Today's AFL-CIO press clips
MUST READ
Trump administration moves to end union rights at many federal agencies
The Washington Post
By Lauren Kaori Gurley, Emily Davies and Tobi Raji
March 28, 2025
Liz Shuler, president of AFL-CIO, the country’s largest federation of labor unions, issued a statement denouncing the order as “the very definition of union-busting” and “straight out of Project 2025,” referring to a document prepared by a conservative think tank that laid out many of the strategies that Trump’s aides have followed since taking office. AFGE President Everett Kelley slammed Trump’s order in a statement, calling it “a disgraceful and retaliatory attack on the rights of hundreds of thousands of patriotic American civil servants.”
POLITICS
Trump signs executive order to end collective bargaining at agencies involved with national security
NBC News
By The Associated Press
March 28, 2025
AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler said in a statement, “It’s clear that this order is punishment for unions who are leading the fight against the administration’s illegal actions in court — and a blatant attempt to silence us.” She also vowed, “We will fight this outrageous attack on our members with every fiber of our collective being.”
Organizers accuse Trump of trying to silence federal workers with union order
The Guardian
By Michael Sainato
March 28, 2025
Liz Shuler, the president of the AFL-CIO, the largest federation of labor unions in the US, said the move was “straight out of Project 2025”, the rightwing Heritage Foundation’s manifesto to remake the federal government.
'Fall in Line or Else': Latest Trump Order Seen as Message to Workers
Common Dreams
By Jon Queally
March 28, 2025
AFL-CIO president, Liz Shuler, responded with disgust to the order, pointing out that the move comes directly out of the pre-election blueprint of the Heritage Foundation, which has been planning this kind of attack against the federal workforce and collective bargaining for years, if not decades. "Straight out of Project 2025, this executive order is the very definition of union-busting," said Shuler in a Thursday night statement. "It strips the fundamental right to unionize and collectively bargain from workers across the federal government at more than 30 agencies. The workers who make sure our food is safe to eat, care for our veterans, protect us from public health emergencies and much more will no longer have a voice on the job or the ability to organize with their coworkers for better conditions at work so they can efficiently provide the services the public relies upon."
Trump Order Could Cripple Federal Worker Unions Fighting DOGE Cuts
The New York Times
By Rebecca Davis O’Brien
March 29, 2025
Unions said they would fight back. Speaking on Friday at a news conference on Capitol Hill, the president of A.F.G.E., Everett Kelley, called the executive order “plainly retaliatory,” and said: “The labor movement will not be silenced.” Randy Erwin, the national president of the National Federation of Federal Employees — another union affected by the order — called it “the biggest assault on collective bargaining rights that we have ever seen in this country,” and called it “blatantly illegal and unconstitutional.”
Trump Signs Executive Order Ending Collective Bargaining Rights At Many Agencies
HuffPost
By Dave Jamieson
March 28, 2025
AFGE said it was preparing “immediate legal action” to fight the policy. “President Trump’s latest executive order is a disgraceful and retaliatory attack on the rights of hundreds of thousands of patriotic American civil servants — nearly one-third of whom are veterans — simply because they are members of a union that stands up to his harmful policies,” said Everett Kelley, the union’s president.
Trump signs order ending union bargaining rights for wide swaths of federal employees
NPR
By Andrea Hsu
March 28, 2025
President Trump has signed an executive order ending collective bargaining for wide swaths of federal employees, as part of his broader campaign to reshape the U.S. government's workforce. The largest federal employee union says the order affects over 1 million workers. In a fact sheet, the White House says the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 (CSRA) gives him the authority to halt collective bargaining at agencies with national security missions.
Unions fight back against latest Trump executive order
WTOP
By Alan Etter
March 29, 2025
At a news conference on Capitol Hill on Friday, the president of the nation’s largest union, supporting 800,000 federal employees, lashed out at Trump. “They are taking this action because AFGE is standing up for our members,” said Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees. “But I want to assure everybody that AFGE will always stand up for its members.”
Trump orders 30 federal agencies to trash union contracts now
People’s World
By Mark Gruenberg
March 28, 2025
AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler rang that alarm in her response to Trump, as did Postal Workers President Mark Dimondstein at a forum several days before. “To every single American who cares about the fundamental freedom of all workers, now is the time to be even louder. The labor movement is not about to let Trump and an unelected billionaire,” Elon Musk, whom analysts call Trump’s puppeteer, “destroy what we’ve fought for generations to build. We will fight this outrageous attack on our members with every fiber of our collective being,” said Shuler.
Iowa Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO criticize Trump’s union busting
KCRG
By KCRG Staff
March 28, 2025
The Iowa Federation of Labor and AFL-CIO responded Friday, stating Trump’s order is a “disgusting and underhanded attack on the very union workers he claimed to stand for.” According to the Iowa Federation of Labor and AFL-CIO, collective bargaining is essential, and Trump’s executive order is an attack on union workers across the state and nation.
Trump moves to rescind union rights of over 1 million federal workers — and other labor news
Minnesota Reformer
By Max Nesterak
March 28, 2025
The American Federation of Government Employees, the largest federal union representing more than 800,000 workers, promised immediate legal action to challenge what it called a “blatant attempt at political punishment.” The union estimates it affects more than 1 million employees — about a third of whom are veterans. “This administration’s bullying tactics represent a clear threat not just to federal employees and their unions, but to every American who values democracy and the freedoms of speech and association. Trump’s threat to unions and working people across America is clear: fall in line or else,” AFGE National President Everett Kelley said in a statement.
Trump claims the right to ban 700k federal workers from having union representation
Salon
By Griffin Eckstein
March 28, 2025
“This attack is meant to silence [federal workers’] voices, so Elon Musk and his minions can shred the services that working people depend on the federal government to do,” AFSCME President Lee Saunders said in the statement. “The billionaires running this administration have proven that they are willing to bulldoze anything that stands in their way to enact their anti-worker, extremist agenda.”
Deadline
By Erik Pedersen
March 28, 2025
The Writers Guild of America East pulled no punches today in decrying Donald Trump‘s executive order to strip many workers of their right to unionize, calling Thursday’s move an “illegal attack on roughly 700,000 federal workers and their unions is an assault on the entire labor movement and all American workers.”
UAW's Shawn Fain slams Trump executive order targeting federal unions
CBS News
By Staff
March 28, 2025
Shawn Fain, the president of the United Automobile Workers, assailed a new executive order signed this week by President Trump as an attack on federal workers. He compared it to the 1981 air traffic controller strike, when President Ronald Reagan fired 11,000 air traffic controllers. "This is 100 times worse than PATCO ever dreamed of being," Fain said, referring to the Port Authority Corporation, "when you're talking, you know — 700,000 people — their contracts just being taken away." "Free speech is under attack. Unions are under attack," Fain told CBS News chief Washington correspondent Major Garrett in an interview airing Sunday on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan."
Trump Just Ripped Up Federal Workers’ Union Contracts
Jacobin
By Meagan Day
March 28, 2025
Union leaders see the move as politically motivated retaliation for standing up to the Trump administration’s attacks on the federal workforce, including aggressive layoffs prompted by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Colin Smalley, president of Local 777 of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE) and an organizer with the Federal Unionists Network (FUN), told Jacobin that Trump’s order is “absolutely a brazen political attack on workers.”
Trump Goes Nuclear on the Federal Workforce
Labor Notes
By Joe DeManuelle-Hall
March 28, 2025
Federal unions immediately denounced the executive order, promising to challenge it in court. Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, the largest federal union, said in a statement that AFGE “will fight relentlessly to protect our rights, our members, and all working Americans from these unprecedented attacks.”
Labor groups: Trump’s union-busting EO amounts to ‘revenge’ for suing to block workforce cuts
Government Executive
By Erich Wagner
March 28, 2025
Labor unions—both those representing public servants and private sector guilds—on Friday lambasted President Trump’s executive order aiming to outlaw unions for two-thirds of the federal workforce under the guise of national security and vowed to defeat the measure in court. Trump’s order, released late Thursday, cites a rarely used provision of the 1978 Civil Service Reform Act allowing the president to exclude agencies and agency subcomponents from collective bargaining rules if the rules “cannot be applied to that agency or subdivision in a manner consistent with national security requirements,” and applies it sweepingly to more than a dozen agencies.
Trump administration sues to end some federal workers’ union contracts
Politico
By Hassan Ali Kanu
March 28, 2025
The Trump administration is suing the country’s largest federal worker union, seeking to invalidate existing collective employment contracts between government employees and agencies because they interfere with White House goals. The administration filed the unprecedented lawsuit late Thursday, shortly after President Donald Trump issued an executive order moving to strip unionization rights from most of the federal workforce.
Trump administration sues to invalidate dozens of union contracts
Reuters
By Daniel Wiessner
March 28, 2025
The agencies sued the American Federation of Government Employees, the largest federal worker union with more than 800,000 members, and about three dozen of its local affiliates.
The local unions represent thousands of workers employed by the eight agencies at military bases, veterans' hospitals and other government facilities, mainly in Texas.
Appeals court allows Trump’s removal of independent agency leaders for now
The Washington Post
By Lauren Kaori Gurley and Tom Jackman
March 28, 2025
A federal appeals court on Friday allowed President Donald Trump to remove leaders of two independent agencies for now while the judges decide whether the president has the authority to fire them. The case is expected to eventually make its way to the Supreme Court, where the justices could weigh in on Trump’s expansive view of presidential authority and even overturn a landmark decision critical to the separation of powers.
US court lets Trump remove Democrats from labor boards, for now
Reuters
By Daniel Wiessner
March 28, 2025
Donald Trump can - for now - remove Democratic members from two federal labor boards, a U.S. appeals court ruled on Friday, handing the Republican president a victory in his efforts to bring independent federal agencies under his control. A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in a 2-1 decision paused rulings by two judges who had deemed unlawful Trump's removal of Cathy Harris from the Merit Systems Protection Board and Gwynne Wilcox from the National Labor Relations Board.
Appeals Court Allows Trump to Fire Heads of 2 Independent Boards
The New York Times
By Eileen Sullivan
March 28, 2025
A federal appeals court sided on Friday with President Trump’s drive to bring agencies with some independence more directly under his control, ruling that the president was within his rights to fire the heads of two administrative boards that review employment actions and labor disputes. The decision cripples one of the bodies that might stand in Mr. Trump’s way as he slashes and reshapes the government, an agency known as the Merit Systems Protection Board that reviews federal employment disputes, just as it is deluged with cases from the firings of thousands of federal workers.
Court lets Trump fire labor and worker protection board members while they fight to keep their jobs
CNN
By Marshall Cohen
March 28, 2025
A federal appeals court on Friday let President Donald Trump remove for now the chair of a critical “merit board” that reviews federal firings, and a member of the National Labor Relations Board, handing the president a major win in his efforts to control independent federal agencies and potentially hobbling both agencies by depriving them of a quorum. The emergency order issued by the DC US Circuit Court of Appeals removes Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) chairwoman Cathy Harris and NLRB member Gwynne Wilcox from their posts while their legal cases move forward. They previously argued that Trump can’t summarily fire them because federal statutes specify that he can only dismiss them for cause.
Appeals panel clears path for Trump firings of MSPB, NLRB leaders
The Hill
By Ella Lee
March 28, 2025
A federal appeals panel on Friday halted the reinstatement of two independent agency members fired by President Trump, clearing the path for the president to remove them from their positions. The court’s emergency stay stops Gwynne Wilcox, a member of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), and Cathy Harris of the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) — both Democratic appointees — from continuing in their posts for now.
Court bars CFPB from firing employees without cause, in defeat for DOGE
Politico
By Katy O'Donnell
March 28, 2025
Trump administration officials must reinstate Consumer Financial Protection Bureau workers who were fired and preserve agency data, a federal judge ruled Friday, in a victory for the employees’ union. “Defendants shall not terminate any CFPB employee, except for cause related to the individual employee’s performance or conduct; and defendants shall not issue any notice of reduction-in-force to any CFPB employee,” U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson wrote in her decision. Jackson granted a preliminary injunction maintaining the current iteration of the agency while she considers the merits of a lawsuit seeking to preserve it.
Judge Grants Injunction to Prevent Consumer Bureau From Being ‘Dissolved and Dismantled’
The New York Times
By Stacy Cowley
March 28, 2025
A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction Friday blocking the Trump administration from carrying out mass firings or otherwise dismantling the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Calling the injunction “an extraordinary step,” Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the Federal District Court in Washington said she imposed it to prevent the agency from being “dissolved and dismantled.” The lawsuit’s plaintiffs — the bureau’s staff union and a collection of consumer advocates — are likely to succeed in their claim that the administration’s actions to gut the agency were illegal, the judge wrote in a 112-page decision.
Appeals court clears way for DOGE to keep operating at USAID
AP
By Lindsay Whitehurst and Ellen Knickmeyer
March 28, 2025
A federal appeals court on Friday lifted an order blocking Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency from further cuts at the U.S. Agency for International Development. Even before the ruling, the Trump administration on Friday took some of the last remaining steps in breaking up USAID.
Museums and parks must remove some items related to race and gender: Executive order
ABC News
By Michelle Stoddart, Katherine Faulders, Rachel Scott, and Will Steakin
March 27, 2025
President Donald Trump signed an executive order behind closed doors on Thursday directing federal agencies and the Smithsonian to eliminate what the order calls "divisive" and "anti-American" content from museums and national parks, sources familiar with the order told ABC News. The order -- called "Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History" -- directed the vice president and the secretary of Interior to restore federal parks, monuments, memorials and statues "that have been improperly removed or changed in the last five years to perpetuate a false revision of history or improperly minimize or disparage certain historical figures or events."
The Nation
By Lynn Rhinehart
March 28, 2025
Donald Trump campaigned for the presidency promising to fight for working people. While the hypocrisy of this claim has been clear from day one of his presidency, the evidence continues to mount. The latest case in point? Apparently not satisfied with trying to kneecap several independent federal agencies that regulate corporate America—the National Labor Relations Board, the Federal Trade Commission, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and more—through illegally firing Democratic members of these expert bodies, Trump is now trying to eliminate an important but little-known independent labor agency altogether. And so far he appears to be succeeding—to the detriment of companies, workers, and unions that depend on the agency’s services to reach agreements and resolve disputes.
DOGE wants businesses to run government services ‘as much as possible’
The Washington Post
By Elizabeth Dwoskin, Jeff Stein, Hannah Natanson and Jacob Bogage
March 30, 2025
The slash-and-burn approach of Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service is paving the way for a new shift to the private sector, reducing the size and power of the federal bureaucracy in a real-world test of the conservative theory — a version of which is also widely popular in Silicon Valley — that companies are better than government at saving money and responding to people’s needs. Examples are popping up across Washington and in proposals from President Donald Trump’s allies, though the plans are at various stages of development and, in some cases, have already encountered resistance.
Postal Workers Defend USPS Against DOGE Attack
Truthout
By Alexandra Bradbury
March 30, 2025
From big cities to small towns, postal workers organized hundreds of rallies across the country in the past week to defend a beloved public service — and the nation’s largest union employer — against privatization and DOGE attack. “Whose Postal Service?” workers chanted in New York: “The people’s Postal Service.” “U.S. Mail Is Not for Sale” was the rallying cry March 20 at 250 rallies organized by the Postal Workers (APWU). “Fight Like Hell” was the theme March 23 for another 210 rallies led by the Letter Carriers (NALC).
Congress must stand up to Elon Musk’s dangerous anti-worker agenda (Opinion)
Cleveland.com
By Brian Pearson
March 30, 2025
Elon Musk’s unchecked influence over government programs has reached a dangerous tipping point. Congress must decide: Will they stand with workers or allow Musk and his enterprise, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), to dismantle essential public services? Federal workers are the backbone of our nation, ensuring Social Security, Medicare, and the Department of Veterans Affairs function properly. They inspect our food, protect infrastructure, and deliver essential services. These aren’t faceless bureaucrats — they are our neighbors, friends, and family members. Eighty-five percent of federal workers live outside Washington, D.C., working every day to keep communities safe and running.
States rush to hire federal workers out of work after DOGE cuts
The Washington Post
By Praveena Somasundaram
March 30, 2025
To the workers the White House said “goodbye” to, state governments are saying “hello.” Wisconsin is hosting job fairs next month to snap up the federal workers now on the job hunt after the Trump administration’s “reckless mass firings,” the state announced Thursday. In early March, California put out a call for former federal employees with experience in firefighting and weather forecasting. And in New York, signs at train stations depict the Statue of Liberty pointing a finger at passersby with the message: “DOGE said you’re fired? We say: You’re hired!”
GLOBAL LABOR RIGHTS
Global Working Conditions Matter for American Workers
The American Prospect
By Katherine Tai, Julie Su
March 30, 2025
When workers in Michigan demand higher wages, employers threaten to move production to Mexico. When workers in Alabama organize, companies say, “It’s cheaper for us to do this in China.” Unchecked power of multinational corporations forces the most vulnerable workers across the globe to endure poverty wages and unsafe conditions. This is true here at home and abroad. This is why we need an economic policy that prioritizes the well-being of workers around the world. We need a policy that recognizes that the right to organize is good for all workers, and that trade should be used to create opportunity, grow good jobs, and build a strong middle class everywhere.
UNION NEGOTIATIONS
Auto Workers file Unfair Labor Practice charges against Volkswagen
People’s World
By Cameron Harrison
March 28, 2025
The United Auto Workers (UAW) filed federal Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) charges against Volkswagen, accusing the German automaker of illegally undermining union negotiations at its Chattanooga assembly plant—just one year after workers scored a historic victory by voting to join the union. The charge, filed with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), said Volkswagen violated U.S. labor law by unilaterally announcing plans to cut a production shift without first bargaining with the UAW. The move, the union said, threatens hundreds of jobs at the only Volkswagen plant in the U.S. where workers recently unionized—a milestone in the labor movement’s push to organize the anti-union South.
Faculty Union and University Administration Reach Tentative Contract Agreement
PSU Vanguard
By Isaiah Burns
March 28, 2025
After months of tense negotiations, the Portland State University American Association of University Professors (PSU-AAUP) and PSU administration have reached a tentative agreement for a fair employment contract. This comes just a few days before the faculty union would be able to go on strike, a move that was looking more and more likely after the two parties put out conflicting final offers earlier this month.
University of Rochester grad workers vote to authorize strike
Spectrum News 1
BY Spectrum News Staff
March 30, 2025
University of Rochester graduate workers have voted to authorize a strike. The Graduate Labor Union Organizing Committee announced Saturday that 90% of its members voted "yes" to authorize a strike. It says the vote gives the committee the authority to call for a strike if the administration continues to block a fair union election. This comes after grad workers claimed the university backed out of a union election agreement. “The university betrayed our trust when they withdrew from the election agreement that we worked so hard to build,” Ph.D. candidate in mechanical engineering Athena Summers said in a statement. “This strike is the only way left to form our union, and grads need a union, now more than ever, to have a voice with the ongoing attacks on higher education.”
WHEC
By News10NBC
March 29, 2025
The University of Rochester graduate student workers have voted to authorize a strike. The Graduate Labor Union’s organizing committee reported that 90% of members voted in favor. The vote empowered the committee to call for a strike if the administration continues to block a fair union election. The union accused the university of betraying students’ trust by withdrawing from a recent election agreement. The strike vote followed months of negotiations.
SMART-TD, Keolis reach tentative contract agreement
Trains
By Trains News Wire
March 29, 2025
The International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers-Transportation Division has reached a tentative five-year agreement with Keolis Commuter Services, the union announced on Friday, March 28. Keolis is the contract operator of Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority commuter rail services.
JOINING TOGETHER
Veterans Affairs nurses protest potential staffing cuts by Trump
Chicago Sun-Times
By David Struett
March 28, 2025
Jesse Brown VA nurse Adelena Marshall thinks of all the veterans who might lose speedy healthcare if the Trump administration carries out its plan to cut 80,000 employees from the Department of Veteran Affairs. VA hospitals across the country are already understaffed, according to a recent VA inspector general’s report. Further cuts to the agency could be a matter of life and death, she said. “Our veterans can walk into our clinics and come and get care anytime,” Marshall said. “But if they go into private sector [and do not get immediate care] some of them may die. Some of them may commit suicide.” Marshall joined several dozen nurses Friday outside the Jesse Brown VA on the Near West Side to protest the cuts threatened by the Trump administration. Organized by their union, National Nurses United, the nurses held signs reading “Veterans need care not cuts” and “Protect federal workers. Protect VA nurses.”
Veterans, unions, top Michigan Dems gather to protest Trump VA order in Ann Arbor
Detroit Free Press
By Liam Rappleye
March 29, 2025
A large crowd of veterans, union members, healthcare workers and several high-ranking Michigan Democrats gathered across the street from the Lieutenant Colonel Charles S. Kettles Veteran's Affairs Medical Center in Ann Arbor on Saturday. The demonstration was held to protest DOGE-related job cuts at VA offices and a recent move from President Donald Trump to invalidate bargaining agreements with the union that represents VA employees.
St. Louis union members rally against federal workforce cuts
Fox2 Now
By Joey Schneider
March 29, 2025
St. Louis union members and labor leaders gathered Saturday morning at Gateway Arch National Park to protest federal workforce cuts. The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) organized the demonstration Saturday to raise awareness about policies and actions that the union says undermine civil servants. Federal workforce cuts have been a prime focus of the Department of Government Efficiency, an initiative of President Donald Trump’s second term that is led by Musk. More commonly known as DOGE, the department aims to reduce government spending and consolidate the federal workforce.
STATE LEGISLATION
Kentucky governor vetoes bill aimed at limiting state-specific safety rules
Safety + Health Magazine
By Staff
March 28, 2025
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D) has vetoed a bill that would have limited enforcement of any new or existing state workplace safety and health regulations that are more stringent than federal OSHA standards. However, Republicans have a supermajority in the state Legislature and are likely to override the veto, according to news reports. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Walker Thomas (R-Hopkinsville), passed in the House with a 62-33 vote on Feb. 26 and in the Senate with a 70-20 vote on March 13. Republicans hailed the bill as business friendly, with Thomas saying it would “only impact a few existing regulations, and even then, it may only impact part of a rule.”
Critics say Florida child labor bill would exploit youth, supporters stress family choice
WEAR News
By Sarah Gail
March 28, 2025
"We got kids out of coal mines and into classrooms," said Dr. Rich Templin, director of politics and public policy with the Florida AFL-CIO. "When we see something like this we have to react very strongly."
IN THE STATES
5 Things to Know: New Bathroom Bill, Bokhari Resigns, Ardrey Kell Update
QC Nerve
By Ryan Pitkin
March 29, 2025
NC State AFL-CIO Responds to New Trump Cuts: North Carolina State AFL-CIO President MaryBe McMillan responded on Friday to a new executive order from the Trump administration stripping collective bargaining and union rights from 700,000 workers in more than 30 agencies across the federal government, including over 82,000 workers in North Carolina.
WORKPLACE SAFETY AND HEALTH
USDA moves to ‘formalize’ faster line speeds in meat-processing plants
Safety + Health Magazine
By Staff
March 28, 2025
Stuart Appelbaum, president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, argues in a separate press release that “increased line speeds will hurt workers – it’s not a maybe, it’s a definite – and increased production speeds will jeopardize the health and safety of every American that eats chicken.” He added: “Worker safety must be a priority, and these facilities cannot operate at these speeds without increased staffing, which cannot happen the way they are constructed now. Issuing waivers to a multi-billion dollar industry with no oversight to ensure it’s done safely and properly is a recipe for disaster.”
LABOR HISTORY
Corpus Christi continues to celebrate the legacy of Cesar Chavez
KRIS TV
By Naidy Escobar
March 29, 2025
One of the highlights of this year's event was the participation of local leaders, including Nancy Vera, President of the Corpus Christi American Federation of Teachers. Vera took a moment to share why she chose to participate in the march this year. "In times where we are unsure of our futures, today we celebrate the certainty of labor in our community, the certainty of children, and telling our children that we’re here for you, you’re our future, and we are going to educate you so that you can be successful in your lives," Vera said.