Today's AFL-CIO press clips
MUST READ
Maine AFL-CIO warns against further cuts to Department of Veterans Affairs
WMTW
By Cate McCusker
April 30, 2025
In Augusta today, national and state union leaders discussed the impact of recent cuts to the federal workforce. Liz Shuler, the national AFL-CIO president, said she's been traveling the country speaking with impacted workers. “That’s what these hearings are all about," she said. "Recognizing Democrat, Republican, Independent; these cuts affect all of us.”
AFL-CIO president visits Maine to highlight potential impacts of VA cuts
Spectrum News
By Susan Cover
April 30, 2025
Union officials are warning that potential cuts to the veterans’ administration will result in longer wait times for services and benefits. Last month, the federal Department of Veterans Affairs announced a reorganization plan that calls for reducing the VA workforce by 83,000 employees this year, one of many federal cost cutting measures. In response, members of the AFL-CIO gathered in Augusta Wednesday to share their stories as part of a roundtable discussion with National President Liz Shuler. She’s been traveling the country to meet with workers in places like Maine, that “aren’t strongholds for either political party,” she said. “This is about capturing workers’ voices and bringing their stories to life because often they are left out of the conversation,” she said.
POLITICS
State and national labor leaders highlight outsized impact federal cuts have on veterans
Maine Morning Star
By Lauren McCauley
April 30, 2025
National AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler said she’s travelled the country to hear from workers impacted by federal cuts. Asked about what she’s heard from union members who supported President Donald Trump, she said that his recent executive order that ended collective bargaining rights for federal unions was a wake up call for many. “And so whether you’re in the federal sector, public sector, the private sector, this injury to one is an injury to all is really starting to take hold within our labor movement,” Shuler said. “And I think working people broadly see what’s on the horizon.” Cynthia Phinney, president of the Maine AFL-CIO, pointed out that with an estimated 106,000 veterans, Maine has the highest concentration of any state in the nation. And nationally, roughly one in three federal workers is a veteran.
Trump Appeals Loss in Federal Workplace Union Contracts Case
Bloomberg Law
By Bernie Pazanowski
April 30, 2025
The Trump Administration told a federal district court that it’s appealing an order blocking an executive order designed to rescind collective bargaining rights for two-thirds of the federal workforce. The preliminary injunction, issued earlier this week, was necessary because the executive order seeks to advance “unrelated policy goals” and is designed to retaliate against unions that challenge the administration, Judge Paul Friedman said in the April 28 opinion.
Donald Trump Wants To Destroy Federal Labor Unions
HuffPost
By Dave Jamieson
April 30, 2025
Federal labor unions find themselves in a fight for survival just 100 days into Donald Trump’s presidency. The new administration has attacked collective bargaining as it fires workers and shrinks or eliminates federal departments by fiat. It has tried to gut key agencies that enforce labor rights for federal workers. It has ignored union contracts negotiated by Trump’s predecessor. And it has moved to shut off paycheck dues deduction in order to starve unions of their funding.
CDC reinstates workers who screen coal miners for black lung disease
The Washington Post
By Maxine Joselow
April 30, 2025
The Trump administration on Tuesday temporarily reinstated dozens of fired federal workers who help screen coal miners for black lung, a deadly and incurable disease caused by inhaling toxic coal dust. The unusual move comes after The Washington Post reported that the layoffs had forced the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), a division of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to suspend the Coal Workers’ Health Surveillance Program (CWHSP) for the first time in a half-century.
NBC News
By Aria Bendix and Jacob Soboroff
April 30, 2025
The Trump administration plans to terminate federal workers focused on preventing and responding to work-related illnesses, including "black lung" disease in coal miners, according to an internal government memo obtained by NBC News, despite in recent days reinstating some who had been let go.
Trump's first 100 days target diversity policies, civil rights protections
Reuters
By Bianca Flowers and Disha Raychaudhuri
April 30, 2025
U.S. President Donald Trump's first 100 days in office have featured an unapologetic assault on diversity and inclusion efforts, unraveling decades-old policies to remedy historical injustices for marginalized groups in a matter of weeks. In his second term, Trump revoked a landmark 1965 executive order mandating equal employment opportunities for all, slashed environmental actions to protect communities of color and ordered the gutting of an agency that helped fund minority and women-owned businesses.
Trump’s first 100 days were marked by chaos. That’s unlikely to change
Fast Company
By Kristin Toussaint
April 30, 2025
President Donald Trump’s first 100 days of his second term in office have been marked by whipsawing tariff policies; declarations that handicap his own goals; confusion as federal workers are fired, rehired, and fired again; and government officials quitting. In other words: chaos. And the next 100 days will likely be full of chaos, too. Some of this is intentional, like the rapid clip of executive orders, DOGE’s assault on federal workers, and the spate of illegal deportations. This “flooding the zone” strategy was developed by Trump’s first-term adviser Steve Bannon, who has remarked on Trump’s ability to “overwhelm” Democrats and the media with an onslaught of actions.
Judge blocks Trump order that busts unions for federal workers
Northwest Labor Press
By Don McIntosh
April 30, 2025
A federal judge issued an order April 25 that temporarily blocks the Trump administration from revoking the union rights of federal workers. A law passed by Congress in 1978 gives federal employees some limited union rights, but excludes agencies that the president determines have intelligence or national security as a primary function. In a March 27 executive order, Trump declared that dozens of agencies — including the Bureau of Land Management, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Food and Drug Administration — fit that category.
Explainer: Republicans weigh cuts to Medicaid that could dramatically affect millions
Reuters
By Andy Sullivan
April 30, 2025
President Donald Trump's fellow Republicans in the U.S. Congress are weighing steep cuts to the Medicaid health program as part of a wide-ranging budget package that also would cut taxes and raise spending on defense and border security. That could lead to dramatic changes for one of the biggest U.S. safety-net programs, which provides coverage to 83 million low-income people, according to government figures.
US appeals court will not allow DOGE to access Social Security data
Reuters
By Nate Raymond
April 30, 2025
A divided federal appeals court rejected the Trump administration's bid to lift an order blocking the U.S. Social Security Administration from giving the Elon Musk-spearheaded Department of Government Efficiency unfettered access to the data of millions of Americans. The Richmond, Virginia-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on a 9-6 vote declined, opens new tab to put on hold an injunction issued by a judge in Maryland who concluded the agency likely violated a federal privacy law by providing DOGE unlimited access to records.
Judge 'inclined' to block DOGE takeover of Institute of Museum and Library Services
WUSA9
By Jordan Fischer
April 30, 2025
A district court judge said Wednesday he’s inclined to block the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle the independent agency responsible for distributing federal dollars to the nation’s museums and libraries. The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) was among a number of previously obscure federal agencies targeted by the administration last month in an executive order aimed at reducing the size of the federal government. A lawsuit filed in federal court by the American Library Association (ALA) says the efforts have all followed a similar pattern: summary terminations of some or all of the agency’s board; installation of an acting agency head; and then mass terminations of grants and employees. According to the suit, the entire 75-person staff of IMLS was placed on leave last month by acting director Keith Sonderling, a former EEOC commissioner who served as deputy secretary of labor during President Donald Trump’s first term.
Government Executive
By Erich Wagner
April 30, 2025
Republicans on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee voted Wednesday mostly along party lines to advance a series of proposals that would require federal workers to pay more toward their retirement benefits and reduce the value of those benefits, despite criticism from Democrats and one of their own members. As part of the GOP’s effort to pass legislation under budget reconciliation to extend and expand tax cuts for the wealthy first implemented during President Trump’s first term, the panel’s leadership unveiled plans to reduce federal spending by $50 billion, mostly by making federal workers’ contribute more toward the defined benefit portion of their retirement benefits, while simultaneously changing the formula to calculate their monthly annuity payment to be less generous.
Interview: Musk says DOGE may be here to stay
Axios
By Alex Isenstadt
May 1, 2025
Elon Musk acknowledges his budget-cutting exercise known as DOGE hasn't been as successful as he hoped. But he says it may go on for President Trump's entire four years in office — more than twice as long as originally planned. Why it matters: DOGE was set up to terminate on July 4, 2026. But Musk now says his controversial group could help oversee the slashing of federal spending through the end of 2028. "I think so," Musk said of DOGE being extended. "It's up to the president."
ABC News
By Liz Neporent
April 30, 2025
The 9/11 health program that monitors and treats thousands of people exposed to toxic dust during the 2001 terrorist attack is under threat — again. A wave of staffing cuts and agency turmoil has thrown the World Trade Center Health Program into crisis, disrupting a system that has provided life-saving care to tens of thousands of people for more than two decades. Experts warn that cancer diagnoses could be delayed, mental health needs could go unmet and the federal government would break its promise to "never forget."
Oversight panel endorses cuts to federal retirement system
Roll Call
By Jim Saksa
April 30, 2025
Republicans on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee advanced their portion of the GOP’s massive budget reconciliation package Wednesday, but not without dissent from one of their own. After a six-hour markup, the panel voted 22-21, with GOP Rep. Michael R. Turner of Ohio joining all Democrats in opposition. The legislation would cut federal employees’ take-home pay, trim their pensions and shrink their job protections to reduce national deficits by more than $50 billion over 10 years. In his opening remarks, Turner outlined his objections. “I don’t believe it represents Republican values or American values,” he said. “I believe making changes to pension benefits in the middle of employment is wrong. Employee benefits are not a gift. They are earned.”
The GOP plan to fund Trump’s agenda is running into a major roadblock: Trump
Politico
By Rachael Bade, Adam Cancryn, Myah Ward and Meredith Lee Hill
April 30, 2025
President Donald Trump is skeptical of congressional Republicans’ emerging plans to make deep cuts to Medicaid, the safety-net health program covering nearly 80 million Americans, six people close to the president said. Speaker Mike Johnson and other House leaders are zeroing in on a framework that would roll back part of the Medicaid expansion enacted under President Barack Obama, generating hundreds of billions of dollars in savings to help pay for the rest of Trump’s legislative agenda — including sweeping tax cuts plus border security and defense spending.
MAY DAY
From Tokyo to Los Angeles, Trump’s policies loom over May Day marches
AP News
By Yuri Kageyama and Thomas Adamson
May 1, 2025
From Tokyo to Taipei to Manila, people across Asia marked May Day with marches and protests that spotlighted growing unease over U.S. President Donald Trump’s policies and fears of global economic instability. The holiday, also known as International Workers’ Day or Labor Day, honors the struggles and achievements of workers and the labor movement. Rallies are expected across the United States as well, including in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and Philadelphia. Across multiple countries, Trump’s agenda was cited as a source of concern. In the United States, organizers said their message this year focused on fighting Trump’s approach targeting immigrants, federal workers and diversity initiatives.
May Day: protests expected across US over workers’ and immigrants’ rights
The Guardian
By Rachel Leingang
May 1, 2025
Protesters are expected to rally nationwide on 1 May with a focus on workers’ and immigrants’ rights in the latest round of demonstrations against Donald Trump and his administration. May Day, commemorated as international workers’ day, comes after two massive days of protests in April – 5 April’s hands off rallies and 19 April’s day of action – drew millions to the streets across the country. The 1 May protests are supported by hundreds of organizations and set to take place in nearly 1,000 cities, organizers said. Turnout will likely be lower than the previous two April protests because 1 May is a weekday, but tens of thousands are expected to show out.
Activists to rally worldwide on May Day, with US protests targeting Trump policies
ABC News
By Sophia Tareen
May 1, 2025
From worker rights rallies to marches for social justice, activists around the globe will kick off May Day demonstrations on Thursday. In some countries, it’s a public holiday honoring labor, but activists planning marches in the United States say much of their message is about fighting back against President Donald Trump’s policies targeting immigrants, federal workers and diversity programs. Thousands are expected at demonstrations from Tokyo to Chicago. In some parts of the U.S., though, fear sowed by the Trump administration is expected to keep some immigrants home. “Everybody is under attack right now,” said Jorge Mujica, a longtime labor leader from Chicago, where May Day rallies historically have had a large turnout.
Thousands to rally against Trump, Musk in nationwide May Day protests
USA Today
By Christopher Cann
May 1, 2025
One of the larger protests is expected in Washington, D.C., where a "May Day Movement USA" rally on the National Mall will start at 10 a.m. In Philadelphia, Sen. Bernie Sanders will join the "Workers over Billionaires" rally hosted by the city's AFL-CIO chapter.
May Day protesters will rally nationwide against the 'war on working people'
NPR
By Emma Bowman
April 30, 2025
Tens of thousands of protesters are expected to take to the streets nationwide on Thursday in May Day rallies opposing the Trump administration. May Day, celebrated by workers across the globe as International Labor Day, occurs on May 1 each year. This year, activists in the U.S. aim to build on the momentum of recent widespread grassroots protests against policies implemented by the Trump administration.
Millions marching against Trump agenda on May Day
People’s World
By Mark Gruenberg
April 30, 2025
Organized labor and its allies are turning out the troops en masse in 600 marches nationwide in what is the largest U.S. celebration of May Day, the international workers holiday, in years. And the message is the need to resist and turn back the Trump administration’s attacks on workers, immigrants and all sectors of the population in the country. Rallies, marches, speeches and much more will feature a variety of themes, most of them pointedly exposing the Republican president, the corporate criminal class he speaks for and his actions against workers and unions, especially federal and other unions.
Labor Tribune
By David A. Cook
April 30, 2025
The hard copy of this week’s Labor Tribune is set to hit most mailboxes on May 1, although many of you reading this will have received the digital version a bit early. Since May 1 is the official date many shall receive this issue, it seems more than appropriate to remind you all of the significance of that date, and how history might inform us in the present. Officially, the public holiday set aside to explicitly celebrate workers and the Labor Movement in the United States is Labor Day in September. However, many European countries use May 1 as their date for that public holiday and, in a bit of irony, they chose May 1 because of the actions of American workers.
IMMIGRATION
Trump says he ‘could’ bring Abrego Garcia back from El Salvador, but won’t
CNN
By Karina Tsui
April 30, 2025
President Donald Trump on Tuesday acknowledged that he could secure the return of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man who was wrongly deported to El Salvador last month but refuses to do so. The comments appear to contradict previous remarks made by him and his top aides who say the US does not have the ability to return Abrego Garcia because he is in the custody of a foreign government, despite the Supreme Court’s ruling that the Trump administration must “facilitate” his return. “You could get him back. There’s a phone on this desk,” ABC News’ Terry Moran, said to Trump during an exclusive interview that aired Tuesday night. “I could,” Trump replied.
Trump’s big admission about the Kilmar Abrego García deportation case
The Washington Post
By Aaron Blake
April 30, 2025
The buzziest part of President Donald Trump’s sit-down with ABC News on Tuesday came when Trump insisted — wrongly, repeatedly and vehemently — that Kilmar Abrego García literally had “MS13” tattooed on his knuckles. That image was in fact an edited one. But the most significant part came just before that. Trump, for the second time in a week, undermined the administration’s claims about its ability to get Abrego García — who was wrongly deported — returned to the United States. And it’s quite possible his comments could feature significantly in an ongoing showdown with the courts in which the administration is at the very least flouting court orders — if not outright defying them.
Judge sets schedule for depositions in Kilmar Abrego García case
The Washington Post
By Steve Thompson
April 30, 2025
The federal judge overseeing the case of the Maryland resident who was mistakenly sent to a prison in El Salvador has denied a motion from the Trump administration asking to further delay answering questions about what steps, if any, it has taken for his return. The order on Wednesday from U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis set new deadlines for an expedited discovery schedule, in which four Trump administration officials are scheduled to be deposed in the case of Kilmar Abrego García.
INFRASTRUCTURE
LIUNA’s impact on Sacramento’s infrastructure and community development
Sacramento Business Journal
By LECET Southwest
April 30, 2025
The Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA) plays a crucial role in shaping the infrastructure of Sacramento, with its dedicated membership contributing to major construction projects across the region. With 5,710 members spanning 20 counties from Sacramento to the Oregon border, LIUNA Laborers Local 185’s presence in Sacramento is a testament to the union's commitment to local hiring, community engagement, and career development.
LABOR AND ECONOMY
U.S. economy shrank 0.3% in the first quarter as Trump policy uncertainty weighed on businesses
CNBC
By Jeff Cox
April 30, 2025
The U.S. economy contracted in the first three months of 2025 on an import surge at the start of President Donald Trump’s second term in office as he wages a potentially costly trade war. Gross domestic product, a sum of all the goods and services produced from January through March, fell at a 0.3% annualized pace, according to a Commerce Department report Wednesday adjusted for seasonal factors and inflation. This was the first quarter of negative growth since Q1 of 2022.
US economy goes into reverse from Trump’s abrupt policy shifts
CNN
By Bryan Mena
April 30, 2025
The US economy just had its worst quarter since 2022 as President Donald Trump’s significant policy changes unnerved consumers and businesses. Gross domestic product, which measures all the goods and services produced in the economy, registered at an annualized rate of -0.3% in the first quarter, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. That’s a sharp slowdown from the fourth quarter’s 2.4% rate, and much worse than the 0.8% rate economists projected. GDP is adjusted for seasonal swings and inflation.
U.S. economy went into reverse in the first quarter, new GDP data shows
CBS News
By Aimee Picchi
April 30, 2025
U.S. economic growth slowed sharply in the first quarter of 2025 as businesses rushed to stockpile goods ahead of President Trump's sweeping tariff policies. The nation's gross domestic product — the total value of products and services — shrank at a 0.3% annual rate, down from growth of 2.4% in the final three months of 2024, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday in its initial GDP estimate. It's the worst quarterly performance for the U.S. economy since early 2022, when the economy was in recovery after cratering during the COVID pandemic. The U.S. economy was forecast to show 0.8% growth in the first three months of 2025, according to the average estimate of economists polled by FactSet.
Fed signals rates will remain unchanged despite market bets on looming cuts
Reuters
By Ann Saphir
April 30, 2025
Federal Reserve policymakers have signaled that short-term interest rates will remain unchanged as they wait for clearer signs that inflation is nearing the U.S. central bank's 2% goal or until there is a whiff of a deteriorating job market. The data so far has presented neither of those scenarios to the Fed, and though economists say the real drag from President Donald Trump's aggressive import tariffs lies ahead, there is a great amount of uncertainty over where the policies will end up and the degree and timing of their impact on prices and jobs.
An Flashing Economic Warning and a Sharp Political Jolt
The New York Times
By David E. Sanger
April 30, 2025
President Trump took office 101 days ago after a campaign in which voters bought his argument that he could skillfully manage the economy and that his policy prescriptions could both bolster growth and eradicate inflation. So the news on Wednesday that the nation’s gross domestic product had contracted in the first three months of the year was a sharp political jolt as well as a blinking economic warning.
UNION NEGOTIATIONS
Boston Globe
By Christopher Gavin
April 30, 2025
Staff at Butler Hospital in Providence will strike beginning May 15 as workers attempt to secure a new contract with the psychiatric facility’s owner, Care New England, that addresses increased workplace violence, counteracts staffing shortages, and provides higher pay, their union said. Service Employees International Union (SEIU) District 1199 said the hospital’s union bargaining committee announced the planned strike on Tuesday, after 91 percent of the hospital’s 800-employee frontline staff voted last week to authorize a strike.
Los Angeles County workers to wrap up 48-hour strike with rallies
NBC 4 Los Angeles
By Jonathan Lloyd
April 30, 2025
Striking Los Angeles County workers are planning to gather outside their places of work for the final day of a 48-hour strike over contract negotiations. More than 55,000 members of Service Employees International Union Local 721, including public works employees, public and mental health professionals, social workers and parks and recreation personnel, went on strike Monday night.