Today's AFL-CIO press clips
MUST READ
NBC News
By Megan Lebowitz
June 30, 2025
Union leaders, including AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler, plan to participate in the AFL-CIO's bus tour, which will make stops in more than two dozen cities across the country, including 2024 battleground states that played a major role in President Donald Trump's win. The stops include destinations in North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, Arizona and Nevada, according to details first shared with NBC News.
BUDGET RECONCILIATION
US Senate strikes AI regulation ban from Trump megabill
Reuters
By David Morgan
July 1, 2025
The Republican-led U.S. Senate voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to remove a 10-year federal moratorium on state regulation of artificial intelligence from President Trump's sweeping tax-cut and spending bill. Lawmakers voted 99-1 to strike the ban from the bill by adopting an amendment offered by Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn. The action came during a marathon session known as a "vote-a-rama," in which lawmakers offered numerous amendments to the legislation that Republicans eventually hope to pass.
What’s in Trump and Senate Republicans’ tax and immigration bill?
The Washington Post
By Jacob Bogage
June 30, 2025
New tax breaks. Massive spending on border security. Cuts to social safety net programs. Pullbacks on investments to fight climate change. New limits on student loans. If it becomes law, President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans’ massive budget bill will reshape much of the federal government — and the U.S. economy.
Senate Slogs Through Votes on Marquee Policy Bill With Passage Still in Doubt
The New York Times
By Catie Edmondson and Carl Hulse
June 30, 2025
Senate Republicans on Monday beat back multiple Democratic attempts to derail their sweeping tax cut and domestic policy bill, as they continued to hunt for the votes to pass President Trump’s first-year legislative agenda. On a marathon day of voting on proposed changes to the legislation, Republicans held firm against Democratic attacks on the measure’s cuts to Medicaid and federal nutrition programs as well as an accounting gimmick the G.O.P. employed to mask the true impact of the bill on the deficit. Republicans said they were imposing changes to Medicaid that would make the program more sustainable, though nonpartisan analyses showed more than 11 million people could lose coverage.
On Trump’s tax bill, GOP tries new accounting trick as national debt mounts
The Washington Post
By Jacob Bogage
June 30, 2025
Senate Republicans’ vote Monday to advance President Donald Trump’s massive tax and immigration agenda through an unusual accounting maneuver that circumvents the filibuster creates a new precedent in Congress that may constrain lawmakers’ ability to control the nation’s poor financial health. Major tax cuts from Trump’s first term are set to expire at the end of the year, and the GOP hopes to extend them as part of its One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The GOP moved to utilize a bookkeeping ploy that zeroed out the multitrillion-dollar cost of those policies on federal balance sheets.
Senate’s New A.I. Moratorium Proposal Draws Fresh Criticism
The New York Times
By Cecilia Kang
June 30, 2025
Two senior senators have reached a compromise on an amendment in the Republican economic policy bill that would block state laws on artificial intelligence. Senators Marsha Blackburn, Republican of Tennessee, and Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, agreed late Sunday to decrease a proposed moratorium on state laws regulating the technology to five years from 10.
Politico
By Grace Yarrow
June 30, 2025
Second, the Senate Agriculture Committee is still waiting for the chamber’s parliamentarian to approve or rule against a new provision that temporarily exempts Alaska and Hawaii from its SNAP cost-share plan. Republican and Democratic committee staff will submit their arguments in writing and are expecting to get a decision from the parliamentarian Monday morning. (More on that below.)
Trump megabill faces GOP holdouts amid marathon vote-a-rama
The Hill
By Alexander Bolton
June 30, 2025
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) needs to nail down the support of multiple Republican senators, including at least two moderates and three conservatives, who haven’t yet said they will vote for final passage of President Trump’s megabill after a marathon series of amendment votes. Senate Republicans are feeling mostly confident about passing Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” but the legislation still faces several obstacles.
Who would win and who would lose in Republicans' 'big, beautiful bill'
NBC News
By Shannon Pettypiece
June 30, 2025
Legislation making its way through the Senate stands to have wide-ranging effects across the economy — bolstering tax benefits for businesses and higher-income households while threatening health insurance for millions of Americans and putting thousands of clean energy and health care jobs at risk. The bill, which is more than 900 pages long and Republicans have dubbed the “big, beautiful bill,” passed a key procedural vote over the weekend in the Senate largely along party lines, with all but two Republicans voting to advance it.
Why a GOP senator says the budget bill breaks Trump's promise
NPR
By Staff
June 30, 2025
The massive budget bill that Senate Republicans are debating pays for some of its tax cuts by slashing hundreds of billions of dollars in Medicaid spending. The latest report from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office estimates nearly 12 million people will lose health insurance if the Senate version of the bill becomes law.
POLITICS
E.P.A. Workers Warn Trump Is Politicizing Their Work
The New York Times
By Maxine Joselow
June 30, 2025
More than 270 employees of the Environmental Protection Agency signed a letter on Monday denouncing what they described as the Trump administration’s efforts to politicize, dismantle and sideline the main federal agency tasked with protecting the environment and public health. The letter to President Trump’s E.P.A. administrator, Lee Zeldin, was a remarkable rebuke of the agency’s political leadership. It followed a similar missive sent this month by more than 60 employees of the National Institutes of Health, who criticized orders they saw as illegal and unethical.
IMMIGRATION
Hundreds protest Louisiana ICE facilities as a union targets 'detention alley'
The Acadiana Advocate
By Stephen Marcantel
June 30, 2025
Hundreds of service, care and hospitality workers and other protestors converged Monday on two U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing and detention centers in Louisiana. The protest, organized by the Service Employees International Union, or SEIU, took aim at President Donald Trump's continued efforts to detain and deport those in the country illegally and without proper documentation.
Union Rallies in San Antonio After Family Detained by ICE with concerns for child's health
News 4 San Antonio
By Phil Sterling
June 29, 2025
Nicolle Forero and her family were detained in Washington, but they were brought to a detention center outside of San Antonio. Her union, representing her and her coworkers, the Service Employees International Union, traveled from Los Angeles to call for her release.
ORGANIZING
Postdocs approve Johns Hopkins PRO-UAW representation in vote
The Johns Hopkins Newsletter
By Kaylee Nguyen
June 30, 2025
On June 16, Vice Provost for Graduate and Professional Education Sabine Stanley and Associate Vice Provost for Postdoctoral Affairs Val Culotta announced the results for the union representation election organized by National Labor Relations Board. The voting took place between June 4th – 6th, and postdoctoral fellows at the University voted on whether or not Johns Hopkins PRO-UAW would become their exclusive representative for the purposes of collective bargaining.
UNION NEGOTIATIONS
Philadelphia city workers strike after contract talks fail
AP
By Staff
July 1, 2025
Nearly 10,000 city workers in Philadelphia who collect trash, answer 911 calls, maintain city pools and perform other jobs went on strike Tuesday after contract negotiations broke down. District Council 33 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees announced the strike on its Facebook page early Tuesday, saying “HOLD THE LINES.”
Union workers end strike at Cummins plant in Oshkosh
WBAY
By WBAY news staff
June 30, 2025
Union workers at Cummins Inc. in Oshkosh passed a new contract and are going back to work next week after more than 3 months on strike. About 90 members of the United Auto Workers went on strike in March after what they said was a delay in negotiating a contract after the last one expired in January. UAW Region 4 posted on social media that Local 291 accepted the proposal after striking in all kinds of weather.
Over 38 Colorado Safeway stores join strike as union says negotiations at standstill
Denver 7
By Adria Iraheta
June 30, 2025
More Safeway stores along Colorado’s Front Range have joined the UFCW Local 7 strike, including locations in Fort Collins and Thornton, bringing the total to more than 38 stores. Workers at the Safeway store on Thornton Parkway walked out Sunday morning—a result, the union says, of a total standstill in negotiations with the company.
Parkland healthcare workers to strike over unfair labor practices
My Northwest News
By Jason Sutich
June 30, 2025
A group of healthcare workers at an emergency medical center in Parkland plan to go on strike this week, citing unfair labor practices. Workers at MultiCare Emergency-Parkland are planning a five-day strike, claiming the company withheld raises, blocked union access, and refused to negotiate key contract terms.
Richmond bus drivers known as ‘the RPS Five’ reinstated
WRIC
By Nia McMillan
June 30, 2025
Richmond City Public Schools (RPS) and the Laborers’ International Union of North America Local 804 (LIUNA), announced Monday that they’ve reached an agreement in an initial collective bargaining agreement for “the RPS Five” bus drivers after they were terminated. On April 25, five RPS bus drivers were fired, following call-outs that led to the cancellation of after-school activities. However, as a part of ongoing negotiations, the school system has agreed to reinstate them.
STATE LEGISLATION
AFL-CIO: Ten Pro-Labor Bills Advance As Legislature Recesses for the Summer
Insider NJ
By Staff
June 30, 2025
The New Jersey State AFL-CIO and several state worker public employee unions fought to stop a provision in the state budget that $100 million in cost reductions for the state be found in the State Health Benefits Plan. This will negatively impact our members and could result in significant cost shifting from the state on to state workers. While we are disappointed this provision was included in the budget, we continue to urge the Governor and the Legislature to work with labor representatives to identify this amount of savings through reforms and cost saving measures.
IN THE STATES
Union leaders blast Whirlpool for upcoming layoffs
KGAN
By Iowa's News Now
June 30, 2025
Union leaders say Whirlpool's plan to lay off hundreds of workers in July is a gut punch. While the company announced last week it was reducing the number of planned layoffs to 250 from 650, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM Union) still called it a blow to the community. "Whirlpool claims to be committed to manufacturing in America," Kerry Waddell said, IMA Union District 6 ADBR. "But really these facts tell a different story."
Return-to-office order delayed for thousands of California state workers
CBS News
By Richard Ramos
June 30, 2025
Nearly 100,000 California state workers will have their return-to-office mandate delayed by a year, under a new agreement between the state and SEIU Local 1000 announced on Sunday. California Gov. Gavin Newsom earlier this year mandated that all state workers must return to the office at least four days a week beginning on July 1, 2025. State employees have only been required to be in-office two days a week. The new agreement applies only to state employees represented by SEIU Local 100, which is the state's largest labor union, and pauses Newsom's return-to-office order for them until July 1, 2026.
AFSCME holds town hall on 'big, beautiful bill'
Indianola Independent Advocate
By Amy Duncan
June 29, 2025
The “One Big Beautiful Bill” now working its way through the U.S. House and Senate is designed to preserve tax cuts, but speakers at a meeting sponsored by AFSCME Wednesday said Iowans in general will see few benefits from the proposed legislation. “The top 1 percent of incomes in Iowa will get an annual tax cut of over $72,000 a year,” said Anne Discher from Common Good Iowa. “That’s more than the average teacher right here in Indianola earns. The lowest 20 percent of incomes will see tax cuts of about 20 percent.” But the tax cuts might not mean money in people’s pockets, she added.
State hiring freeze to begin with some exceptions
WBAL
By Robert Lang
June 30, 2025
The state of Maryland is set to begin a hiring freeze on July 1. “Citizens are going to get what they paid for and what they need, and our members are going to be there to provide those services, and people aren’t going to lose their jobs,” Patrick Moran, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 3, said. Moran said a review of vacant positions and negotiating voluntary separation agreements for workers will be implemented.
Nurses to protest Medicaid cuts at Rep. Jay Obernolte’s office in Hesperia
Daily Press
By Rene Ray De La Cruz
June 30, 2025
Registered nurses in the Victor Valley will participate in a nationwide protest, at congressional district offices, against Medicaid cuts. Rep. Jay Obernolte’s office in Hesperia has been targeted for one rally on July 1, by registered nurses associated with National Nurses United—the nation’s largest union of RNs.
LABOR LEADERSHIP
Michigan's skilled trades see a rise in female leadership(Video)
Click on Detroit
By Staff
June 30, 2025
Kim L’Heureux is breaking stereotypes as the president of IBEW Local 58, part of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. Known for representing electrical workers nationwide, IBEW has a rich history of success in skilled trades, traditionally dominated by men. L’Heureux shared her journey and insights on Local 4 Plus, highlighting her rise to leadership and the union's core values.
LABOR AND COMMUNITY
Union members can win cash, prizes in Union Plus Hometown Heroes contest
Labor Tribune
By Staff
June 30, 2025
For the fifth year in a row, union members have the opportunity to win cash and trips in the Union Plus Unions Power America Hometown Heroes contest. The competition, honoring local union members who go above and beyond the call of duty, offers $150,000 in cash prizes, including a $40,000 grand prize, plus travel opportunities. The deadline for submissions is July 8. Examples of the Hometown Hero nominees include the teacher who does triple duty as coach, counselor and music director when needed; the nurse who volunteers during every natural disaster; or your local postal service worker who delivers mail with a smile and meals to those in need after their shift. The contest is open to current or retired union members in good standing with a union nationally affiliated with the AFL-CIO. Winners must be legal U.S. residents and 18 or older