Today's AFL-CIO press clips
POLITICS
Medicaid cuts may threaten care for nursing home and elder-care residents
The Washington Post
By Fenit Nirappil
May 12, 2025
Traversing the halls of his nursing home in a wheelchair, Owen Allen listened to a visiting guitarist play “Sweet Caroline,” then chipped away at a thousand-piece puzzle in the sunroom. Since muscular dystrophy struck and his legs started giving out, the 64-year-old Atlanta native relies on Medicaid to keep him in the 130-bed home where staff help him pull weights to regain his strength.
GOP’s scaled-back Medicaid plan still threatens coverage for millions
The Washington Post
By Paige Winfield Cunningham and Jacob Bogage
May 12, 2025
Republicans’ plans to cut health care as part of President Donald Trump’s tax and immigration agenda could strip Medicaid coverage from 8.7 million people and lead to 7.6 million more uninsured people over 10 years, according to an estimate from Congress’s nonpartisan bookkeeper in documents obtained by The Washington Post. The text of the legislation, released Sunday night by the House committee that oversees health care, calls for new requirements for beneficiaries, including co-pays for those above 100 percent of the federal poverty level and work requirements for many able-bodied, childless adults. It also tightens up eligibility verification rules and limits taxes that states charge medical providers as a roundabout way of collecting more federal Medicaid dollars.
Trump Urges Ninth Circuit to Allow Federal Layoffs During Appeal
Bloomberg Government
By Rebecca Rainey
May 12, 2025
The Trump administration is asking a federal appeals court to pause a temporary order blocking the administration from implementing mass layoffs and firings of federal workers. The emergency request, filed Monday in the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, argues that the “sweeping” order issued last Friday should be stayed because “the injunction rests on a fundamentally flawed understanding of the separation of powers.” Judge Susan Illston of the US District Court for the Northern District of California issued a temporary restraining order against the government on May 9, finding that the administration’s plans to conduct a “critical transformation of the Federal bureaucracy” likely violated the Constitution because such a change would require approval from Congress.
Republicans leave many issues unresolved as they push Trump tax bill forward
Reuters
By Bo Erickson and David Morgan
May 12, 2025
Republicans in the U.S. Congress on Monday sought to advance elements of their sweeping budget package that would cut taxes and tighten healthcare benefits for the poor, though they are still at odds over many details of their plan. Republicans in the House of Representatives released draft legislation over the weekend that for the first time laid out specifics of the plan, which would be the centerpiece of President Donald Trump's domestic agenda.
GOP charges ahead despite deep divisions on Medicaid, SALT
The Hill
By Mychael Schnell and Mike Lillis
May 12, 2025
House Republicans are charging ahead with deep Medicaid cuts and an extension of the 2017 tax cuts, two policies at the heart of President Trump’s domestic agenda that are showcasing fierce divisions within the GOP conference. Both policy issues pit GOP moderates against conservatives, and threaten to delay action on the massive budget reconciliation package they’re hoping to get to Trump’s desk before August.
Civil rights agency moves to fire judge fighting Trump directives
The Washington Post
By Claire Savage
May 12, 2025
The federal agency tasked with protecting workers’ civil rights has moved to terminate a New York administrative judge who has resisted compliance with directives from the White House, including President Donald Trump’s executive order decreeing male and female as two “immutable” sexes. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in response to Trump’s order has moved to drop at least seven of its own pending cases representing transgender workers alleging discrimination, and is classifying all new gender identity-related discrimination cases as its lowest priority , signaling a major departure from its prior interpretation of civil rights law.
Republicans Target Federal Anti-Hunger Program as They Prepare Trump Tax Package
The New York Times
By Tony Romm
May 12, 2025
House Republicans on Monday proposed a series of sharp restrictions on the federal anti-hunger program known as food stamps, seeking to limit its funding and benefits as part of a sprawling package to advance President Trump’s tax cuts. `The proposal, included in a draft measure to be considered by the House Agriculture Committee this week, would require states to supply some of the funding for food stamps while forcing more of its beneficiaries to obtain employment in exchange for federal aid.
IMMIGRATION
Avelo Airlines Faces Backlash for Aiding Trump’s Deportation Campaign
The New York Times
By Niraj Chokshi
May 12, 2025
The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, a union that represents flight attendants at 20 airlines, including Avelo, raised concerns. The union noted that immigrants being deported by the Trump administration had been placed in restraints, which can make flight attendants’ jobs much more difficult. “Having an entire flight of people handcuffed and shackled would hinder any evacuation and risk injury or death,” the union said in a statement. “It also impedes our ability to respond to a medical emergency, fire on board, decompression, etc. We cannot do our jobs in these conditions.”
LABOR AND TECHNOLOGY
Punching In: Google Union Members Make Asks in Antitrust Suit
Bloomberg Law
By Parker Purifoy and Andrew Kreighbaum
May 19, 2025
One of the most prominent unions in the tech industry is stepping into the US Justice Department’s historic legal fight to break up Google LLC. The Alphabet Workers Union, affiliated with Communications Workers of America, is pushing a federal judge to include worker protections as he weighs how to remedy Google’s unlawful monopoly, according to an amicus brief filed May 9. Judge Amit Mehta of the US District Court for the District of Columbia should ensure mechanisms for confidential reporting and anti-retaliation protections for employees who are critical of the company, the brief said.
ENVIRONMENT, ENERGY AND CLIMATE
Protect federal incentives for clean energy projects
The Seattle Times
By Nicole Grant
May 11, 2025
Energy demand is rising, and with it, utility bills are getting harder to afford. But we can’t just wring our hands and maintain the status quo. There are good reasons why electricity demand is going up. We’re building 21st-century technologies like AI and data centers. We’re electrifying things like cars and heating systems that have pumped dirty pollutants into our air for too long. This is progress. We need to meet the moment by building affordable clean energy and doing so in a way that creates high-quality union jobs for Washingtonians. Luckily, we have a powerful tool to help us do that: federal tax incentives for clean energy development.
INFRASTRUCTURE
Ohio Democrats and unions are concerned about changes to the federal broadband buildout program
WOUB
By Jo Ingles
May 12, 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.
ORGANIZING
Union for nearly 1,000 U of M resident physicians certified by state
Minnesota Reformer
By Max Nesterak
May 12, 2025
Nearly 1,000 resident physicians at the University of Minnesota are officially unionized with SEIU Committee of Interns and Residents after a state labor board certified on Friday that a majority of residents signed union cards. The certification comes on the heels of more than 200 resident physicians at Hennepin Healthcare achieving certification last month as the first union of resident physicians in Minnesota. “We work very hard to take care of people all over the Twin Cities and beyond, and burnout is a real problem,” said Dr. Kaitlin McLean in a statement released by the union. “It’s essential that we have a seat at the table so we can care for ourselves and our patients, and so that we can stay here in Minnesota doing that critical work.”
Overwatch developers form nearly 200-person union at Blizzard Entertainment
Game Developer
By Bryant Francis
May 12, 2025
Another group of developers has unionized at Blizzard Entertainment. On Friday May 9, 2025, the Communication Workers of America announced the formation of the Overwatch Gamemakers Guild-CWA, a nearly 200-person "wall-to-wall" union representing developers working on Blizzard's Overwatch series. "Wall to wall" unions—like the kind formed by Blizzard's World of Warcraft development team in 2024, are unions that encompass the entirety of a business bargaining group. These differ from the smaller discipline-based unions seen elsewhere at the company, like the Activision Blizzard-wide QA union formed in 2024 and the Raven Software QA union formed in 2022 (the latter group has accused Activision Blizzard parent company Microsoft of "bad faith bargaining" over a union contract).
UNION NEGOTIATIONS
The Second City performers earn pay boost in new contract deal that averts strike
WBEZ Chicago
By Mike Davis
May 12, 2025
The Second City performers and stage managers have reached a new contract deal with New York private equity owners ZMC and will avoid a strike. Last week, Second City performers announced they could move to strike if negotiations between the Actors Equity Union and Second City management didn’t make progress. Lawyers finalized details of a contract deal on Friday.
Fenway Park concessions workers to hold strike authorization vote in June for higher pay
The Providence Journal
By Margie Cullen
May 12, 2025
Thousands of workers at Fenway Park might go on strike for the first time ever for higher pay, the UNITE HERE Local 26 union announced Saturday. The hospitality workers’ union said in a press release that concessions workers at Fenway Park and MGM Music Hall (the concert venue at Fenway) will hold a strike authorization vote June 13-15. If approved, the workers could go on strike for the first time in Fenway Park’s history.
Workers vote unanimously to authorize strikes at six local Planned Parenthood locations
KEYT
By Andrew Gillies
May 12, 2025
Healthcare workers at Planned Parenthood California Central Coast have voted unanimously to authorize a strike over alleged unfair labor practices and under-staffing claims. While workers have not set a date for the strike action, a warning will be issued ten days in advance to allow those seeking services to plan their healthcare appointments around the strike explained the labor union that represents the regional health care provider.
Two clinics closed amid PeaceHealth strike; no impact to care, officials say
The Bellingham Herald
By Rachel Showalter
May 12, 2025
PeaceHealth executives announced there would be no impact to hospital services this week, despite the temporary closure of two local clinics as about 1,000 St. Joseph Medical Center and PeaceHealth Medical Group clinic employees began a lawful, five-day strike Monday morning. About 900 of those employees include Certified Nursing Assistants, housekeeping workers, phlebotomists, imaging technicians and other essential hospital staff represented by the Employees International Union (SEIU) 1199NW. About 100 additional employees are advanced care providers represented by the Union of American Physicians and Dentists (UAPD).
1,000 PeaceHealth workers begin strike: 6 things to know
Becker’s Hospital Review
By Kelly Gooch
May 12, 2025
Approximately 1,000 members of the Service Employees International Union 1199NW and the Union of American Physicians and Dentists began a five-day strike May 12 at PeaceHealth Medical Group clinics and Bellingham, Wash.-based PeaceHealth St. Joseph Medical Center.
The Huntington News
By Zoe MacDiarmid
May 11, 2025
More than 30 members of Northeastern’s graduate student union picketed outside Fenway Park at the university’s undergraduate commencement ceremony May 11, where more than 6,400 undergraduates turned their tassels. Earlier this week, Northeastern offered the Graduate Employees of Northeastern University-United Auto Workers, or GENU-UAW, a final package proposal for the union’s first contract, giving it until June 5 to accept the current terms. The union wrote in a May 5 update on its website that if approved in its current state, the contract would be “the worst grad worker union contract in the nation.” After 24 negotiation sessions, GENU-UAW and the university remain at odds about several hot-button issues, including compensation, health and dental insurance and anti-discrimination protections.
Detroit Lakes EMS Workers Unionize
Fergus Now
By Derek Sidian
May 12, 2025
Emergency medical staff at Essentia in Detroit Lakes have voted to form a union. St. Mary’s Essentia Health Medical Service Staff is joining AFSCME Council 65. EMT Logyn Saewart says the vote was an overwhelming majority to join. As a privately-owned service, he says they don’t get the state funding other departments do. He says this will help address the labor shortage in his field. Saewart says better retention and recruitment doesn’t just make his job easier, it also makes for better resources to improve care for patients.
JOINING TOGETHER
Starbucks workers near Orlando walk off the job in one-day strike
Orlando Weekly
By McKenna Schueler
May 12, 2025
As part of a sweeping protest action organized by their union, Starbucks workers in Oviedo, Florida — a stone’s throw from Orlando — walked off the job early Monday morning in protest of a controversial change to workers’ dress code policy and other allegations of violating federal labor law. Kevin Beljan, a vocal union leader at the Oviedo cafe, told Orlando Weekly that an “overwhelming majority” of workers at his store voted in support of the strike action, which will last just one day as a symbolic show of protest. “We walked out because the company has changed the dress code, and they are enforcing it despite it being a unilateral change,” said Beljan, a longtime Starbucks employee of 11 years.
APPRENTICESHIPS & TRAINING
Wisconsin construction apprenticeships are up; report says they could grow faster
Wisconsin Examiner
By Erik Gunn
May 12, 2025
Wisconsin saw the number of construction apprentices grow in the last decade, but a new report suggests that growth might have been stronger with some changes in Wisconsin law. One change would be to restore the state’s prevailing wage law on government construction projects. The other would be to repeal Wisconsin’s “right-to-work” law — a measure that prevents unions from requiring all workers that they represent to pay union dues. The report was produced by the Midwest Economic Policy Institute, based in La Grange, Illinois, and conducted jointly with the Project for Middle Class Renewal at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Wis Business
By Michael Horecki
May 12, 2025
The Wisconsin Building Trades Council (WBTC) is highlighting a new study that shows the leading role that joint labor-management (union) apprenticeship programs take in addressing Wisconsin’s skilled labor shortage. The new report, published by the Midwest Economic Policy Institute and the Project for Middle Class Renewal, outlines how union-affiliated apprenticeship programs in Wisconsin are creating the vast majority of new apprentices in the skilled trades.
WORKPLACE SAFETY AND HEALTH
5,283 workers nationwide, including 83 in Colorado, killed on the job
KSJD
By Eric Galatas
May 12, 2025
In Colorado, 83 workers were killed on the job in 2023, according to the AFL-CIO's latest "Death on the Job" report. The report comes after the Trump administration eliminated the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, the nation's only worker safety research agency. The agency worked with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to protect workers from asbestos, lead, black lung and more.
STUDY: W.Va. is the second deadliest state for workers
WVVA
By Taylor Hankins
May 12, 2025
A recent study has ranked West Virginia near the top in workplace fatalities per capita. The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, a national trade union, issued its 34th annual report on the state of safety and health protections for America’s workers. West Virginia is ranked second in the nation for highest workplace fatality rates, with an estimated 8 worker deaths out of every 100,000. In descending order the most dangerous industries are listed as agriculture, mining, transportation and construction.
EDUCATION
How Randi Weingarten’s career prepared her to take on Trump
City & State
By John Celock
May 12, 2025
Randi Weingarten has spent most of her career waging high-profile battles in New York politics and on the national stage. Now, she finds herself in the middle of a war over the American education system. The longtime president of the American Federation of Teachers is up against the Trump administration’s efforts to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education, impose control over higher education and end diversity initiatives. With years of experience in New York City’s labor movement, including serving as president of the influential United Federation of Teachers, Weingarten has spent her career preparing for this moment. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
LABOR AND COMMUNITY
Local firefighters 'Fill the Boot' to Support MDA on June 6
The Batavian
By Staff
May 12, 2025
The International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) has collected critical funds in the community since 1954 – one dollar at a time – as part of the Fill the Boot program for the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA). The Professional Fire Fighters Association Local 896 will continue this long-standing tradition as its members kick off the annual program, raising funds to support MDA’s vision to accelerate research, advance care, and advocate for the support of MDA families.
Union firefighters connect with Chillicothe community at youth fishing event
The Highland County Press
By Union Sportsmen's Alliance,
May 12, 2025
Fishing rods, fire trucks and smiles took over Yoctangee Park on April 26 for the Union Sportsmen’s Alliance (USA) Fish with a Firefighter event. Members of the International Association of Firefighters (IAFF) Local 300 and Ohio Department of Natural Resources provided fishing instruction and assistance to nearly 80 youth participants. This event was part of a series of free, community-based youth outreach activities organized under the USA’s flagship conservation program, Work Boots on the Ground. “It seems like the kids had a good time,” said IAFF Local 300 Treasurer/Secretary Scotty LaGard. “We were just excited they got to see the fire trucks, catch some fish and enjoy time outside, even though it was a little cold. Some of these kids brought up trout and were excited. I had one kid bring up the smallest bluegill, and he was just so ecstatic that he caught a fish.”