Today's AFL-CIO press clips
POLITICS
Trump’s hardball moves leave fired federal workers few paths to fight for their jobs back
CNN
By Marshall Cohen
May 8, 2025
After firing tens of thousands of federal workers this year, President Donald Trump has also made it much harder for them to get their jobs back as he imposes his will over the labor agencies that are supposed to protect their rights. He has hobbled independent labor boards, installed a loyalist at a key agency that protects civil servants, and signed an executive order to end collective bargaining for many federal workers. This has left government employees with dwindling options to contest their firings through channels normally available to civil servants, with many turning to the courts for relief or giving up altogether.
Trump’s Power Over Mass Layoffs Heads for Courtroom Showdown
Bloomberg Law
By Parker Purifoy
May 8, 2025
A coalition of labor unions, nonprofit organizations, and municipal governments will step into federal court Friday to halt widespread agency layoffs in the most expansive legal case to date against the Trump administration’s attempts to cull the federal workforce. The 25 plaintiffs are seeking to convince Judge Susan Illston of the US District Court for the Northern District of California that President Donald Trump has broadly flouted the US Constitution with his efforts to reshape the government. They’ve asked Illston, a Clinton appointee, for a temporary restraining order to stop the layoffs.
Even as Trump vows tech upgrade, FAA’s leaders are fleeing via DOGE cuts
The Washington Post
By Ian Duncan, Lori Aratani, Hannah Natanson and Daniel Gilbert
May 8, 2025
“To begin to take on massive changes in the national airspace system, we’re going to need all hands on deck,” said Dave Spero, the president of the FAA’s Professional Aviation Safety Specialists union. “All of that uncertainty right now muddies the water.”
DOGE-led software revamp to speed US job cuts even as Musk steps back
Reuters
By Alexandra Alper
May 8, 2025
The federal human resources agency at the heart of billionaire Elon Musk's efforts to slash the federal workforce is poised to roll out software to speed layoffs across the U.S. government, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters. The software could turbo-charge the rapid-fire effort to downsize the government at a time when a number of larger federal agencies are preparing to execute plans for mass layoffs of tens of thousands of workers.
Pushing back against the attacks on the federal workforce requires protecting professional integrity
Federal News Network
By Jennifer Dorning
May 6, 2025
This week marks the 40th celebration of Public Service Recognition Week, which was created to honor the millions of dedicated public servants, including those in the federal sector, whose work benefits the lives of all Americans. As we recognize public employees this year, federal employees are under attack. In the last four months, at least 121,000 federal employees have been laid off or selected for layoffs, over 75,000 additional federal employees have been pressured into taking buyouts, and many of those who continue to stay employed with the federal government have had their workplace rights targeted for elimination. These events demonstrate that we must do more than recognize federal workers. We must also fight for them. Federal employees’ work touches every aspect of our lives: They protect the air we breathe and the water we drink; provide care for our veterans; ensure the fair enforcement of our laws; analyze the research data or findings that we rely on to keep our transportation systems safe, our food supply disease-free, and our economy prosperous.
Acting FEMA chief abruptly fired ahead of U.S. hurricane season
Reuters
By Nathan Layne and Leah Douglas
May 8, 2025
Cameron Hamilton, the acting director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, has been ousted from his position by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, a day after he told lawmakers in a hearing that he did not support eliminating his agency. The leadership change comes at a time when the agency, which is in charge of coordinating the federal government's response to disasters, is helping states and local communities prepare for the onset of hurricane season on June 1.
Coal miners head to court over Trump cuts to black lung screening staff
The Washington Post
By Tobi Raji and Maxine Joselow
May 8, 2025
Last month, the Trump administration fired roughly two-thirds of the staff at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), the division of the Department of Health and Human Services that provides the free screenings for the disease through the Coal Workers’ Health Surveillance Program, The Washington Post previously reported.
Labor Department Staff Told Firings Weren’t Performance-Based
Bloomberg Law
By Rebecca Rainey
May 8, 2025
Unions representing federal workers, including the American Federation of Government Employees, sued over the move in February, arguing the Office of Personnel Management lacked the authority to initiate the mass firings. Alsup had directed the rehiring of probationary workers in March, a move that was later blocked by the Supreme Court. In April, he told the OPM it could no longer direct the firing of federal employees.
Trump administration gives layoff notices to environmental justice staff at regional EPA
WVPE
By Rebecca Thiele
May 8, 2025
Nicole Cantello is president of the the union that represents the regional EPA office, American Federation of Government Employees Local 704. She said Indiana was also supposed to receive nearly $24 million in grants from the environmental justice program. That money is earmarked for lead pipe replacements and projects to make cities and homeowners more resilient to things like flooding.
Lawmakers say forthcoming bill will help ‘prevent future mine tragedies’
Safety + Health Magazine
By Staff
May 8, 2025
In a separate release, the United Mine Workers Association calls the legislation “a crucial step toward ensuring that MSHA has the resources and authority to do its job – protecting miners’ lives.” In its annual Death on the Job: The Toll of Neglect report, the AFL-CIO calls on Congress to pass the bill. Doing so will “strengthen the federal Mine Safety and Health Act (of 1977) related to mine incident investigations, standards, miners’ rights and protections, and training for miners,” the labor federation states.
TRANSPORTATION
'Everybody's worst nightmare': Air traffic controllers say outages have become too frequent
NBC News
By Melissa Chan, Tom Costello, Jay Blackman and Corky Siemaszko
May 8, 2025
Jason Ambrosi, president of the 79,000-member Air Line Pilots Association, echoed calls for the FAA to fix outdated technology and staffing shortages at the facilities. “For pilots who navigate these skies daily, our message is unequivocal: Now is the time for immediate, decisive action with steadfast commitment to safeguard and enhance aviation’s safety and efficiency,” Ambrosi said in a statement.
UNION NEGOTIATIONS
UO Student Workers union and University of Oregon reach tentative agreement
KEZI
By Robert Desaulniers
May 8, 2025
After a strike that lasted more than a week, the University of Oregon Student Workers union and the university itself have announced that they have come to a tentative agreement on a labor contract. Student workers at the University of Oregon walked off the job in the morning of April 28, after 11 months of failed negotiations with the university.
UOSW and UO reach a tentative agreement, ending strike
The Daily Emerald
By Ysabella Sosa and Sasha Love
May 8, 2025
UO and UOSW agreed to a $16.00 minimum base pay, according to Ryan Campbell, a member of UOSW’s bargaining team. When the strike began on April 28, UOSW was proposing an $18.50 hourly base wage. UO proposed a $15.44 hourly base wage. The probationary period for student workers was dropped, according to Campbell. During a probationary period an employee is evaluated and has fewer protections.
Soap Opera Network
By Errol Lewis
May 7, 2025
Announcing a one-year extension of the National Code of Fair Practice for Network Television Broadcasting Agreement (better known as the Network Television Code) last year, SAG-AFTRA and the four major television broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX), along with other producers, committed to begin negotiations on a full three-year successor agreement no later than Monday, June 2, 2025. We’re now less than 30 days away from those talks commencing.
Trulieve workers nab Arizona’s first union contract for weed growers
Phoenix New Times
By TJ L'Heureux
May 8, 2025
UFCW Local 99 is Arizona’s largest private sector union, representing 25,000 workers at Fry’s Food Stores, Safeway, cannabis dispensaries and other employers throughout the southwest. UFCW Local 99 also helped dispensary workers at Sunday Goods in Tempe and Zen Leaf locations in Chandler and Phoenix ratify union contracts.
JOINING TOGETHER
Nurses protest planned closure of Mount Desert Island obstetrics unit
Maine Public
By Patty Wight
May 8, 2025
In Bar Harbor Thursday, nurses and community members protested the planned closure of Mount Desert Island's obstetrics unit in July. "It's pretty terrifying," said Portia Judson, an ER nurse at the hospital. "Part of the reason to have a Critical Access Hospital is because we are a hard to reach destination," Judson said. "There's one road in. And in foggy weather, LifeFlight can't get here."
'Bring us back': Fired janitorial workers in Stamford with ties to union hold protest
Stamford Advocate
By Ignacio Laguarda
May 7, 2025
Wearing purple shirts and banging on bright orange Home Depot buckets, a group of about 30 people protested outside of a Stamford business Wednesday morning against what they claimed to be anti-union activity. Workers from union 32BJ SEIU — which mainly represents building workers — protested the recent actions of two companies, claiming that each fired union employees to replace them with non-union workers.
Investor group urges Ford to address claims of ‘union avoidance’ at Kentucky battery plant
News from the States
By Liam Niemeyer
May 7, 2025
The UAW launched a campaign last year to unionize the BlueOval SK battery plant in Hardin County, and workers at the plant in January asked the National Labor Relations Board to hold a union election. The BlueOval SK battery plant, one of two planned at Glendale to produce batteries for electric vehicles, is jointly owned by Ford and South Korean company SK Group.
Union nurses protest MAHEC departure from Mission network, hospital staffing
WLOS
By Kelly Doty
May 8, 2025
Nurses with Mission Hospital held a demonstration on Thursday, May 8, calling on the hospital's parent company to “do better” with staffing and to highlight concerns over MAHEC’s exit from Mission Health Partners. Hannah Drummond, the chief nurse representative of National Nurses United at Mission Hospital, said nurses who are MAHEC patients received surprise medical bills totaling thousands of dollars.
STATE LEGISLATION
Colorado legislature approves collective bargaining bill
Kiowa County Press
By Derek Draplin
May 8, 2025
Democratic lawmakers worked to push through a collective bargaining bill in the final days of Colorado’s legislative session, which adjourns Wednesday. The House gave final passage to Senate Bill 25-005, titled the “Worker Protection Collective Bargaining” bill, with a vote on Tuesday, despite signals it did not have Governor Jared Polis’s support.
Jared Polis plans to veto Labor Peace Act bill, a priority for Colorado unions
The Colorado Sun
By Jesse Paul
May 8, 2025
Gov. Jared Polis confirmed Thursday that he plans to veto a bill passed by Democrats in the legislature this year that would rewrite the Colorado Labor Peace Act. Senate Bill 5 is a priority for the Colorado labor movement and Polis’ decision to nix the measure is sure to inflame the unfavorable view of the governor already held by unions. The measure would abolish a requirement in the Colorado Labor Peace Act that 75% of workers at a company sign off before unions can negotiate with businesses over union security. That’s after a majority of workers vote to unionize.
IN THE STATES
The Salt Lake Tribune
By Robert Gehrke
May 8, 2025
In the end, it wasn’t even close. Labor groups had 30 days to get 140,478 signatures to put a referendum on the ballot asking Utah voters if they want to repeal a new law barring public employee unions from negotiating contracts with their government employers. They ended up with 251,590 valid signatures, making it the most successful signature-gathering effort in state history, according to the lieutenant governor’s office, racking up nearly 100,000 more names than the previous record set by the 2018 medical marijuana initiative.
Ohio Democrats, unions concerned about changes to federal broadband buildout program
WYSO
By Jo Ingles
May 7, 2025
There's an effort to make changes to a federal program to provide broadband to the more than 1.5 million Ohioans who still lack access to reliable internet. Some lawmakers and union members are urging the state to stick with a plan that provides dedicated internet to rural areas that lack it currently. Rep. Lauren McNally (D-Youngstown) said $800 million is available through the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment Program (BEAD).
APPRENTICESHIPS & TRAINING
Plumbers & Pipefitters Local 562 expanding Fulton training center
Labor Tribune
By Sheri Gassaway
May 8, 2025
Plumbers & Pipefitters Local 562 is expanding its Fulton training center in an effort to teach the most advanced industry methods to the area’s growing number of Local 562 apprentices and journeymen. Local 562 officials officially broke ground on the project in a recent ceremony. The current training center, built in 1997, has classrooms and office space, but offers limited space for hands-on learning. The expansion calls for adding a 30,000-square-foot building dedicated solely to training. The Fulton training center is one of three educational centers throughout the union’s geographic jurisdiction. Currently, members in Fulton receive most of their hands-on training at the union’s Earth City location.
WORKPLACE SAFETY AND HEALTH
Mountain State Spotlight
By Tre Spencer
May 8, 2025
Josh Sword, president of the West Virginia AFL-CIO, a labor union that represents more than 80,000 people in the state, said West Virginia workers are more likely to be hurt or killed due to hazardous industries like mining, manufacturing and chemical production. This year marks 27 years since the AFL-CIO created Workers’ Memorial Day in 1998 to honor workers who were injured or killed on the job. On a quiet Monday afternoon last month, a crowd of nearly 100 gathered on the banks of the Ohio River to commemorate the dozens of West Virginians who died on the job last year. “If you really, really, really want to honor these fallen workers, don’t do it in a day,” Cecil Roberts, president of the United Mine Workers of America, said to thundering applause. After his speech, the names of the workers who died were read aloud, each followed by a bell toll.
VOTING RIGHTS
Redrawn Alabama electoral map intentionally discriminatory, court rules
Reuters
By Nate Raymond
May 8, 2025
A federal court ruled on Thursday that Alabama's Republican-led legislature intentionally discriminated against Black voters when it approved a new electoral map in 2023 that only had one majority-Black congressional district. In a 571-page ruling, a three-judge panel sharply criticized state lawmakers for drawing up a congressional map that mirrored one from 2021 that the judges and the U.S. Supreme Court had already concluded diluted the voting power of Black Alabamians in violation of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
EDUCATION
On Teacher Appreciation Week, union leaders say teachers are underpaid and under attack
KSMU
By Ayana Archie
May 8, 2025
American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten said with their skill sets and the amount of time they dedicate to their jobs, public school teachers could earn about 24% more than their current pay working in non-teaching jobs in the private sector. But teachers often stay in the profession "because they're making a difference in the lives of kids," she said.
RETIREMENT SECURITY
More older Americans not confident Social Security will be there for them: Survey
The Hill
By Tara Suter
May 8, 2025
More older Americans are not confident Social Security will be there for them, a poll released Thursday found. Close to 30 percent of respondents to The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll aged 60 and up said they are not confident about the availability of Social Security benefits when needed. A poll from 2023 found about 20 percent of respondents in that age category said the same about Social Security benefits, illustrating an increase in concerns about availability.
LABOR AND ENTERTAINMENT
‘Totally different beast.’ Austin musicians worry about industry amid SXSW changes
KXAN
By Abigail Jones
May 8, 2025
An Austin-based musician and AFM member said they want SXSW to “consider doing what other festivals like ACL do, which is pay union scale.” KXAN reached out to C3 Presents, the event management company behind the Austin City Limits Music Festival, to confirm if it uses a union pay scale for festival performers, but we did not receive a response, and information on the musician rates for ACL performers is not publicly available.
LABOR AND COMMUNITY
Labor Tribune
By Staff
May 8, 2025
Members from Glaziers Local 513 joined Plumbers & Pipefitters Local 562 in teaming up with Rebuilding Together-St. Louis April 26 to provide free updates for low-income homeowners in St. Louis city and county. The Local 513 team, which focused primarily on window repairs and caulking, met at the Local 562 union hall in Earth City to get their assignments for the day. “Local 513 showed up today and helped St. Louis residents have more efficient, safer, more secure and attractive homes,” Local 513 Apprenticeship Coordinator Dale Willmann shared on social media. “It was a great day to change the landscape of our city and show what unions are all about.