Today's AFL-CIO press clips
POLITICS
Hundreds of Federal Workers at Voice of America Receive Layoff Notices
The New York Times
By Minho Kim
June 20, 2025
The Trump administration sent layoff notices on Friday to more than 600 employees at Voice of America, a federally funded news organization that provides independent reporting to countries with limited press freedom. The layoffs, known as reductions in force, will shrink the staff count at the news organization to less than 200, around one-seventh of its head count at the beginning of 2025. They put Voice of America journalists and support staff on paid leave until they are let go on Sept. 1.
Trump Is Delivering on Project 2025’s Promise to Gut the NLRB
The Nation
By Sasha Abramsky
June 20, 2025
Taken as a whole, in keeping with the priorities detailed in Project 2025, the new administration has been refashioning the NLRB to be what the staffer termed a “hammer that employers could use against unions.” In other words, under the Trump administration, the NLRB is doing the exact opposite of what it was established to do.
Senate parliamentarian greenlights state AI law freeze in GOP megabill
Politico
By Anthony Adragna
June 22, 2025
The Senate’s rules referee late Saturday allowed Republicans to include in their megabill a 10-year moratorium on enforcing state and local artificial intelligence laws — a surprising result for the provision that’s split the GOP. Senate Commerce Chair Ted Cruz (R-Texas) rewrote a House-passed AI moratorium to try to comply with the chamber’s budgetary rules. His version made upholding the moratorium a condition for receiving billions in federal broadband expansion funds. Both parties made their arguments before the parliamentarian Thursday.
GOP's food stamp plan is found to violate Senate rules. It's the latest setback for Trump's big bill
ABC News
By Lisa Mascaro
June 21, 2025
In another blow to the Republicans’ tax and spending cut bill, the Senate parliamentarian has advised that a proposal to shift some food stamps costs from the federal government to states — a centerpiece of GOP savings efforts — would violate the chamber’s rules. While the parliamentarian's rulings are advisory, they are rarely, if ever, ignored. The Republican leadership was scrambling on Saturday, days before voting is expected to begin on President Donald Trump's package that he wants to be passed into law by the Fourth of July.
Senate Official Rejects Food Aid Cuts Proposed by Republicans in Megabill
The New York Times
By Catie Edmondson
June 21, 2025
A top Senate official on Friday night rejected a bid by Republicans to slash federal food aid payments as part of their sweeping legislation carrying President Trump’s domestic agenda, sending party leaders scrambling to find another way to help offset the massive cost of the bill. The measure passed by the House last month and on track to be considered in the Senate next week would cover part of the cost of extending and expanding large tax cuts by cutting social safety net programs including Medicaid and nutrition programs, including SNAP, formerly known as food stamps.
Senate parliamentarian rejects Republican bid to reverse Biden vehicle rules
Reuters
By David Shepardson
June 20, 2025
Senate Republicans cannot use a fast-track procedure to overturn landmark rules to drastically reduce vehicle tailpipe emissions and boost EV sales as part of a tax and budget bill, the Senate parliamentarian ruled on Friday. Republicans and President Donald Trump have taken aim at EVs on a number of fronts, a u-turn from former President Joe Biden's policy that encouraged EVs and renewable energy to fight climate change and reduce emissions.
G.O.P. Can’t Include Limits on Trump Lawsuits in Megabill, Senate Official Rules
The New York Times
By Catie Edmondson and Michael Gold
June 22, 2025
A Senate official rejected on Sunday a measure in Republicans’ sweeping domestic policy bill that could limit lawsuits seeking to block President Trump’s executive actions. The measure would target the preliminary injunctions and temporary restraining orders issued by federal judges on Mr. Trump’s directives. Those rulings have halted or delayed orders on a host of policies, including efforts to carry out mass firings of federal workers and to withhold funds from states that do not comply with demands on immigration enforcement.
GOP Provision That Makes Trump A King Breaks Senate Rules, Says Parliamentarian
HuffPost
By Jennifer Bendery
June 22, 2025
A provision in the GOP’s tax-and-spending bill that would make it nearly impossible for anyone to sue the Trump administration for breaking laws is on track to be stripped from the bill after the Senate parliamentarian said it violates the chamber’s rules.
Social Security stops reporting call wait times and other metrics
The Washington Post
By Meryl Kornfield and Hannah Natanson
June 21, 2025
Social Security has stopped publicly reporting its processing times for benefits, the 1-800 number’s current call wait time and numerous other performance metrics, which customers and advocates have used to track the agency’s struggling customer service programs. The agency removed a menu of live phone and claims data from its website earlier this month, according to Internet Archive records. It put up a new page this week that offers a far more limited view of the agency’s customer service performance.
Missteps, Confusion and ‘Viral Waste’: The 14 Days That Doomed U.S.A.I.D.
The New York Times
By Christopher FlavelleNicholas Nehamas and Julie Tate
June 22, 2025
Two weeks later, U.S.A.I.D. was on the cusp of oblivion — its programs around the world stopped, its staff in Washington told to stay home. Today, the rapid-fire dismantling of the country’s sprawling global aid agency remains one of the most consequential outcomes of the Trump administration’s efforts to overhaul the federal government. Not only did it transform U.S. foreign policy, but it also provided a vivid opening display of Mr. Trump’s willingness to tear down institutions as he saw fit, in defiance of Congress and the courts, with a speed that was hard for his opponents to comprehend, much less resist. This is the story of those two weeks.
IMMIGRATION
DHS, Secretary Kristi Noem sued over actions against journalists in LA
USA Today
BrieAnna J. Frank
June 20, 2025
Several journalism and civil rights organizations sued the Department of Homeland Security and Secretary Kristi Noem over what they described as the unconstitutional actions of federal officers deployed to Los Angeles amid protests over immigration raids in the city. The American Civil Liberties Union is among the legal counsel representing the plaintiffs in the case, which include the Los Angeles Press Club and the NewsGuild-Communications Workers of America.
Judge denies government attempt to keep Abrego Garcia in detention; hearing set on release
USA Today
By Michael Collins and Duane W. Gang
June 22, 2025
A federal judge in Tennessee has ruled that a Salvadoran migrant at the heart of the debate over President Donald Trump’s border security policies must be released from jail while he awaits trial on human smuggling charges. U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes ruled in Nashville on June 22 that Kilmar Abrego Garcia, 29, cannot remain in detention, denying the federal government's request. The judge set a June 25 hearing in Nashville to determine the conditions of Abrego Garcia's release.
Abrego Garcia ordered released pending trial on migrant smuggling charges
Reuters
By Luc Cohen
June 22, 2025
A U.S. judge on Sunday ordered Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the migrant returned to the U.S. in early June after being wrongfully deported to his native El Salvador, released on bail pending his criminal trial on migrant smuggling charges. But the decision by U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes in Nashville, Tennessee does not necessarily mean Abrego, as he prefers to be known, will go home to his family. The judge had acknowledged at a June 13 court hearing that Abrego was likely to be placed in immigration detention even if he is released.
LABOR AND ECONOMY
Trump's economic 'golden age' meets Fed's brass tacks
Reuters
By Howard Schneider
June 20, 2025
President Donald Trump's inauguration promise in January that "the golden age of America begins right now" remains unfulfilled in the outlook of Federal Reserve officials who so far see his policies slowing the economy, raising unemployment and inflation, and clouding the horizon with a still-unresolved tariff debate that could deliver a fresh shock in coming weeks. The U.S. central bank's response has been to put planned interest rate cuts on hold until perhaps the fall while the debates over tariffs and other administration priorities unfold, and to project a slower eventual pace of rate cuts to a higher stopping point. Effectively it embeds steeper borrowing costs into Fed policymakers' outlook to insure against inflation they now see as higher in coming months than they did before Trump took office for a second time.
Fed split on whether to hedge on inflation, or proceed with cuts
Reuters
By Howard Schneider and Michael S. Derby
June 20, 2025
The close split at the U.S. Federal Reserve over whether to keep hedging against inflation risks or move forward faster with rate cuts came through on Friday in the first public comments from policymakers following a decision this week to hold borrowing costs steady for now. Rising tariffs are expected to raise inflation over the rest of the year, with a new Federal Reserve monetary policy report on Friday concluding that higher import taxes had already raised inflation for goods even if headline inflation, including services, remains weaker than expected in recent months.
UNION NEGOTIATIONS
Hilton hotel workers in Orlando score wage increases, job protections in new union contract
Orlando Weekly
By McKenna Schueler
June 22, 2025
After roughly a full year of contract talks and several rallies to publicize workers’ demands, hundreds of employees at Hilton’s Buena Vista Palace hotel have approved a new union contract that will deliver increased job protections as well as immediate pay raises. UNITE HERE Local 737, a hospitality union representing 19,000 service and hospitality workers in Central Florida, announced the news of the new contract on social media Thursday. The union represents over 300 housekeepers, bartenders, pool attendants, food service workers, and other employees of Hilton Buena Vista Palace near Disney Springs and the Hilton-owned DoubleTree Universal near the Universal Orlando resort.
Colorado union negotiations end for Safeway grocery store workers, no agreement reached
CBS News
By Christa Swanson
June 20, 2025
Negotiations between the Colorado union representing Safeway workers and the grocery chain have ended for the week without an agreement. Now, more stores are joining the strike, including Boulder, Lonetree and Brighton. The union has been slowly expanding the strike to different locations across Colorado after workers started walking off the job on Sunday. Safeway and the Local 7 union met on Thursday, but in a Facebook post, the union wrote that they still could not come to an agreement on wage increases, healthcare benefits, pension benefits, staffing and paid vacation.
Indiana Kroger union workers want better wages, increased hours in negotiations with grocer
WBAA
By Timoria Cunningham
June 20, 2025
Union workers at Kroger stores across the country are negotiating their contracts with the company — including in central Indiana. Earlier this month, Kroger workers with the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 700 union voted to reject a four-year contract proposal from the company. The union also voted to authorize a strike, if necessary. Evan Robbins is with UFCW Local 700. He said some workers are concerned about how much they are being paid and that they want their compensation to account for inflation. Robbins also said there are some workers who aren’t getting enough hours.
Harvard Book Store Union Secures ‘Record’ New Contract
Publishers Weekly
By Claire Kirch
June 20, 2025
The Harvard Book Store Union, which has been affiliated with United Auto Workers, Local 1596 since 1993, announced on social media Monday that, after more than three months of negotiations, it has successfully secured a “record contract” between the bookstore’s owners and approximately 30 workers represented by the union. The new contract includes an immediate increase in starting wages for new employees; a “record raise” for current employees; severance pay for laid off workers; official union recognition at all future locations of the Harvard Book Store; and a 100% increase in dental insurance coverage.
Reed College students win first contract
Northwest Labor Press
By Anna Del Savio
June 20, 2025
Student housing advisors at Reed College reached tentative agreement on their first union contract in May, days before the union planned to picket the college’s graduation. Housing advisors ratified the contract May 20. Reed housing advisors support students living in the college’s Southeast Portland dorms by planning social events, mediating conflicts, and addressing safety issues in exchange for an annual stipend equal to the cost of a dorm room (nearly $9,400) and meal plan (almost $8,500).
Philadelphia Inquirer
By Sean Collins Walsh
June 22, 2025
Almost all of Philadelphia’s 22,000 unionized city employees may be working on expired contracts beginning July 1 as Mayor Cherelle L. Parker seeks to reach long-term deals and the union representing sanitation workers and other frontline employees threatens to go on strike.
Philadelphia mayors traditionally negotiate multiyear contracts with the city’s four largest municipal unions during the first six months of their administrations.
Safeway workers at Circle Drive in Colorado Springs go on strike
The Gazette
By Staff
June 22, 2025
Union workers at a Colorado Springs Safeway have joined the growing number of employees who have walked off the job in the past week, according to a social media post from United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7. About two dozen picketers could be seen outside Safeway location No. 1466, located at 1121 N. Circle Drive, on Sunday afternoon, carrying signs that urged customers not to patronize the store until the strike is resolved. "Colorado Springs Safeway #1466 has entered the fight," UFCW7 posted on X.
Albuquerque Journal
By Matthew Narvaiz
June 21, 2025
The union representing thousands of Albertsons and Smith’s workers in New Mexico announced late Friday that it has authorized a strike in response to what it calls collusion by the two companies over contract negotiations. The decision by the union’s members comes about a week after the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1564 filed unfair labor practice charges against the grocery chains with the National Labor Relations Board. The charges allege that the two companies constructed “a multi-employer bargaining unit without the union’s consent” by working together despite Albertsons’ and Smith’s parent companies’ failure to merge successfully last year.
STATE LEGISLATION
Overburdened Nevada nurses disappointed by governor's veto of minimum staffing bill
Las Vegas Sun
By Grace Da Rocha
June 20, 2025
The legislation mirrored a similar law in California passed 20 years ago, making it the only state with an enforceable staffing law, medical union National Nurses United said. Yap, who has a business degree from UNLV and is pursuing a master’s in public policy from Harvard, spent a year and a half interviewing around 50 medical professionals and working with SEIU Local 1107 to get a bill drafted. The proposal also would have set a maximum number of patients that may be assigned to a certified nursing assistant within a hospital operating 70 or more beds. It was sponsored by state Sen. Rochelle Nguyen, D-Las Vegas.
IN THE STATES
Montgomery officials pressure Marriott over conference center labor agreement
The Washington Post
By Dana Munro
June 21, 2025
Montgomery County officials are working to pressure the Marriott hotel chain into signing an agreement promising not to retaliate against workers at a county conference center if they choose to unionize — a step taken after the county neglected to include that provision in an operating agreement signed in March.
Bernie Sanders to Tulsa crowd: Oklahomans 'do not want more wars'
KJRH
By Samson Tamijani
June 21, 2025
Introductory speakers included Tulsa Public Schools board member Stacey Woolley, Tulsa Classroom Teachers Association president Shawna Mott-Wright, and Oklahoma AFL-CIO president Jimmy Curry.
WORKPLACE SAFETY AND HEALTH
Union warns Trump’s rapid changes for wildland firefighters will be ‘disastrous’
Federal News Network
By Drew Friedman
June 20, 2025
A union is warning about the risks of moving too fast on the Trump administration’s plans to consolidate federal programs for wildland firefighters, as the U.S. heads into an intense wildfire season. The National Federation of Federal Employees, which represents federal wildland firefighters, said some of the administration’s end goals for wildfire management are “broadly positive,” but warned that a lack of detail and planning — coupled with an expedited timeline — could lead to serious consequences. “Making major changes during fire season, without congressional authorization or full planning, could be disastrous for both employees and public safety,” NFFE wrote Thursday in a memo to its union members.
How Black Lung Came Roaring Back to Coal Country
The New York Times
By Kate Morgan
June 19, 2025
Modern miners are contracting it at younger ages and at rates not seen since the 1970s. For 20th-century miners, it could take decades to develop severe black lung. For men of Aundra Brock’s generation, just a few years can be enough. Nationwide, one in 10 working miners is now estimated to have black lung. In the heart of the central Appalachian coal fields, it’s one in five. Often, their disease is more severe, the progression faster. Doctors are seeing larger masses and more scarring in the lungs. Transplants, disability claims and deaths are all on the rise.
OSHA's Proposed Heat Rule Draws Feedback From Contractors, Unions
Engineering News-Record
By James Leggate
June 21, 2025
When an electrical worker in Austin, Texas, returned to his hot jobsite after taking some time off, he became pale, confused and dizzy over the course of the day. He rested in the shade, but still felt unwell and left early. While driving home, he passed out and flipped his truck after suffering from heat stroke. The worker was “not properly acclimated to working in extreme heat,” said Tarn Goelling, international representative at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, at a U.S. Dept. of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administration panel on June 18. The department is currently in the rulemaking process for possible workplace heat injury and illness prevention standards aimed at preventing similar situations, and an OSHA panel is holding a multiday virtual public hearing on its proposed rule through July 2.
LABOR AND COMMUNITY
What People Get Wrong About Tipping Hotel Housekeepers
HuffPost
By Caroline Bologna
June 22, 2025
The job is also more precarious than you might think. Housekeepers experience the highest injury rates in the industry due to the physically demanding and time-sensitive nature of their work, according to Unite Here, a labor union that represents more than 100,000 hotel workers in North America. Housekeepers also face additional risk of sexual harassment and assault, as the job generally entails working alone in strangers’ rooms.
Anne Arundel County Food Bank Raises Over $120,000 at Feeding Hope 2025
Eye on Annapolis
By Staff
June 21, 2025
A highlight of the evening was a “can-struction” art installation—a sculpture made entirely of food cans—created through a collaboration between Annapolis-based Studio 343 and on-site build sponsors Laborers International Union of North America’s (LiUNA) LECET Mid-Atlantic Region and the Metropolitan Area of Philadelphia/Baltimore/Washington District Council.