Today's AFL-CIO press clips
MUST READ
How Immigrants and Labor, Long Joined in L.A., Set the Stage for Protest
The New York Times
By Lydia DePillis
June 11, 2025
“Our country suffers when these military raids tear families apart,” said Liz Shuler, the president of the A.F.L.-C.I.O., standing in a cluster of signs reading, “Free David.” “One thing the administration should know about this community is that we do not leave anybody behind!” Mr. Huerta was released on bail later in the day and still faces charges.
POLITICS
Big Beautiful Bill would ban regulating AI (Opinion)
Boston Globe
By Sharon Block and Chrissy Lynch
June 11, 2025
In 2022, few people had ever heard of ChatGPT or knew what “artificial intelligence” was. But in just a few years, AI has begun to reshape how we do everyday tasks — gather information, do homework, buy things, and, most importantly, work. Imagine how lives might be changed 10 years from now by the evolution of AI. That future could move in two different directions. It could be a future in which Americans harness the power of AI to make work easier, safer, and more productive. Or it could be a future in which millions of workers in the United States are subjected to brutal production quotas set by algorithms and have their every move surveilled by digital overlords. Guess which future Republicans in Congress want for you? They’ve decided to give the choice of which future awaits Americans to billionaire Silicon Valley tech executives.
Senate Republicans Want to Trim Some of Trump’s Populist Tax Cuts
The New York Times
By Andrew Duehren
June 11, 2025
Even before the House passed the sweeping bill carrying President Trump’s domestic policy agenda, Senate Republicans made it clear that they hoped to make major changes to the legislation before the G.O.P. was done muscling it through Congress. Several have wanted to pare back the cuts to Medicaid, the health care program for the poor, that House Republicans envisioned in the version of the legislation that they approved late last month. A handful have sought to salvage tax credits incentivizing clean energy projects that the House measure would repeal. Many have pushed to grant companies prized tax breaks for the long run, not just for a few years, as their colleagues across the Capitol opted to do.
Nutrition program for Americans on food stamps at risk in GOP bill
The Washington Post
By Rachel Roubein
June 11, 2025
“If you want America to be healthier and you’re cutting SNAP-Ed, I don’t see how that can be done,” said Turner, who is with Maryland’s SNAP-Ed program run by the University of Maryland Extension. The cut was just one line item in the House version of Trump’s massive tax and immigration bill, which passed the chamber last month. It’s not yet clear what Senate Republicans will do. A spokeswoman for the Senate agriculture panel, which oversees SNAP, said the committee is “working through the process” of crafting its portion of the bill with the aim to release it in the “coming days.” She did not say whether the chamber will also seek to eliminate dollars to SNAP-Ed.
Elon Musk is gone, but DOGE still filled with his current and former employees
The Boston Globe
By William Turton, Christopher Bing, Avi Asher-Schapiro and Jake Pearson
June 11, 2025
In an effort launched shortly after DOGE’s creation, ProPublica has now identified more than 100 private-sector executives, engineers and investors from Silicon Valley, big American banks and tech startups enlisted to help President Donald Trump dramatically downsize the U.S. government. While Elon Musk has departed the Department of Government Efficiency, the world’s richest man is leaving a network of acolytes embedded inside nearly every federal agency. At least 38 DOGE members currently work or have worked for businesses run by Musk, ProPublica found in an examination of their resumes and other records. At least nine have invested in Musk companies or own stock in them, a review of available financial disclosure forms shows.
CDC staff and retired workers call for Kennedy's resignation in a protest outside headquarters
NBC News
By Brandy Zadrozny, Aria Bendix and Erika Edwards
June 11, 2025
Tuesday’s scheduled all-hands meeting at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would have been the first during the new Trump administration. Instead, after it was canceled at the last minute, dozens of current and former employees at the country’s leading public health agency rallied outside CDC headquarters in Atlanta to protest what they described as a wave of unlawful firings, the dismantling of lifesaving programs and the censorship of science.
US CDC restores jobs for 450 laid-off employees
Reuters
By Julie Steenhuysen
June 11, 2025
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is reinstating some 450 employees laid off under the Trump administration's massive reduction of the federal workforce, a government spokesperson said on Wednesday. The employees had worked for the National Center for HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and Tuberculosis Prevention, the National Center for Environmental Health, the Immediate Office of the Director and the Global Health Center (GHC), according to Fox News. A spokesperson for the Health and Human Services (HHS) Department, which oversees the CDC, confirmed the report.
Education Department struck deal with Labor Department to offload career programs
Politico
By Juan Perez Jr., Rebecca Carballo and Nick Niedzwiadek
June 11, 2025
The Education Department struck agreements to send billions of dollars to the Labor Department to administer a suite of education grants and detail several agency employees to the Treasury Department to help manage collections on federal student loans. Those agency plans, revealed in court documents viewed by POLITICO, are now on hold because of a federal judge’s ruling that temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s efforts to slash the Education Department’s workforce.
Iowans rally outside Sen. Joni Ernst's office to protest Medicaid funding cuts
CBS 2 Iowa
By Tyler Downey
June 10, 2025
Iowans gathered outside Sen. Joni Ernst's office to protest the upcoming Republican budget bill that plans to cut funding for Medicaid. The event was organized by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, or AFSCME, which says the ultra-wealthy will benefit the most from this bill. Protestors also called out Ernst's previous comments she made at a town hall when someone said people are going to die because of this bill.
PBS, NPR funding on the line as House nears final vote on $9.4 billion in DOGE-backed cuts
CNBC
By Erin Doherty
June 11, 2025
The House on Wednesday moved a step closer to approving President Donald Trump’s $9.4 billion spending cut package, which would codify some cuts originally proposed by the Department of Government Efficiency. The package would grant permission to the White House not to spend billions of dollars that had already been approved by Congress. The money would be clawed back from specific agencies like the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which distributes federally appropriated grants to National Public Radio (NPR) and Public Broadcasting Service (PBS).
Senators Warn DOGE’s Social Security Administration Work Could Break Benefits
Wired
By Makena Kelly
June 11, 2025
Democratic senators have concerns that the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) could break the Social Security Administration’s tech infrastructure. In a new letter addressed to SSA commissioner Frank Bisignano, senators Elizabeth Warren and Ron Wyden say that DOGE’s plans to “hastily upgrade” Social Security IT systems could disrupt the delivery of benefits or result in mass data losses. The warning comes after WIRED reported in March that DOGE officials were planning to rebuild SSA’s code base in a matter of months. The move, originally spearheaded by Steve Davis, one of Elon Musk’s key lieutenants and a leader at DOGE, could result in total system collapse, experts told WIRED at the time. “Put simply, DOGE has already limited access to benefits by damaging SSA’s technological infrastructure—and this rushed IT modernization plan can only exacerbate those problems,” the senators wrote in their letter.
Court blocks DOGE access to personnel records
E&E News
By Niina H. Farah
June 11, 2025
Federal employee unions secured a legal victory this week when a federal court issued an order blocking the Office of Personnel Management from giving the so-called Department of Government Efficiency access to its records. Senior Judge Denise Cote of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York said in a ruling Monday granting a preliminary injunction that the public interest “strongly favors injunctive relief.” Cote found that OPM had disclosed its records, which include personal information of federal employees, retirees, contractors and others, to individuals who did not have a legal right to view them.
Senators Demand Transparency on Canceled Veterans Affairs Contracts
Pro Publica
By Brandon Roberts and Vernal Coleman
June 11, 2025
A trio of lawmakers demanded transparency from the Department of Veterans Affairs on Tuesday, saying the Trump administration continues to “stonewall” requests for details on the agency’s recent cancellation of hundreds of service contracts. The group, which included Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Angus King, as well as Rep. Mark Takano, said that despite repeated requests, the agency has disclosed incomplete and inaccurate lists that failed to specify exactly which contracts have been canceled. Blumenthal and Takano are Democrats, and King is an independent. They made their comments at a special forum in Washington.
IMMIGRATION
Trump’s workplace crackdown includes ICE quotas
The Washington Post
By Lauren Kaori Gurley, Marianne LeVine and Rachel Siegel
June 11, 2025
The inspections can be a precursor to workplace raids and have recently been used by the Trump administration as a method for detaining undocumented workers without judicial warrants, according to immigration advocates and lawyers. Often, undocumented workers never return to work after ICE agents serve an employer an inspection notice.
L.A. labor stands up for immigrants after Huerta arrest
People’s World
By Ellen von zur Muehlen
June 11, 2025
On Monday, June 9, labor unions, elected officials, advocacy groups, and community members rallied in Gloria Molina Grand Park in downtown Los Angeles to protest the arrest of David Huerta, president of Service Employees International Union California (SEIU). But as April Verrett, president of SEIU International, said in a statement condemning Huerta’s arrest, “this struggle is about much more than just one man.”
Grad Union Asks Harvard To Fund Noncitizens’ Legal Expenses, Limit ICE Agents’ Entry to Campus
The Harvard Crimson
By Amann S. Mahajan
June 11, 2025
Harvard’s graduate student union requested that the University fully fund legal counsel for international workers facing visa revocations and restrict immigration enforcement agents’ access to campus spaces in a contract proposal presented on Thursday. The proposal, introduced during a heated bargaining session with the University, asks Harvard to fund legal counsel for “immigration emergencies” — including Student and Exchange Visitor Information System changes and other visa revocations — and “arbitrary or unconstitutional detention.”
SUPREME COURT
The enormous stakes in a new Supreme Court case about Trump’s mass firings
Vox
By Ian Millhiser
June 11, 2025
In late May, a federal court handed down an order pausing President Donald Trump’s plans to fire a simply astonishing amount of federal workers. As Judge Susan Illston explains in her opinion, the proposed cuts are so sweeping that they would effectively shut down multiple federal programs. To give just a few examples, Santa Clara County, one of the plaintiffs in this suit, runs a preschool program for 1,200 children that is funded by a federal grant that expires at the end of June. But the county is unable to renew that grant because the federal employees who manage that grant “have now all been laid off and their San Francisco office closed.” The county argues that without the grant, it may need to lay off 100 early learning employees. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health has 222 workers that research health hazards facing mine workers, but the Trump administration plans to fire 221 of them. Retirees are unable to reach the Social Security Administration due to layoffs, potentially making benefits inaccessible to many. According to Illston, “one individual got through to a representative only after eleven attempts to call, each involving hours on hold.” And things will likely get much worse if the Trump administration can fully move forward with their planned firings as outlined in the case.
ORGANIZING
The Biggest Recent Union Wins Were in Art and Bacon
Jacobin
By Benjamin Y. Fong
June 11, 2025
What do arts faculty in New York City and bacon processing workers in Wichita, Kansas have in common? I asked ChatGPT this question, hoping for some connective thread for this article, and it spat the following back at me: “They both spend their days transforming raw material into something people either deeply savor or completely misunderstand. (And neither gets paid what they’re worth.)” An apt parenthetical, as the answer I was coming around to was that they voted in the two largest National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) elections in May: one at the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in New York City, and the other at Dold Foods, a bacon processing plant and Hormel subsidiary in Wichita.
Delaware County Health Department Workers Ask for a Union
Bucksco
By David Bjorkgren
June 11, 2025
Delaware County Health Department workers informed Delaware County Council members June 14 they were forming a union and asked for their support, writes Billy Kauffman for Council 13 AFSCME. The workers announced they were joining AFSCME Council 13, which represents other county workers, part of AFSCME Local 3107.
Mass General Brigham primary care physicians continue push to unionize despite hurdles
WGBH
By Marilyn Schairer
June 10, 2025
Mass General Brigham primary care physicians voted last month to unionize, but the union certification process remains in limbo. MGB, the state’s largest health employer and health care system, appealed to the National Labor Relations Board to review the vote and challenge which doctors are eligible to belong to the union. Last month, primary care physicians at MGB voted 183-26 in support of forming a bargaining union — the first time primary care physicians in the state took such action. They said is a union is needed to better maintain patient care, address staff shortages and burnout from long hours.
UNION NEGOTIATIONS
SAG-AFTRA video game strike officially suspended after tentative deal reached
Los Angeles Times
By Christi Carras
June 11, 2025
Video game performers and producers have hammered out a tentative contract agreement, reaching terms that could end a nearly yearlong strike over artificial intelligence. The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and the game companies came to a resolution on Monday, more than two years after their previous agreement covering interactive media expired. The walkout began last July.
SAG-AFTRA Suspends Video Game Strike After Securing Tentative Deal With Major Developers
Deadline
By Katie Campione
June 11, 2025
SAG-AFTRA has officially suspended its strike against some of the major video game developers, nearly two days after securing a tentative new contract. The union announced Wednesday that the work stoppage will end at 12 p.m. PT. The strike suspension has received the consent of both the Interactive Media Agreement negotiating committee as well as National Executive Director & Chief Negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland.
The Butler Hospital strike is ongoing. Here's where negotiations stand.
The Providence Journal
By Nish Kohli
June 11, 2025
Hundreds of Butler Hospital workers are entering their fourth week on strike, as negotiations between the union and the psychiatric hospital’s management appear stuck at an impasse. Members said the union’s core demand for higher wages trickles into solving other issues, which include staffing shortages that fuel workplace violence incidents. Leaders in the union representing more than 800 frontline staff at the hospital, Service Employees International Union 1199NE, have said they will not concede until the hospital agrees to a fair contract.
Governor Hochul announces ratification of labor contract of Graduate Student Employee Union
WBNG
By Sydney Lee
June 11, 2025
Governor Kathy Hochul announced the ratification of a three-year labor contract with the Communications Workers of America/Graduate Student Employees Union, or GSEU. The GSEU comprises more than 4,500 SUNY teaching assistants and graduate assistants who are employed to assist SUNY faculty and administrators. The agreement, which runs until July 1, 2026, received overwhelming approval from members who cast ballots.
Teasdale Latin Foods plans to hire replacements amid ongoing strike at Hoopeston plant
WICS
By Michelle Husain
June 11, 2025
While BCTGM local #1 continues its strike against Teasdale Latin Foods in Hoopeston, the company is pushing back. Workers at the plant can beans for distribution. We have obtained a letter sent to employees from human resources of the company.
Kroger Workers in Indiana Vote To Strike
Retail Wire
By Bernadette Giacomazzo
June 11, 2025
Indiana is the latest flash point in Kroger’s spreading labor unrest. Members of United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 700 — representing roughly 8,000 clerks, meat-cutters, and pharmacy techs across central Indiana — rejected a tentative four-year agreement by a lopsided 74% “no” vote. The “no” vote automatically activated strike authorization, giving leaders the legal power to call a walkout at any moment.
Latrobe public works, clerical employees get raises under new 3-year union contract
Trib Live
By Jeff Himler
June 11, 2025
About a dozen Latrobe public works and clerical employees have settled a new 2½-year union contract with the city that includes annual pay increases. City council approved the labor agreement at its meeting this week, after the contract received a 10-0 vote of support from members of Local 83 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
Union touts severance agreement with eBay's TCGplayer
Spectrum News
By Spectrum News Staff
June 10, 2025
The labor union representing workers at eBay's TCGplayer office in Syracuse says members unanimously approved a closing agreement to provide improved severance packages for employees getting laid off due to eBay moving operations down south. In a statement posted on Facebook Monday, TCGunion-CWA reported ratifying an agreement with eBay/TCGplayer that includes 20 weeks of severance pay with an additional $2.50 an hour above current wages; six months of COBRA medical insurance coverage paid for by the company; seven months of continued mental health benefits; and a $1,250 ratification bonus.
New York Air Brake, union ratify contract
WWNYTV
By 7 News Staff
June 10, 2025
New York Air Brake says it has a new contract with a labor union representing 50 local workers. The company says it recently ratified a three-year pact with the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers. New York Air Brake says it employs about 250 people, including the nearly 50 union members at its location on Starbuck Avenue in Watertown. “This is an important step in supporting the stability of our operations, while enhancing the depth and scope of our overall market and product positions,” said Kevin Hoyt, vice president of manufacturing.
IN THE STATES
Florida teacher unions score milestone victory in DeSantis’ war on public sector unions
Orlando Weekly
By McKenna Schueler
June 11, 2025
The Florida Education Association, a statewide teachers union, announced Monday that 100 of its local unions throughout the state had successfully recertified — meaning, teachers represented by those unions had voted to keep their existing union alive. Under Senate Bill 256, passed into law in 2023 , most public sector unions in the state must hold annual recertification elections if less than 60 percent of the workers they represent are full, dues-paying members.
AFGE Union Members Urges Council to Protect Duluth’s EPA Lab
Fox 21
By Drew Kerner
June 11, 2025
Employees from the Duluth’s EPA Lab spoke at Monday night’s council meeting about fears of DOGE cuts shutting down their facility. The president of the American Federal of Government Employees (AFGE) and Duluth EPA employees spoke before the Duluth City Council on the possibility of the facility’s closure. DOGE cuts has asked Office of Research (ORD) scientists to voluntarily resign or face mass layouts back in March. At Duluth’s EPA Lab has help with cleaning up local waterways like Spirit Lake as well as eco-toxicology research. If the lab closes, union members warn that our waterways would become more polluted.
Fast Company
By Capital & Main
June 11, 2025
As the administration of President Donald Trump dismantles reforms enacted under Joe Biden, workers and management at a Fort Valley, Georgia, school bus plant are thriving because of the same policies. On Trump’s first day in office, he signed an executive order that would freeze future spending under two Biden-era laws: The Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which authorized funding of more than $2 trillion. Under Biden, those grants often went to companies that supported worker unions, according to the Center for American Progress.
LA City Council’s $30 minimum wage boost for tourism sector draws Westwood support
Daily Bruin
By Grace Timan
June 10, 2025
Westwood hotel workers said they supported the Los Angeles City Council’s motion to increase minimum wage for tourism workers. The LA City Council voted May 7 to increase minimum wage for some workers in the tourist industry to $30 an hour. The increase is set to be implemented for employees of private companies serviced at LA International Airport, as well as hotels that have over 60 rooms. The policy, which passed in a 12-3 vote, will be fully implemented by 2028. The policy is backed by organizers of the UNITE HERE (Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees) Local 11, which represents workers in Southern California and Arizona, but faced opposition from both local hotel owners and chains.
APPRENTICESHIPS & TRAINING
Coalition Hopes to ‘Accelerate’ Career Training, Apprenticeships
The 74
By Patrick O’Donnell
June 10, 2025
Hoping to promote the growth of career training and apprenticeships, a coalition including five governors and major labor unions have come together to align career training and push for national policy change. The American Federation of Teachers, the nation’s second-largest teachers union, and CareerWise USA, which runs apprenticeship programs for high-schoolers in five states, announced the Education and Apprenticeship Accelerator late last month.
WORKPLACE SAFETY AND HEALTH
Postal carriers face rising assaults, thefts: Pittsburgh union leader pushes for tougher laws
WTAE
By Yazmin Rodriguez
June 11, 2025
In the midst of more assaults and thefts against United States Postal Service workers, especially in Pittsburgh region, the president of the branch 84 chapter of the National Association of Letter Carriers is speaking about legislation he hopes will prevent this type of violence. "HB 1065. The two main components is that it’ll upgrade the technology to value the aero keys right, and then the other thing is, it’ll increase the prosecution rates for federal prosecution at the local level," said Ted Lee.
King County Metro installs new bus partitions to boost safety
King 5
By Alex McLoon
June 10, 2025
Six months after a Metro bus driver was killed on the job, King County is rolling out new safety partitions on more than 1,000 buses in an effort to protect its operators. Transit drivers and union leaders say the move is a step forward, but more must be done. Harold Batson, a 25-year Metro veteran, said he’s experienced multiple dangerous situations behind the wheel.
LABOR LEADERSHIP
Damian Plaza reflects on past year as first openly gay president of Local 505 union
Windy City Times
By Lu Calzada
June 10, 2025
Leading a union consisting of hundreds of people may be a daunting task for some. But for Damian Plaza, it’s an opportunity to make its members feel seen and included. As president of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 505—the union covering multiple City of Chicago sectors including the Department of Public Health—Plaza is the first openly gay leader of his union. Although he faced some backlash due to his identity, he hopes being visible as an LGBTQ+ person in the role will inspire others.