Today's AFL-CIO press clips
POLITICS
Judge finds Kristi Noem likely violated due process on TSA collective bargaining
MSNBC
By Jordan Rubin
June 3, 2025
When you hear “Trump administration Department of Homeland Security” and “due process,” you might think of the government’s legal violations in the immigration context. Branching out into a different context, a new ruling found a move by DHS Secretary Kristi Noem likely violated due process in her bid to crush collective bargaining at the Transportation Security Administration. Noem had issued a “determination” intended to bar transportation security officers from engaging in collective bargaining. Along with a local union and two aviation-related unions, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) filed a federal lawsuit in Washington state. The plaintiffs argued that the Noem Determination was retaliatory in violation of the First Amendment, violated due process under the Fifth Amendment, and was arbitrary and capricious and contrary to law under the Administrative Procedure Act.
Judge temporarily blocks Noem from killing TSA workers’ collective bargaining deal
The Hill
By Rebecca Beitsch
June 3, 2025
A union scored an initial victory in its challenge to stop the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from stripping collective bargaining rights from employees at the Transportation Safety Administration (TSA). The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) argued that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has no power to end an already authorized seven-year contract, accusing the secretary of targeting the union after it brought a number of lawsuits on behalf of government workers.
Training Organization, Union Sue Trump Over Job Corps Pause
Bloomberg Law
By Rebecca Rainey
June 3, 2025
A coalition of Job Corps training providers filed a federal lawsuit challenging the US Department of Labor’s decision to pause the program for low-income adults, arguing the move will lead to “disastrous” consequences for the 25,000 students who will be displaced by its closure. A complaint filed Tuesday in the District Court for the Southern District of New York requested that the court block the DOL from winding down the Job Corps program, alleging the effort is illegal and violates mandates set by Congress and the agency’s own regulations.
A former Job Corps champion leads its demise
Politico
By Sophia Cai
June 3, 2025
When LORI CHAVEZ-DeREMER served in Congress, she was honored for championing the Job Corps program. As Labor secretary, she’s the face of its impending demise. Chavez-DeRemer has initiated the full-scale shutdown of the $1.7 billion War on Poverty-era program that trains and houses tens of thousands of low-income youth each year and has enjoyed bipartisan support in Congress.
Trump seeks to reshape judiciary as first nominees face Senate
Reuters
By Nate Raymond
June 3, 2025
U.S. President Donald Trump's first batch of judicial nominees since returning to the White House is set to go before a U.S. Senate panel as the Republican looks to further reshape a judiciary whose members have stymied parts of his agenda. Five of the 11 judicial nominees Trump has announced so far are slated to appear on Wednesday before the Republican-led U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, which will weigh whether to recommend them for the full Senate's consideration.
White House proposes shutting down chemical safety agency
The Washington Post
By Maxine Joselow
June 3, 2025
The proposal to eliminate the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board is almost certain to face pushback from lawmakers in both parties. President Donald Trump repeatedly called for zeroing out the agency’s funding during his first term, only for Congress to maintain or increase its budget. This time, however, Trump is trying to seize greater control of independent agencies, testing the limits of presidential power. The Supreme Court last month refused to immediately reinstate a pair of independent regulators fired by the Trump administration, saying the president may have the authority to oust them.
The latest GOP push to cut waste and spending: Work requirements
The Washington Post
By Rachel Siegel, Daniel Wu and Fenit Nirappil
June 3, 2025
The Trump administration and congressional Republicans are increasingly turning to work requirements as part of a wide-ranging effort to slash spending on welfare benefits — extending GOP messaging around waste and fraud to argue that many people who get federal aid don’t deserve it. In late May, the House passed a sweeping tax and budget bill that would impose new work requirements as part of a plan to cut Medicaid.
Trump is planning to slash 107,000 federal jobs next year. See where
Government Executive
By Eric Katz
June 3, 2025
The Trump administration is looking to slash a net of 107,000 employees at non-defense agencies next fiscal year, which would lead to an overall reduction of more than 7% of those workers. Agencies laid out their workforce reductions in an expanded version of President Trump’s fiscal 2026 budget released on Friday, which includes both ideas they can implement unilaterally and proposals that will require congressional approval. If agencies follow through on their plans, the cuts will likely be even steeper, as the Defense Department and some other agencies did not include their announced cuts in the new budget documents.
Federal Worker Unions Say Agencies Are Violating Firing Pause
Bloomberg Law
By Isaiah Poritz
June 3, 2025
Two federal agencies are violating a federal court order prohibiting them from engaging in mass layoffs, a group of federal worker unions alleged Tuesday. The American Federation of Government Employees along with other unions and nonprofits said in a court filing that the US State Department and Department of Housing and Urban Development have continued to implement President Donald Trump’s executive order to drastically reduce the size of the government despite a federal court’s preliminary injunction blocking the firings.
White House asks Congress to codify DOGE cuts to USAID and public broadcasting
NBC News
By Ryan Nobles, Frank Thorp V and Sahil Kapur
June 3, 2025
The White House sent congressional leaders a request Tuesday to claw back $9.4 billion in approved spending, most of it for foreign aid. The so-called rescissions package would slash funding to the U.S. Agency for International Development, NPR and PBS, and it would aim to codify cuts proposed by Department of Government Efficiency, the advisory entity that was helmed by President Donald Trump’s billionaire ally Elon Musk until he left his post last week.
White House formally sends its DOGE spending cuts request to Congress
CNN
By Lauren Fox
June 3, 2025
The White House has sent its long-awaited spending cuts request to Congress as it seeks to formalize a slew of DOGE slashes to federal funding. The $9.4 billion package – known as “rescissions” on Capitol Hill – would claw back previously appropriated government funding. The move to cancel the funding through Congress would insulate the administration from legal challenges related to its cuts to federal funding. As anticipated, the cuts target the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a small chunk of the federal budget that provides some public funding for NPR and PBS, as well as the United States Agency for International Development.
Trump Asks Congress to Claw Back $9 Billion for Foreign Aid, NPR and PBS
The New York Times
By Catie Edmondson and Benjamin Mullin
June 3, 2025
The White House formally asked Congress on Tuesday to claw back more than $9 billion in federal funds that lawmakers had already approved for foreign aid and public broadcasting, seeking to codify spending cuts put forward by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency. In a package compiled by the Office of Management and Budget, officials outlined 22 programs targeted by President Trump in executive orders and by DOGE. The bulk of the rollbacks — $8.3 billion — are aimed at foreign aid spending. The rest — $1.1 billion — would rescind funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funds NPR and PBS.
After Muscling Their Bill Through the House, Some Republicans Have Regrets
The New York Times
By Michael Gold
June 3, 2025
As lawmakers returned to Washington on Tuesday after their weeklong break, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia said that she had been unaware that the mega-bill she voted for would block states from regulating artificial intelligence for a decade.
Budget documents reveal plan to grow DOGE
Politico
By Robin Bravender
June 3, 2025
Elon Musk is out, but the Trump administration still wants to beef up funding and staffing for its DOGE operation, according to budget documents released last week. Tucked inside the lengthy budget appendix the White House released Friday are details about the administration’s post-Musk vision for DOGE.
Medicaid cuts in ‘big beautiful bill’ become flashpoint for GOP
The Hill
By Caroline Vakil
June 3, 2025
Republicans are increasingly on the defensive over the party’s handling of Medicaid cuts in the party’s “big, beautiful bill,” underscoring how the issue has become an early flashpoint ahead of next year’s midterms. A number of Republicans have been pressed about cuts to Medicaid in heated town halls and conferences, most recently Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), whose sarcastic response went viral and has been mocked among Democrats.
Labor Organizer: Medicaid Cuts Could Devastate the Nursing Home Workforce
Healthcare Innovation
By Mark Hagland
June 2, 2025
In the wake of the passage on May 22 of the 2026 budget bill by the U.S. House of Representatives, leaders of diverse organizations and alliances have been raising concerns over the $715 billion in proposed cuts to the Medicaid program. Not only do they fear tens of millions of individuals being stripped of their Medicaid-provided health insurance; many believe that the cuts will lead hospitals medical groups, nursing homes, and other healthcare organizations to have to lay off large numbers of workers. Among those concerned is Arnulfo De La Cruz, president of SEIU Local 2015, which, as its website explains, is “the largest union in California, representing more than half a million long-term care workers (home care, skilled nursing facility, and assisted living center workers) throughout the state. We are also the largest long-term care union in the U.S. and the largest local union in SEIU,” the website explains.
IMMIGRATION
Judges in Deportation Cases Face Evasion and Delay From Trump Administration
The New York Times
By Alan Feuer and Glenn Thrush
June 3, 2025
In a sternly worded ruling in Federal District Court in Maryland, Judge Xinis instructed the Justice Department to tell her what steps the White House had taken, and planned to take, to free the man, Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, from Salvadoran custody. And she wanted answers quickly, declaring that her inquiry would take only two weeks.
TRADE
Higher Tariffs on Steel and Aluminum Imports Go Into Effect
The New York Times
By Ana Swanson and Ian Austen
June 4, 2025
U.S. unions and major companies like Cleveland-Cliffs and U.S. Steel, which have significant lobbying networks, have argued that tariffs are necessary to keep them in business. After struggling financially for years, U.S. Steel agreed in late 2023 to be acquired by Nippon Steel of Japan, though Mr. Trump will make the final call on whether the merger can go through.
Trump promises to hike steel and aluminum tariffs to 50% starting Wednesday. Here’s what we know
AP
By Wyatte Grantham-Philips
June 3, 2025
“While tariffs, used strategically, serve as a valuable tool in balancing the scales, it’s essential that we also pursue wider reforms of our global trading system,” David McCall, international president of the United Steelworkers union said in a statement, noting that work must be done “in collaboration with trusted allies” like Canada — the top exporter of steel and aluminum to the U.S. — to help “contain the bad actors.”
ENVIRONMENT, ENERGY AND CLIMATE
Trump fired the heat experts. Now he might kill their heat rule.
E&E News
By Ariel Wittenberg
June 3, 2025
Rebecca Reindel, safety and health director at the AFL-CIO, said she is worried that without NIOSH testimony OSHA will be more likely to kill the heat rule. The agency has been under pressure from industry groups to stop work on the rule or water down its protections. The oil and gas industry has said moving forward on the rule would jeopardize Trump’s vision of achieving “energy dominance.” NIOSH’s testimony, she said, would be important to counteract that narrative. “When you have industry groups saying ‘we don’t want this’ or ‘it’s too expensive,’ you want that neutral party that has actually done the research into what interventions work and that knows of how they have been successfully deployed in other workplaces,” Reindel said. “Without NIOSH experts at this hearing, we lose a very critical part of the testimony and a part of the record we need to ensure that OSHA does regulate this hazard and uses the best available evidence and information.”
ORGANIZING
Center for Fiction Staff Win Union Recognition
Publishers Weekly
By Sam Spratford
June 3, 2025
Employees at the Center for Fiction have won voluntary union recognition from the Brooklyn-based nonprofit bookstore and literary hub and will begin contract negotiations in the coming weeks, according to an announcement. The approximately 25 employees, who are represented by Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU), first filed to unionize on May 15, when they presented their request for recognition to Center for Fiction executive director Lydah Pyles DeBin. The Center voluntarily recognized their union on May 28, according to the press release, and on June 2 RWDSU was confirmed as the employees’ official bargaining representative.
UNION NEGOTIATIONS
Alabama Arise, CWA reach friendly collective bargaining agreement
Alabama Political Reporter
By Alex Jobin
June 3, 2025
Statewide anti-poverty group Alabama Arise recently announced that it has reached a successful collective bargaining agreement with the Communications Workers of America and the organization’s staff union Alabama Arise Workers United. Arise’s leadership has supported staff unionization and labor negotiations since 2023, when Arise staff unanimously signed union authorization cards to join CWA Local 3908. The organization voluntarily recognized the union, reflecting the pro-worker values which it emphasizes in its own advocacy work.
After Losing Benefits, Striking Butler Hospital Workers March on Care New England HQ
Rhode Island PBS
By Alexander Castro
June 3, 2025
Two days after their work-sponsored health insurance expired, striking Butler Hospital workers marched two-and-a-half miles from the Providence psychiatric hospital to the headquarters of its parent company, Care New England. The demonstration marked week three of the strike, which began on May 15 and has seen approximately 800 unionized members SEIU 1199 New England cease work to protest what they call unfair labor practices, including subpar wages and inadequate safeguards around workplace violence.
Union members picket Twin Cities Allina clinics, calling for a fair contract
KARE11
By Dana Thiede
June 3, 2025
A group of doctors, physician assistants and nurse practitioners braved the rain Tuesday morning to hold an informational picket in front of a clinic in Coon Rapids, trying to raise awareness of their battle for a new contract. Doctors Council - SEIU is a union of more than 600 primary care providers who voted to organize in October of 2023. Since then, the group says they've negotiated for 15 months, holding nearly 40 bargaining sessions, in an attempt to formulate a new contract with Allina. So far, they have been unsuccessful.
VTA employees voting on a new contract to end stalemate
KTVU
By Jesse Gary
June 3, 2025
Hundreds of union VTA employees are voting on a new contract proposal from the transit agency. If approved, a favorable vote would end a stalemate that has stretched since the end of last year. Voting began on Tuesday at 4 a.m. and continues all day and will wrap up at 10 p.m. It will take a simple majority of the vote for the union to approve the contract, which the VTA says is "fair and competitive." The union, ATU265, and the VTA have been at odds over a new contract since December 2024.
Schnucks union workers celebrate historic 3-year contract approval
KSDK
By Diana Barr
June 3, 2025
Schnuck Markets employees on Monday approved a new three-year contract with the St. Louis-based grocery chain. United Food and Commercial Workers Local 655, which represents about 4,500 employees at Schnucks stores in eastern Missouri, said the deal was the largest negotiated in the local's history, with a 60% increase in the total compensation package from the most recent contract inked three years ago.
Philadelphia’s largest city workers union schedules strike vote
WHYY
By Tom MacDonald
June 3, 2025
One of Philadelphia’s largest labor unions is calling for a strike vote next week in what is being billed as an “Emergency General Membership Meeting.” AFSCME District Council 33 represents city workers. In a message posted on social media, the union told its members there will be a meeting Tuesday, June 10, at the union’s headquarters in University City to take a strike vote.
Colorado grocery store workers approve a strike if contract negotiations come to that
Colorado Public Radio
By Sarah Mulholland
June 3, 2025
Colorado grocery workers could be on the verge of a strike. Safeway employees in cities including Pueblo, Estes Park, Fountain, Salida, Vail, Grand Junction, Fort Morgan and Steamboat voted to authorize a strike if contract talks with management fail, the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 7 said in a social media post. Employees along the Front Range will vote next, according to the union. No strike is planned yet. The union has to give 72 hours' notice before striking, which hasn’t happened.
Vox Media Union Pledges to Strike Without New Deal Addressing AI, Rising Costs
The Wrap
By Sean Burch
June 3, 2025
Vox employees are threatening to strike unless they are given a new media contract that includes better pay and protections against artificial intelligence taking their jobs. The strike threat was made on Tuesday by the Writers Guild of America East, which said 95% of its bargaining members approved of the plan. Vox is the parent company of outlets like New York magazine, The Verge and Vulture.
Pueblo, Pueblo West Safeway workers vote to authorize strike. Here's what comes next
The Pueblo Chieftain
By Tracy Harmon
June 3, 2025
More than 200 Pueblo and Pueblo West Safeway workers voted May 31 to join a strike effort if labor negotiations, which have been ongoing since October, fail. "I am not sure why Safeway is going down this path, but they are squeezing workers and consumers. (Safeway) won't add staff and Pueblo has so many food deserts, they are taking advantage of a community that deserves better," said Kim Cordova, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7.
Unionized doctors picket outside Allina clinics in first for Minnesota
Minnesota Reformer
By Max Nesterak
June 3, 2025
Newly unionized doctors, nurse practitioners and physician assistants walked picket lines for the first time in Minnesota outside four Allina clinics on Tuesday, voicing frustration with what they called the “factory style” of modern medicine. The clinicians voted by a wide margin to unionize with Doctors Council SEIU in October 2023, forming the nation’s largest private-sector doctors union with more than 600 members across 60 Allina clinics in Minnesota and Wisconsin. But since then, union leaders say they’ve made little progress toward finalizing a first labor contract covering wages, benefits and working conditions despite meeting with hospital leaders nearly 40 times.
STATE LEGISLATION
D.C. Council pauses scheduled $2 wage increase for restaurant workers
The Washington Post
By Jenny Gathright and Tim Carman
June 3, 2025
Unite Here Local 25, which represents 7,000 hospitality workers in the D.C. area, has gathered its own data to show the local scene is thriving, not suffering. Among the union’s statistics: There are more restaurant liquor licenses in Washington now than when 1-82 was passed. “I- 82 ain’t the problem,” said Paul Schwalb, executive secretary-treasurer of Unite Here Local 25, in an interview after the council’s vote Tuesday. “And if there is a problem with the economy, we should look at it holistically as opposed to looking at simply what a runner or a busser earns. That seems like very narrow, myopic, and frankly, unfair.”
Washington state bill provides benefits to striking workers
The Daily
By Matteah Davis
June 3, 2025
Members of UAW 4121, a union of UW academic student employees, postdocs, and researchers, partnered with the Washington State Labor Council (WSLC) to advocate for this bill. WSLC President April Sims said that this bill was drafted after legislators asked WSLC and other unions how they could help workers in Washington.
NY retail worker safety law takes effect this week. Here’s what it does.
Gothamist
By Catalina Gonella
June 3, 2025
A new law meant to boost on-the-job safety among retail workers across New York goes into effect this week following an uptick in reports of harassment during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Retail Worker Safety Act mandates that retail employers with 10 or more employees develop safety programs, including violence prevention plans and training on de-escalation techniques. It also requires employers to conduct active-shooter drills and assess the risk of workplace violence.
IN THE STATES
In RFK Campus Deal, Union Organizers Continue to Demand a Community Benefits Agreement
The Washington Informer
By Sam P.K. Collins
June 3, 2025
However, as local union organizer Paul Schwalb explained, it remains to be seen how, or whether, the District’s proposed $1 billion investment will yield high-wage jobs with benefits for those working in the hotels, restaurants and other areas of commerce throughout the 180 acres of public land. “They have made no commitment [at] this point to create good jobs there,” said Schwalb, executive secretary treasurer of UNITE HERE Local 25, which represents more than 7,500 non-managerial hospitality workers in the D.C. metropolitan area. “The kind of jobs we’d like to see…are union jobs, either in the concessions, in the parking lot, in the hotels, or in the restaurants. Until we have those commitments, we’re going to be opposing the project.”