Today's AFL-CIO press clips
POLITICS
House approves Trump’s massive tax and immigration package
The Washington Post
By Jacob Bogage, Marianna Sotomayor, Matthew Choi and Paul Kane
May 22, 2025
House Republicans approved President Donald Trump’s sprawling tax and immigration agenda Thursday morning, sending to the Senate legislation that the GOP hopes will transform the federal government and the economy and power the White House’s drive to deport immigrants and build up the military. Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill, as the measure is formally known, extends trillions of dollars in tax cuts from his first term along with new campaign promises — including no taxes on tips and overtime wages — and hundreds of billions of dollars in new spending.
House Republicans pass Trump’s big bill of tax breaks and program cuts after all-night session
AP
By Lisa Mascaro, Kevin Freking and Leah Askarinam
May 22, 2025
House Republicans stayed up all night to pass their multitrillion-dollar tax breaks package, with Speaker Mike Johnson defying the skeptics and unifying his ranks to muscle President Donald Trump’s priority bill to approval Thursday. With last-minute concessions and stark warnings from Trump, the Republican holdouts largely dropped their opposition to salvage the “One Big Beautiful Bill” that’s central to the GOP agenda. The House launched debate before midnight and by dawn the vote was called, 215-214, with Democrats staunchly opposed. It next goes to the Senate.
US House passes Trump's sweeping tax-cut bill, sends on to Senate
Reuters
By David Morgan and Bo Erickson
May 22, 2025
The Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives narrowly passed a sweeping tax and spending bill that would enact much of President Donald Trump's policy agenda on Thursday and saddle the country with trillions of dollars in debt. The bill would fulfill many of Trump's populist campaign pledges, delivering new tax breaks on tips and car loans and boosting spending on the military and border enforcement. It will add about $3.8 trillion to the federal government's $36.2 trillion in debt over the next decade, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
Trump and GOP’s tax bill would force cuts to Medicare, CBO says
The Washington Post
By Jacob Bogage and Abha Bhattarai
May 21, 2025
President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans’ mammoth tax and immigration bill would add so much to the national debt that it could force nearly $500 billion in cuts to Medicare beginning in 2026, Congress’s nonpartisan bookkeeper reported late Tuesday. Trump and the GOP’s budget reconciliation package — officially titled the One Big Beautiful Bill Act — would add $2.3 trillion to the deficit over 10 years, the Congressional Budget Office projected, forcing budget officials to mandate across-the-board spending cuts over that window that would hit the federal health insurance program for seniors and people with disabilities.
CNN
By Tami Luhby
May 21, 2025
House Republicans are pushing to slash nearly $1 trillion from two of the nation’s bedrock safety net programs, Medicaid and food stamps, as part of their sweeping package aimed at enacting President Donald Trump’s agenda. If the legislation is approved, millions of Americans could lose access to these benefits as a result of a historic pullback in federal support. Trump has repeatedly vowed not to touch Medicaid, while GOP lawmakers insist that their proposals would largely affect adults who could – and should, in their view – be employed. But the actual impact would likely hit a far broader range of Americans, including some of the most vulnerable people the GOP has promised repeatedly to protect, experts say. They include children, people with disabilities and senior citizens.
Trump Administration Asks Supreme Court to Shield DOGE From Releasing Records
The New York Times
By Abbie VanSickle
May 21, 2025
The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Wednesday to shield Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency from being forced to turn over internal agency documents as part of a lawsuit by a watchdog group. In an emergency application to the justices, Solicitor General D. John Sauer asked the justices to immediately block a lower court’s ruling that required the agency to release the records, arguing that the judge had overstepped his authority.
US judge nixes Treasury's bid to cancel IRS workers' union contract
Reuters
By Daniel Wiessner
May 21, 2025
A federal judge has rejected a bid by the U.S. Treasury Department to cancel a union contract covering tens of thousands of IRS staff, an early blow to President Donald Trump's efforts to eliminate collective bargaining rights for many federal workers. U.S. District Judge Danny Reeves in Lexington, Kentucky, said in a written opinion late Tuesday that the department lacked legal standing to bring a lawsuit against the National Treasury Employees Union.
Government job cuts have disproportionate effect on Black federal workers
Marketplace
By Mitchell Hartman
May 21, 2025
The federal workforce has been reduced by about 23,000 since the Trump administration took office in January and began aggressively downsizing federal agencies, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Establishment Survey. Reuters estimates more than 260,000 federal jobs will ultimately be eliminated this year through firings, early retirements and buyouts initiated by Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, DOGE. The economic impact of this mass downsizing has a particular impact on African Americans in civil service, as government employment has long been seen as a reliable pathway to Black middle-class prosperity. There don’t seem to be any hard numbers on how many Black workers have been affected by the recent federal job cuts, but for decades, there has been a higher percentage of Black workers in federal jobs compared to their percentage of the population.
Democrats Hammer Linda McMahon Over Education Department Cuts
The New York Times
By Michael C. Bender
May 21, 2025
Linda McMahon, the secretary of education, received a frosty welcome on Wednesday from Democrats who hammered her relentlessly over President Trump’s directive to dismantle the agency. Representative Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, accused her of “unlawfully freezing and stealing congressionally appropriated funds” by slashing grants, programs and staff, reducing its overall footprint and authority. “By recklessly incapacitating the department you lead, you are usurping Congress’s authority and infringing on Congress’s power of the purse,” Ms. DeLauro said. “And you will continue to lose these battles in court.”
The American Prospect
By Harold Meyerson
May 21, 2025
But it’s the agency that most directly concerns the rights of American workers where Trump had made perhaps his most fox-in-the-henhouse appointment. To be the general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board, Trump has nominated attorney Crystal Carey, a labor relations specialist at the firm Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, which represents employers against their workers in union elections, bargaining, and some grievance proceedings, and in legal actions against the government. Republican administrations, particularly since Ronald Reagan’s, have invariably appointed pro-employer attorneys to run the NLRB, the agency that Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal established to ensure workers’ rights to unionize and compel compliance with labor law. But Carey’s appointment—which has yet to be confirmed by the Senate—raises that counter-purposeful practice to a whole new level.
Unions launch ad campaign to promote public service and defeat Trump’s cuts
People’s World
By Mark Gruenberg
May 21, 2025
The nation’s largest unions, the National Education Association, the Service Employees, the Teachers/AFT and AFSCME, launched a $2 million media campaign, with ads and member mobilization, in 17 key congressional districts to support, defend and promote public service work—and to defeat Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful” tax cut for corporations and the rich. The drive by the unions, who have 8.3 million members combined, comes as the Republican-run House heads for a showdown on President Donald Trump’s tax cut and spending cut bill, also known as reconciliation.
GOP wants federal workers to retire while making it harder to plan
The Washington Post
By Michelle Singletary
May 21, 2025
The most significant forks in our lives demand careful deliberation, not hurried action under pressure. Yet a disturbing situation is unfolding within the federal workforce, orchestrated by the Trump administration and the U.S. DOGE Service. Thousands of civil service workers are cornered, compelled to make profound career and financial decisions within problematic time frames. The abrupt edicts to shrink the federal ranks, executed with scant regard for the human impact, has left dedicated employees facing a stark choice: stay and possibly be fired vs. resign or accept retirement, often prematurely.
Gerry Connolly, congressman who protected federal workforce, dies at 75
The Washington Post
By Anusha Mathur
May 21, 2025
Preserving collective bargaining rights for unions representing federal employees became a legislative priority for Mr. Connolly and a focus of his conflict with the Trump administration. Through executive orders signed in 2018, Trump weakened unions’ abilities to negotiate contracts and reduced the amount of time union representatives could spend helping members with complaints.
NIOSH workers to rally in DC, Morgantown Thursday over DOGE cuts
WV Metro News
By Mike Nolting
May 21, 2025
Union workers at NIOSH plan to rally in Washington, D.C. and Morgantown Thursday over DOGE cuts that have included several hundred jobs at NIOSH in Morgantown. The American Federation of Government Employees is mobilizing its members. AFGE Local 3840 Vice-President Micah Niemeier-Walsh said they will take the protest to the headquarters of the Department of Health and Human Services. They plan to rally with other laborers and labor leaders. “We’ll be rallying outside the Department of Health and Human Services headquarters building,” Niemeier-Walsh said. “We will be speaking with other leaders in the labor movement, including the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) president, the president of the United Steel Workers (USW), and other labor leaders.”
IMMIGRATION
How Trump Officials Debated Handling of the Abrego Garcia Case: ‘Keep Him Where He Is’
The New York Times
By Hamed Aleaziz and Alan Feuer
May 21, 2025
A mistake had been made. That much was clear. The Trump administration had deported a Maryland man named Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia to a prison in El Salvador, even though a judge had issued a ruling expressly prohibiting that from happening. But when the news reached the Department of Homeland Security, it set off a dayslong scramble and clashes among officials in three different agencies over how to deal with what everyone knew had been an error. As it became clear that keeping it quiet was not an option, D.H.S. officials floated a series of ideas to control the story that raised alarms among Justice Department lawyers on the case.
ENVIRONMENT, ENERGY AND CLIMATE
Construction Unions Grab Hold of Clean Energy Jobs
Labor Notes
By Paul Prescod
May 20, 2025
State and local governments have begun taking concrete steps towards a clean energy economy, and for now, even under Trump, green union jobs are increasing. Meanwhile, unions have partnered with climate activists to win legislation for more such jobs. Six states have passed “climate jobs” bills to expand renewable energy and raise labor standards for that construction. Four more have union coalitions advocating for such legislation.
ORGANIZING
The Crucible workers are unionizing
The Oaklandside
By Azucena Rasilla
May 20, 2025
Staff and faculty of The Crucible, a nonprofit West Oakland art institution, announced plans to unionize on Tuesday, May 20. The workers are organizing as Crucible Workers United, “The Dedicated Cru,” and are seeking representation through the American Federation of State, Council and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Council 57, according to a press release.
Harvard Square Starbucks Baristas Unanimously Vote to Unionize
The Harvard Crimson
By Darcy G Lin
May 21, 2025
Starbucks baristas at the Harvard Square location at 1 JFK St. voted unanimously to unionize on Monday, joining Starbucks Workers United. All nine of the eligible employees — which includes full-time and regular part-time baristas employed at the location — voted to join the union, according to the National Labor Relations Board. Shift managers, store managers, and supervisors were not included in the referendum.
UNION NEGOTIATIONS
Fairfax County government workers vote to unionize in contentious election
FFX Now
By Angela Woolsey
May 21, 2025
A long-coming, sometimes bitter battle over the right to represent thousands of Fairfax County government workers ended in victory last week for one union, even as another cried foul over the election process and results. Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local Virginia 512 announced last Friday (May 16) that county government workers have elected it as their exclusive bargaining unit for future contract negotiations after the largest organizing push among general government employees in Virginia history.
What are WNBA players seeking in the next collective bargaining agreement?
The New York Times
By Ben Pickman
May 21, 2025
For 18 months leading up to last October’s opt-out deadline for the current WNBA collective bargaining agreement, executive director of the players association Terri Jackson heard a consistent drumbeat about what the league’s players wanted to prioritize. Fair wages, consistent codified minimum work standards and expanded retirement benefits were among players’ demands. In an era of explosive growth for the WNBA, players’ desire for meaningful changes increased, too. So it came as no surprise that just days after the 2024 WNBA season ended, players opted out of the current CBA three years before its expiration.
What is Local 501? Strip casino reaches 1st-ever deal with labor union
Las Vegas Review-Journal
By David Danzis
May 21, 2025
Operating Engineers Local 501 has finalized its first contract with The Venetian hotel-casino, covering hundreds of workers at one of the Strip’s largest properties. The five-year agreement applies to approximately 400 employees and includes wage increases, annual bonuses, medical coverage, free craft training and a defined-benefit pension plan, according to a news release. The new contract follows a multi-union organizing campaign that resulted in a neutrality agreement in 2023 and successful unionization for Local 501 in July 2024.
Kern County, SEIU Local 521 reach tentative 2-year agreement
Bakersfield Now
By BakersfieldNow Staff
May 21, 2025
Kern County reached a tentative two-year agreement with SEIU Local 521. SEIU Local 521 represents over 5,200 county employees. It comes after a year of negotiations and with SEIU Local 521 agreeing to return to the bargaining table.
California state workers take first steps to strike over salary freeze proposal
The Sacramento Bee
By William Melhado
May 21, 2025
In the latest signal that relations between state workers and their boss are getting tense, one public sector union created a strike fund to prepare for a fight over Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposal to freeze employees’ salaries. The union hopes the first step to potentially walk off the job sends a clear message to the governor and lawmakers. “We’re really sick and tired of being asked to balance the governor’s budget,” said Aaron Cannon, the southern vice president of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 2620. “We shouldn’t be balancing the budget on the back of state workers.”
Merced County Employees Get Big Raises One Year After Nearly Striking
GV Wire
By The Merced Focus
May 21, 2025
More than 1,700 Merced County employees will receive a 10% pay raise and alleviated healthcare costs thanks to two new labor agreements approved this month. The raises come after more than 18 months of employee advocacy that was sparked, in part, by skyrocketing healthcare premiums.
As doormen and porters prepare for strike, NYC luxury condo labor dispute divides Cuomo backers
Gothamist
By David Brand
May 21, 2025
A dozen building workers at a luxury condo tower in the Financial District, where units sell for up to $20 million, have said they are preparing for a rare strike after months of failed negotiations with the developer-controlled board. Doormen and porters at the 3-year-old 130 William joined the 32BJ labor union in 2023 and began advocating for the union’s standard contract, which guarantees a higher pay rate, health insurance and contributions to a pension plan at more than 3,000 other residential buildings across the city.
Striking Butler Hospital workers take labor dispute to Rhode Island State House
Rhode Island Current
By Alexander Castro
May 20, 2025
Nearly 300 striking workers from Butler Hospital took to the Rhode Island State House around 2 p.m. Tuesday. The purple-clad filled the rotunda and surrounding hallways. They filled the line to get through the metal detector at the front door, and when the House and Senate floor sessions started around 4 p.m., they filled the viewing galleries in both chambers. The throng was there to call attention to the ongoing walkout by about 800 employees of the hospital, demanding better pay and working conditions. Before sitting quietly in the legislative chambers during the session, the workers participated in a series of chants, the collective roaring peaking at around 119 decibels when measured from the third floor balcony by Rhode Island Current. A chainsaw, by comparison, measures about 125 decibels. Jesse Martin, the Executive Vice President of SEIU 1199 New England, told Rhode Island Current after the rally had finished around 5 p.m. that he was confident the legislature was listening to the striking workforce of the Providence psychiatric hospital.
JOINING TOGETHER
Nurses at Cincinnati VA rally against anticipated job cuts that could impact thousands
Local 12 News
By Marella Porter
May 21, 2025
Starting in August, the Department of Veterans Affairs plans to eliminate roughly 80,000 jobs nationwide as part of President Trump’s initiative to downsize the federal government. Members of National Nurses United—a union representing 700 nurses at Cincinnati’s VA Medical Center—rallied on Wednesday with supporters to protest the planned cuts.
'This will deteriorate veteran care': Local VA nurses fear coming job cuts
Cincinnati.com
By Patricia Gallagher Newberry
May 21, 2025
Hundreds of Greater Cincinnati nurses, employed by the Department of Veterans Affairs, are joining the national protest against Trump administration job cuts. National Nurses United, which said it represents 700 local VA nurses, said it will rally outside the VA Medical Center in Corryville on May 21 to demand that the administration abandon plans to cut some 80,000 VA employees across the country.
Federal Correctional Workers Go Big To Get Congress’ Attention
WV Public Broadcasting
By Chris Schulz
May 20, 2025
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., and Rep. Riley Moore, R-W.Va., are among 10 members of Congress that will see their names on billboards across the country. The American Federation of Government Employees’ (AFGE) Council of Prison Locals is trying to use the signs that say things like “Stop attacking law enforcement, reject executive order 14251″ to draw attention to what they call the Congressmembers’ failure to support law enforcement officers. Brandy Moore White is the national president for the AFGE Council of Prison Locals, which represents more than 33,000 federal correctional workers nationwide. She said in recent weeks the union has been unable to get meetings with, or even phone calls from, members of Congress that for years have responded to their petitions and openly supported their cause.
IN THE STATES
As Fargo VA staff cuts loom, advocates predict 'debilitating consequences' for veterans
Inforum
By Robin Huebner
May 21, 2025
The Trump administration’s move to cut tens of thousands of jobs from the Veterans Health Administration nationwide will take away care and services from veterans and have “debilitating consequences,” according to local veterans advocates. Union representatives for the Fargo Veterans Affairs system and other supporters of area veterans met with The Forum Editorial Board on Thursday, May 15, to explain how President Donald Trump’s actions are harming veterans and why top VA leaders don’t feel they can speak out. The plan to cut about 80,000 jobs from the VA’s service delivery system nationwide is part of Trump's wide-ranging plan to reduce federal spending. John Evanson, president of the local American Federation of Government Employees 3884, said that would put staffing back to 2019 levels, before the VA opened new categories and services for veterans who were exposed to Agent Orange and burn pits. “We’re going to lose services. There's no way around it,” Evanson said. “Top management has got gag orders on and they've been told, 'You don't discuss this.'”
APPRENTICESHIPS & TRAINING
IUPAT Presents Opportunities to Commission
Parsons Advocate
By Mountain Media, LLC
May 20, 2025
Governmental Affairs Director for the West Virginia International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, David Bland presented employment options for residents and students in Tucker County to the Tucker County Commission on May 14th during the Commission’s regular session. Included in Bland’s presentation were programs for veterans and students, as well as those who may want to retrain into a trade. Trade Unions offer what Bland called the “Helmets to Hardhats Program” for veterans. According to Bland it is a direct hire program that allows veterans just getting out of the military to join apprenticeship programs.
WORKPLACE SAFETY AND HEALTH
Burned out by workplace violence, nurses demand higher staffing from Minnesota hospitals
Minnesota Reformer
By Max Nesterak
May 21, 2025
Ericka Helling is used to being attacked on the job. She’s been bitten, slapped, kicked. “And that’s just a part of the day,” said Helling, a 27-year veteran nurse in the intensive care unit at M Health Fairview’s Southdale Hospital. She considers herself lucky. Her coworker was punched in the face just a few weeks ago. More than one nurse she knows has had a traumatic brain injury from a workplace assault. Often the violence comes from patients who are inebriated, delirious or in the midst of some other mental health crisis. Sometimes, it’s the patient’s family members. Last month, Helling’s hospital went on lockdown after a man visiting his mother pulled out a gun and struck his sister several times, according to court filings.
Violence inside a Maryland youth detention center has staff begging for help
The Baltimore Banner
By Brenda Wintrode
May 21, 2025
Interviews conducted independently with Green Ridge resident advisors, a case manager, a social worker and reps from the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, a union representing the majority of juvenile services workers, revealed the same, specific violent incidents. Some had personally witnessed altercations or had experienced violence themselves.