing blows to the agency’s civil rights and research divisions. On Tuesday, the department began laying off around 1,300 employees, cutting nearly half the staff in its Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and over 100 from the Institute of Education Sciences, according to information released by American Federation of Government Employees Local 252, the union for department staff members.
‘Students will suffer harm’: Education Department’s civil rights office gutted by layoffs, closures
CNN
By Sunlen Serfaty
March 12, 2025
The Education Department’s civil rights office has been among the hardest hit by layoffs, with the Trump administration shuttering seven of its 12 regional offices and laying off nearly half of its staff. One current employee said the moves amount to a “soft closing” of the office. “This will completely halt the vast majority of cases that we can take in, evaluate and investigate,” said the employee, who asked to remain anonymous out of fear of retribution. The Office for Civil Rights, or OCR, aims to protect students by holding schools and colleges that receive federal funds accountable for combating antisemitism, islamophobia, racism and discrimination against students with disabilities.
LABOR AND ECONOMY
Many Americans see Trump's actions on economy as too erratic, Reuters/Ipsos poll finds
Reuters
By Reuters
March 12, 2025
Some 57% of Americans think President Donald Trump is being too erratic in his moves to shake up the U.S. economy, including his aggressive strategy to tax imports that has spooked the stock market, a Reuters/Ipsos poll that closed on Wednesday found.
ORGANIZING
Hennepin Healthcare physicians aim to unionize, citing financial stress and exhaustion
KARE11
By Lydia Morrell
March 12, 2025
About 200 resident physicians at Hennepin Healthcare filed for union recognition on Wednesday, according to the Committee of Interns and Residents (CIR/SEIU). The physicians request that Hennepin Healthcare voluntarily recognize their union and begin negotiations. CIR/SEIU shared that physicians are looking to negotiate on understaffing, payment, and working hours, among other topics.
Loyola’s RA’s and Desk Workers Could Follow UIC’s and Unionize
The Loyola Phoenix
By Jackson Steffens
March 12, 2025
Desk workers and resident assistants at the University of Illinois Chicago announced Jan. 30 they’re filing to unionize with the Illinois Labor Relations Board. Their April 3 hearing, if successful, will result in officially joining the Office and Professional Employees International Union and getting representation. It’s possible Loyola’s RAs and desk workers could do the same. UIC’s RA and desk worker unionization effort began when a few frustrated students gathered in November 2023 to discuss issues, including low pay, shifts with minimal support and inconsistent work schedules. The students decided the best way to meet these needs was to unionize with the OPEIU Local 39.
More than 1,000 march in DC against possible health care cuts
WTOP
By Linh Bui
March 12, 2025
According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, the House Republicans’ budget goals can’t be reached without cuts to Medicaid. Millions of Americans rely on Medicaid, including children, the elderly, people with disabilities and low-income adults. “Why would we do that to folks? That is cruel,” Jackson-Hill said. “It’s evil. It’s hatefulness at a scale I have never seen before. And it’s actually our government doing it to us.” Analilia Mejia is co-director for the Center for Popular Democracy, which organized the demonstration. “Taking away those resources will not happen silently, and we will not stand for it,” Mejia said. “We are going to push through this budget reconciliation.” She was impressed with the turnout, which included members of the nation’s largest nurses union National Nurses United.
Residents, interns at Hennepin Healthcare file for union recognition
KSTP
By Kyle Brown
March 12, 2025
Resident and intern physicians at Hennepin Healthcare filed for union recognition on Wednesday in hopes of improving pay and working conditions for professionals getting their start in the medical field. A supermajority of more than 200 residents and interns voted in favor of securing collective bargaining rights with the Committee of Interns and Residents, an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union with more than 37,000 members nationwide. The doctors say they work up to 80 hours per week for what “amounts to as little as minimum wage per hour,” according to a news release from CIR/SEIU.
Whole Foods workers push forward on union effort
Supermarket News
By Timothy Inklebarger
March 11, 2025
That unionization effort by workers at the Amazon-owned grocery chain will receive a hearing from a regional NLRB panel on Wednesday, which is likely to be appealed by the company and head to the full NLRB later this year. “I was on the right side of the law,” UFCW Local 1776 President Wendell Young IV told Supermarket News.
Researchers are workers at Penn State, and they’re ready to form a union (Opinion)
Centre Daily Times
By Tahir Haideri, Owen Harrington, Maddy Jupina, Marissa Kopp, Rachel Krizek, Louis Nastasi and Jess Rafalko
March 12, 2025
Penn State is a level-one research university leading innovation, thanks in large part to the work of research assistants and trainees. Despite being central to Penn State’s mission, researchers have almost no say in their wages, benefits or workplace conditions. This is true of all 5,000-plus graduate student workers at Penn State, which is why last fall thousands of researchers joined their fellow grad workers and signed authorization cards in support of forming a union.
UNION NEGOTIATIONS
CBS News Union Workers Begin Negotiations On New Agreement.
Inside Radio
By Staff
March 12, 2025
Members of the Writers Guild of America East and West unions at CBS News have begun negotiations with management on a new contract. CBS News’ more-than-270-member collective bargaining unit includes newswriters, producers, promotions writer-producers, editors, graphic artists, and news desk associates, based in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C. WGA members are seeking meaningful wage increases, increased contributions to health care benefits, AI protections, improved severance, and protections for the union’s jurisdiction, among other workplace protections.
The Hollywood Reporter
By Katie Kilkenny
March 11, 2025
SAG-AFTRA has been on strike against major video game studios for more than seven months, and the two sides don’t seem to be particularly close to making a deal. That’s the impression that negotiators for the performers union gave to members in a message on Tuesday that warned that the companies’ latest proposals contained “alarming loopholes that will leave our members vulnerable to AI abuse” — the very issue that prompted the union’s current work stoppage in the first place.
'We all work hard': Survey reveals 'hidden struggles' of school workers in Palm Beach County
WPTV
By Jamie Ostroff
March 11, 2025
The support staff working for the School District of Palm Beach County are asking the district for higher wages, among other changes amid union contract negotiations. The Service Employees International Union represents non-instructional employees within the district, from bus drivers, to cafeteria workers, to paraprofessionals.
AL: Bus drivers protest poor working conditions in Mobile: ‘The worst we’ve ever seen’
Mass Transit
By John Sharp
March 12, 2025
A group of 28 drivers for the Wave Transit System rallied on Tuesday in Mobile, voicing support for their union president’s concerns about retaliatory treatment and unsafe working conditions.
The concerns, they said, have manifested since the expiration of a three-year contract between Local 770 of the Amalgamated Transit Union and the management company that administers Mobile’s public transportation system. The two sides have been in mediation since the contract expired last October.
JOINING TOGETHER
Starbucks workers want fair contracts NOW … or no coffee!
Pittsburgh Union Progress
By Bob Batz Jr.
March 12, 2025
When Starbucks workers invited friends over for some coffee and some good trouble Tuesday morning, plenty of Pittsburghers were happy to join them, including several striking Pittsburgh news workers. The region’s Starbucks workers have been great supporters of that strike, showing up at rallies and at picket lines at all hours of the day and night. So several striking Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh workers were delighted to show their solidarity.
IN THE STATES
Protesters Rally at Lawler’s Office Over Social Security, Medicare Concerns
Rockland News
By Keith Shikowitz
March 11, 2025
A protest outside Congressman Mike Lawler’s office in Pearl River on Monday brought together about 50 demonstrators, predominantly senior citizens and healthcare advocates, who expressed concern over what they view as impending cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. The protesters alleged that the recent federal budget resolution in Congress would result in drastic reductions to these vital programs.
Tens of thousands of federal workers live in Missouri. They share their fears and frustrations
PBS News
By Gabrielle Hays
March 12, 2025
Tens of thousands of federal workers have been fired since President Donald Trump took office, with more cuts planned. Thousands of these workers were probationary employees like Francesca. At the USDA, an independent federal board has ordered the government to reinstate close to 6,000 probationary workers as it investigates whether the firings were legal.