Today's AFL-CIO press clips
MUST READ
Unions sue to block Trump from eliminating labor mediation agency
Reuters
By Daniel Wiessner
April 14, 2025
More than a dozen major unions filed a lawsuit on Monday seeking to block the administration of President Donald Trump from shutting down a federal agency that mediates labor disputes in the public and private sectors. The unions in a complaint filed in Manhattan federal court said that efforts to dismantle the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service violate Congress' constitutional powers to create or dissolve federal agencies.
POLITICS
Federal workers unions grapple with fallout of Trump order
Politico
By Nick Niedzwiadek
April 14, 2025
Labor unions representing federal government workers are continuing to bear the ripple effects of President Donald Trump’s executive order last month stripping entire agencies of labor rights on national security grounds. “They think this is gonna kill federal labor unions; it’s not going to do that at all,” Matt Biggs, president of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers told Shift. “We’ll come out of this stronger.” Biggs said the union, which represents more than 34,000 federal workers — the bulk of whom are at the Defense Department — has seen payroll officials abruptly stop processing dues collection, forcing IFPTE to move at “warp speed” to set up a system to handle it themselves.
Federal Work Force Prepares for Another Round of Mass Firings as Deadline Nears
The New York Times
By Eileen Sullivan
April 14, 2025
Federal agencies are facing a deadline on Monday to present their plans for another round of mass firings, the next step in the Trump administration’s drive to shrink the government that figures to further reshape a civil service that has endured tens of thousands of departures. Some agencies, such as the Department of Health and Human Services, have already announced their layoffs for this round of dismissals, which follows the terminations in February of thousands of probationary federal employees. The cuts have come at the direction of the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, the government overhaul initiative led by the tech billionaire Elon Musk.
Labor Tribune
By Staff
April 14, 2025
Labor unions representing federal government workers across the country are suing the Trump administration over the president’s attempt to override the law through executive order and strip more than one million federal government employees of their union rights. The new complaint cites a White House fact sheet that specifically referenced a statement made by the lead plaintiff, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), which represents more than 820,000 federal employees. Additionally, the lawsuit alleges the Trump administration overbroadly applied the national security exemption to eliminate collective bargaining rights for over a million workers whose primary functions are not related to national security. Those employees work at agencies and departments like the Department of Veterans Affairs, Environmental Protection Agency, Food Safety and Inspection Service, and several others.
Student Unions Short on Options as Trump Targets Protesters
Bloomberg Law
By Parker Purifoy
April 14, 2025
Unions representing thousands of student employees are finding themselves in a precarious position as they seek to protect members from the Trump administration’s crackdown on activities it has labeled antisemitic. Universities have continued disciplinary proceedings for students involved in widespread pro-Palestine protests last year—suspending and expelling hundreds nationwide—while the government threatens to pull hundreds of millions of dollars in higher education funding if they don’t comply with the president’s directives.
Labor secretary skips culinary union meeting
Semafor
By Kadia Goba
April 15, 2025
Chavez-DeRemer’s choice to skip meeting with the Culinary Union comes as congressional Republicans air some skepticism about their ability to add Trump’s new tax pledges — he’s called for eliminating taxes on Social Security and overtime as well as tips — to the already-high cost of extending his 2017 tax cuts.
College financial aid hit with glitches, delays due to federal staffing cuts
The Washington Post
By Danielle Douglas-Gabriel
April 14, 2025
The Education Department’s financial aid apparatus is cracking after the Trump administration imposed sweeping staff cuts, with some fearing that further deterioration could make it harder for students to secure the money they need to attend college.
Trump plan would slash State Dept. funding by nearly half, memo says
The Washington Post
By Adam Taylor and John Hudson
April 14, 2025
The Trump administration proposed to cut the budget of the State Department and what remains of the U.S. Agency for International Development by almost half, according to an internal memo circulated last week, with funds for humanitarian assistance, global health and international organizations facing dramatic reductions.
Despite a court order, White House bars AP from Oval Office event
AP
By David Bauder
April 14, 2025
Despite a court order, a reporter and photographer from The Associated Press were barred from an Oval Office news conference on Monday with President Donald Trump and his counterpart from El Salvador, Nayib Bukele. Last week’s federal court decision forbidding the Trump administration from punishing the AP for refusing to rename the Gulf of Mexico was to take effect Monday. The administration is appealing the decision and arguing with the news outlet over whether it needs to change anything until those appeals are exhausted.
Democratic senators press Social Security Administration on reports of ‘dangerous’ employee cuts
CNBC
By Lorie Konish
April 14, 2025
Several Democratic senators are demanding answers from the Social Security Administration following reports that the agency may make staff cuts to a significant department within the agency. The Social Security Administration is reportedly considering additional workforce reductions, including a potential 50% cut in the Office of the Chief Investment Officer. The department, otherwise known as OCIO, is responsible for protecting sensitive data, maintaining benefit claims processing systems, and managing the agency’s website and online portal.
IRS employees expect to learn their layoff fate around Tax Day, their busiest time of the year
CNN
By Kayla Tausche and Marshall Cohen
April 14, 2025
Internal Revenue Service workers are expecting to soon learn their employment fate, coinciding with Tuesday’s tax-filing deadline and their busiest week of the year. Two sources familiar with the matter said the agency will begin to announce individual decisions by the end of this week, spelling out who is spared and who is being laid off as part of the Trump administration’s plans to significantly slash the IRS’ workforce. IRS employees in Kansas City, Missouri; Atlanta; and Chicago — some of the agency’s largest hubs outside Washington — said anxiety has been building around the week surrounding Tax Day. Not only because of the mammoth workload, they said, but because they had heard this is when the cuts would be announced.
HHS Systems Are in Danger of Collapsing, Workers Say
Wired
By David Gilbert
April 14, 2025
Much of the IT and cybersecurity infrastructure underpinning the US health system is in danger of a possible collapse following a purge of IT staff and leadership at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), four current and former agency workers tell WIRED. This could put vast troves of public health data, including the sensitive health records of hundreds of millions of Americans, clinical trial data, and more, at risk of exposure.
IMMIGRATION
El Salvador President Bukele says he won’t be releasing a Maryland man back to the US
AP
By Seung Min Kim And Marcos Alemán
April 14, 2025
President Donald Trump’s top advisers and Nayib Bukele, the president of El Salvador, said Monday that they have no basis for the small Central American nation to return a Maryland man who was wrongly deported there last month. Bukele called the idea “preposterous” even though the U.S. Supreme Court has called on the administration to “facilitate” Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s return. Trump administration officials emphasized that Abrego Garcia, who was sent to a notorious gang prison in El Salvador, was a citizen of that country and that the U.S. has no say in his future. And Bukele, who has been a vital partner for the Trump administration in its deportation efforts, said “of course” he would not release him back to U.S. soil.
NLRB
A whistleblower's disclosure details how DOGE may have taken sensitive labor data
NPR
By Jenna McLaughlin
April 15, 2025
In the first days of March, a team of advisers from President Trump's new Department of Government Efficiency initiative arrived at the Southeast Washington, D.C., headquarters of the National Labor Relations Board. The small, independent federal agency investigates and adjudicates complaints about unfair labor practices. It stores reams of potentially sensitive data, from confidential information about employees who want to form unions to proprietary business information.
5 takeaways about NPR's reporting on the whistleblower report about DOGE at the NLRB
NPR
By Jenna McLaughlin
April 15, 2025
When a team of advisers from President Trump's Department of Government Efficiency initiative arrived at the headquarters of the National Labor Relations Board, IT employees at the small, independent agency quickly became worried, according to a whistleblower declaration filed with Congress and shared with NPR. The NLRB investigates and adjudicates complaints about unfair labor practices. Its databases store reams of potentially sensitive data, from confidential information about employees who want to form unions to proprietary business information.
Economic Policy Institute
By Lauren McFerran and Lynn Rhinehart
April 14, 2025
With the Trump administration implementing a blizzard of anti-worker initiatives on a near-daily basis, it’s difficult to imagine that these early assaults could be only the tip of the iceberg. But President Trump and billionaire Elon Musk may well have far worse plans to attack U.S. workers and labor relations. One little-seen proposal from outside the White House has the potential to upend our entire system of labor relations. It comes from the “Coalition for a Democratic Workplace” (CDW)—an anti-union trade association of several hundred employers and employer associations, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and National Association of Manufacturers. The coalition sent a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi asking her to repudiate and invalidate more than a dozen major decisions issued by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) during the Biden administration, and to instruct all NLRB appointees and employees that they cannot treat these properly issued decisions as governing law.
NLRB Judge Axes Additional Workplace Rules at Tape Manufacturer
Bloomberg Law
By Parker Purifoy
April 14, 2025
An adhesive tape manufacturer must rehire the president of a workers’ union after a National Labor Relations Board judge found the company maintained a number of illegal workplace rules. Intertape Polymer Corp. should rehire the worker because its underlying policies used to sack him were unlawful, said NLRB Administrative Law Judge Arthur Amchan in a decision Monday.
ORGANIZING
Production Assistants’ Union Drive Gets Boost From Bernie Sanders Rally: “Studios Will Push Back”
The Hollywood Reporter
By Katie Kilkenny
April 14, 2025
Thousands of production assistants are “sick and tired of being underpaid, overworked and unprotected,” said LiUNA Local 724 business manager Alex Aguilar, whose Local is heading up the union-organization effort, in a speech. “That stops!” Organizer Clio Byrne-Gudding, a production assistant who has in the past worked on Rebel Moon parts one and two, addressed production assistants directly: “Will you continue to allow the corporate class to walk all over you and your coworkers? Or will you stand up and put your talents to use to protect your life and the lives of your fellow PAs?”
De Soto Fire Department joins IAFF Local 2665
Labor Tribune
By Sheri Gassaway
April 14, 2025
Members of the De Soto Fire Department have voted to unionize with International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) Local 2665. The department, located in southern Jefferson County, provides service to residents and businesses in the City of De Soto and has six full-time fire fighters. Two fire fighters work each 24-hour shift with their captain, along with part-time and volunteer fire fighters. “They have a great relationship with their chief and the administration, and everything is going well,” said Local 2665 Fifth District Vice President Paul Vessells. “They are just looking to grow the department and for help with federal grant writing.”
UNION NEGOTIATIONS
Chicago teachers reach contract deal for 1st time in more than decade without strike
ABC News
By Sophia Tareen
April 14, 2025
For the first time in over a decade, Chicago’s public school teachers have a new contract without a strike or threat of a walkout. The four-year agreement includes pay hikes, hiring more teachers and class size limits. While negotiations between the Chicago Teachers Union and the district didn’t escalate this time, there was unprecedented turmoil surrounding the unusual yearlong talks. The drama included the school superintendent’s firing, the entire board resigning and historic elections that tested the union’s power.
Commercial Actors Union Reaches Agreement on New Labor Contract
Bloomberg Law
By Parker Purifoy
April 14, 2025
The labor union representing around 133,000 commercial actors and singers reached a tentative agreement with advertisers and advertising agencies for a new collective bargaining agreement. SAG-AFTRA and the Joint Police Committee announced their tentative deal April 12 after the union extended its contract deadline several times. SAG-AFTRA said in its statement that the agreement would go up to the union’s national board for review and then to a ratification vote for members.
Alamo Drafthouse Strike Ends After Deal Is Reached in New York
The Hollywood Reporter
By Katie Kilkenny
April 14, 2025
After 58 days on strike, workers at two Alamo Drafthouse locations in New York City can return to the multiplex. On Monday workers at the Sony-owned cinema chain’s lower Manhattan and downtown Brooklyn locations announced that their union had reached a deal with management over layoffs that the union had previously claimed violated labor law. The union, aligned with the United Auto Workers Local 2179, ratified the tentative agreement on Sunday and said work will resume as usual starting Friday.
UFCW labor talks heat up in California
Supermarket News
By Mark Hamstra
April 14, 2025
The United Food and Commercial Workers union is planning a march on Tuesday in La Verne, Calif., to call attention to its ongoing labor disputes with Stater Bros. and with Kroger- and Albertsons-owned chains in Central and Southern California. The disputes are part of ongoing contract negotiations between several UFCW locals and the major chains in the region. Several UFCW locals are negotiating a new contract with Stater Bros. that covers about 8,000 workers at all of the retailer’s stores, a spokesperson for UFCW Local 135 in San Diego told Supermarket News.
RA Union, GU Complete Contract Negotiations
The Hoya
By Maren Fagan and Aamir Jamil
April 14, 2025
A university spokesperson said the university faithfully bargained with GRAC and their union representation from Local 153 of the Office of Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU). “The University values the contributions of Resident Assistants and has worked in good faith with OPEIU to negotiate a collective bargaining agreement,” the spokesperson wrote to The Hoya.
BNSF and SMART Yardmasters reach tentative contract agreement
Trains Magazine
By Trains Staff
April 14, 2025
BNSF Railway and the SMART-TD Yardmasters have reached a tentative, five-year collective bargaining agreement. The agreement, announced on Friday, covers more than 320 yardmasters and gives covered employees certainty about enhancements to their pay, health care, and vacation. “We are pleased to reach this tentative agreement that continues to reward our employees for their many contributions while also strengthening BNSF’s ability to deliver safety, service, and value for our customers,” BNSF CEO Katie Farmer said in a statement. “We thank the SMART-YM leadership for their work on behalf of their members and their commitment to collaboration through this bargaining round.”
STATE LEGISLATION
Opponents of ‘union bill’ face Tuesday deadline to gather 140K signatures
KSL News Radio
By Adam Small
April 14, 2025
Opponents of what’s known as Utah’s new “union bill” have until Tuesday to submit more than 140,000 signatures needed to place a referendum on the November ballot. House Bill 267 outlaws collective bargaining for Utah’s public sector employees, including teachers, police and firefighters. The bill faced significant public opposition, but was still signed into law by Gov. Spencer Cox. The Protect Utah Workers coalition has since been working to gather the 141,000 signatures required to give voters a chance to overturn the new law.
WORKPLACE SAFETY AND HEALTH
Trump Just Escalated His War on Coal Miners. Their Unions Are Fighting Back.
In These Times
By Kim Kelly
April 14, 2025
These senseless cuts by the Trump administration have already hit coal country hard. Earlier this month, more than 200 workers at a NIOSH facility in Morgantown, WV, lost their jobs after being told their services were not needed, according to reporting by West Virginia Watch. When news of the NIOSH closings broke on April 1, the United Mine Workers of America sent out a press release decrying the cuts and asking, “Is there now a war on coal miners?”
Recent hospital violence fuels effort to create workplace protections
Axios
By Tina Reed
April 14, 2025
National Nurses United backs the bipartisan legislation. "We know that workplace violence is not part of the job, and that it is preventable and that it should be anticipated," Michelle Mahon, director of nursing practice for the union, told Axios.
LABOR AND COMMUNITY
Madison County Federation honors Labor, community service leaders
Labor Tribune
By Tim Rowden
April 14, 2025
Union activists, friends of Labor and United Way volunteers were honored at the 36th annual Labor Awards banquet hosted by the Greater Madison County Federation of Labor March 27 at Julia’s Banquet Center. Tim Owens, president of Machinists Lodge 660, received this year’s Labor Leader of the Year award for his dedicated service and commitment to Labor and working families. “This award is given to a union member that inspires others in the Labor Movement and works to improve conditions of American workers,” said Federation President B. Dean Webb, secretary-treasurer of Lodge 660, in presenting the award.