Today's AFL-CIO press clips
POLITICS
‘Hands Off’: Protesters deliver a sweeping message to Trump and Musk at a DC rally
The Verge
By Lauren Feiner
April 6, 2025
The crowd in Washington, DC — more than 100,000, per organizers’ estimates — was peaceful and orderly. On a stage behind the Washington Monument, lawmakers like Reps. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) and Maxwell Frost (D-FL) and organizers including AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler spoke. Attendees around them quietly listened, save for the occasional call-and-response chant, cheers, or boos for the Trump administration. Farther away, a group of protesters marched around the Monument chanting, “Hands Off! Dump Trump!”
The Guardian
By Steven Greenhouse
April 7, 2025
Donald Trump’s aggressive wave of anti-union actions is already spurring some US employers to take a more hostile stance toward unions, as labor leaders voice fears that the president’s moves will embolden more and more companies to fight harder against unions and slow their recent progress.
Unions move to block Trump from nixing bargaining for federal workers
Reuters
By Daniel Wiessner
April 7, 2025
On the same day Trump issued the executive order, eight federal agencies filed a lawsuit against AFGE and dozens of the union's local affiliates seeking to invalidate existing union contracts covering thousands of workers. The Treasury Department has filed a similar lawsuit against the NTEU. Monday's filing includes declarations from more than 40 union officials detailing the potential impact of Trump's executive order. AFGE President Everett Kelley in a filing, opens new tab said that many of the union's local councils and affiliates could cease to exist entirely, and that the union would be hobbled by the loss of dues that members pay. "Based on decades of experience as a union leader, I know that a union’s bargaining power derives from the number of employees it represents at an agency," Kelley said.
Massive crowds, estimated at two million, take to streets vs. MAGA
People’s World
By Mark Gruenberg
April 7, 2025
AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler led several union presidents to the speaking stage just south of D.C.’s Washington Monument. Other union leaders spoke up at other marches elsewhere. “Stripping collective bargaining and union rights from workers across the federal government is the very definition of union busting—and a blatant attempt to silence us. We will fight this outrageous attack on our members with every fiber of our collective being,” Shuler said.
Appeals Court Reinstates 2 Leaders of Federal Boards Fired by Trump
The New York Times
By Zach Montague
April 7, 2025
By a 7-4 vote, the court voided an earlier decision by a divided three-judge panel that had cleared the way for the Trump administration to remove Cathy Harris and Gwynne A. Wilcox — both appointed by former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. — from their posts at the Merit Systems Protection Board and the National Labor Relations Board.
Court overturns Trump’s firings of two independent agency board members
The Guardian
By Robert Tait
April 7, 2025
An appeals court has paved the way for a likely showdown in the US supreme court over presidential power after reinstating two federal agency heads fired from their posts in Donald Trump’s all-out assault on the government bureaucracy. The Washington DC court of appeals ordered that Cathy Harris and Gwynne Wilcox be restored to the positions with the Merit Systems Protection Board and the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) respectively. The ruling overturned a previous verdict by a three-judge panel which had ruled that their dismissals – which had been earlier overturned under legal challenge – were indeed legal.
Top federal labor officials reinstated by full DC federal appeals court
CNN
By Marshall Cohen
April 7, 2025
Two former top federal labor protection officials were reinstated to their posts Monday by the full DC Circuit Court of Appeals – at least for now – amid a lengthy legal dispute over President Donald Trump’s ability to fire leaders from independent government agencies. In a 7-4 decision, the full appeals court wiped away a previous ruling from a three-judge panel that allowed Trump to fire the officials: Cathy Harris, the chairwoman of the Merit Systems Protection Board, which reviews federal firings and can reinstate wrongly terminated employees, and Gwynne Wilcox, a member of the National Labor Relations Board.
US appeals court blocks Trump from removing Democrats from labor boards
Reuters
By Daniel Wiessner and Jonathan Stempel
April 7, 2025
A federal appeals court blocked U.S. President Donald Trump from removing Democratic members from two federal labor boards on Monday, setting aside its earlier ruling. The decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit further complicates a pair of cases that are emerging as key tests of Trump's efforts to bring federal agencies meant to be independent from the White House under his control.
IMMIGRATION
Supreme Court Temporarily Blocks Order Requiring Return of Wrongly Deported Migrant
The New York Times
By Adam Liptak
April 7, 2025
Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. on Monday temporarily blocked a trial judge’s order directing the United States to return a Salvadoran migrant it had inadvertently deported. The chief justice, acting on his own, issued an “administrative stay,” an interim measure meant to give the justices some breathing room while the full court considers the matter. The order came just hours after the administration asked the court to block the trial judge’s order instructing the government to return the migrant, Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, by 11:59 p.m. on Monday.
At Sea-Tac Airport, refugee workers fear the traveling world they connect
The Seattle Times
By Lauren Rosenblatt
April 7, 2025
Most of those workers are represented by unions, including local chapters of the Service Employees International Union, United Food and Commercial Workers International Union and Unite Here. Those unions don’t keep detailed demographic data on members, but said the majority of workers they represent at Sea-Tac are immigrants or refugees.
ORGANIZING
The Washington Post’s Tech Workers Have Formed a Union
Washingtonian
By Andrew Beaujon
April 7, 2025
Tech workers at the Washington Post announced Monday that they have formed a union. They plan to hand-deliver a letter management Monday morning that asks the company to voluntarily recognize them. The group organized with the Washington Baltimore News Guild as the Washington Post Tech Guild. In their announcement, they say their organization comprises more than 300 people, the majority of people who work on tech for the Post.
UPTE-CWA 9199 strike continues, AFSCME 3299 union joins in solidarity
The University of California San Diego Guardian
By Isaac Burge
April 7, 2025
On April 1, two unions representing University of California employees — University Professional and Technical Employees CWA Local 9119 and American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees Local 3299 — held a strike at UC San Diego Jacobs Medical Center from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. This strike, led by UPTE-CWA 9199, was part of an ongoing series of strikes prompted by allegations of bad-faith bargaining practices by the UC amid continuing contract negotiations. They were joined in solidarity by AFSCME 3299. UPTE-CWA 9119 has not announced official plans for future strikes and is not withholding labor outside of assigned strike days, but it has expressed that it will continue to strike until a satisfactory contract is negotiated.
Iron Workers Union Supports Jesscraft Worker Strike
PR Newswire
By Iron Workers Union
April 7, 2025
Today, workers at the Western CT materials handling company, Jescraft, went on strike, with the full support of the Iron Workers Union, to demand the company's recognition of their union and negotiation of a fair contract. The workers, who are organizing under the International Association of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental, and Reinforcing Iron Workers, have cited concerns over workplace safety hazards and unsafe management practices. These issues include the failure to maintain essential machinery, which forces employees to move heavy loads of material manually among other safety hazards.
JOINING TOGETHER
Security Guards Will Get Pay Bump From Newark Housing Authority
Patch
By Eric Kiefer
April 7, 2025
The Newark Housing Authority recently passed a resolution that raises wages and boosts benefits for all security officers working at its buildings. The security officers’ total compensation will be raised to $24.48 an hour with 12 paid holidays and starting vacation of two weeks, according to labor union 32BJ SEIU, which praised the new arrangement.
Miu Miu Store in SoHo Attracts Attention From Local Labor Union
Women’s World Daily
By Rosemary Feitelberg
April 7, 2025
Shoppers and workers in SoHo may have noticed the oversize inflatable rat outside of the Miu Miu store that is under construction store in New York. For nearly a month, the Construction and General Building Laborers’ Local 79 union has been stationed outside of 100 Prince Street and has handed out more than 1,000 fliers alleging that Miu Miu is allowing Folor Inc. to exploit construction workers and demanding just wages for workers. On Thursday morning, there were two inflatable rats, which made a few passersby comment and take photos.
IN THE STATES
Hundreds rally to bring film and TV production back to Hollywood
Reuters
By Lisa Richwine
April 6, 2025
Hundreds of Hollywood crew members, producers and actors on Sunday urged California legislators to increase tax incentives and enact other measures to encourage more film and TV production in and around Los Angeles. Advocates gathered at a local sound stage to make their case to reverse the flight of production to other states. "Make Hollywood Hollywood again," Joely Fisher, an actor and secretary-treasurer of the SAG-AFTRA actors union, said to cheers.
WORKPLACE SAFETY AND HEALTH
This Bill Aims To Help Firefighters With Cancer. Getting It Passed Is Just the Beginning.
California Healthline
By Mark Kreidler
April 7, 2025
“Cancer’s grip on the fire service is undeniable,” said Edward Kelly, president of the International Association of Fire Fighters. “When a firefighter dies from occupational cancer, we owe it to them to ensure their families get the line-of-duty death benefits they are owed.”