Today's AFL-CIO press clips
MUST READ
Trump’s DOL bets the house on apprenticeships
Politico
By Nick Niedzwiadek
July 14, 2025
“People talk a good game about, ‘Oh, we need more [apprentices],’” AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler said in an interview. “But if you’re not willing to invest in the infrastructure around that, it’s meaningless.”
Labor activists: ‘We have a lot of work to do’ in Trump era
The Charlotte Post
By C.J. Leathers
July 14, 2025
The AFL-CIO national bus tour stopped Monday in Charlotte on behalf of unions as promoters of community, fairness and security. The tour coincides with the 116th NAACP national convention in Charlotte, whose theme is “The Fierce Urgency of Now.” AFL-CIO Secretary and treasurer Fred Redmond said working people built the United States from the ground up, which gives them reason to align and be proactive. That’s the tour’s message as it continues to 26 states before Labor Day. “It’s workers that wake this country up every morning and tuck this country to sleep at night,” he said. “We have a lot of work to do, and we’re going to tell the truth and go around this country, because if not laborers, then who?”
POLITICS
AFL-CIO Report: Is DOGE’s Antonio Gracias Mishandling Retiree Investments?
The American Prospect
By KJ Boyle
July 14, 2025
This past June, the AFL-CIO published an informative report on Gracias, highlighting his role at DOGE and proposing due diligence questions regarding its impact on his capacity to appropriately fulfill his fiduciary responsibilities to Valor. Even excluding his time at DOGE, Gracias’s work portfolio paints a picture of a man stretched thin indeed. He serves as both CEO and chief investment officer at Valor and is a member of each of the firm’s investment committees. According to his Valor biography, Gracias is also director of several companies in Valor’s portfolio, including SpaceX, AI infrastructure company WEKA, and delivery drone manufacturer Zipline. He’s a trustee of the Aspen Institute, board member of World Business Chicago, and a member of the board of visitors for Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service and the University of Chicago Law School. Quite a busy schedule.
The AFL-CIO bus tour is coming to Nashville
The Tennessee Tribune
By Admin
July 13, 2025
America’s labor movement is hitting the road this summer! While politicians in Washington, D.C., continue to sow chaos and uncertainty for working people and big corporations rake in record profits off our backs, the AFL-CIO has launched a summer bus tour to build power with the workers who are the backbone of our country. The AFL-CIO’s It’s Better in a Union bus tour will visit Nashville to talk about fighting for freedom, fairness and security for working people. With our union contracts, essential social programs and jobs under attack by DOGE and the Trump administration, the labor movement is mobilizing to fight back against the billionaire agenda.
HHS Formally Lays Off Employees Following Supreme Court Ruling
Bloomberg
By Rachel Cohrs Zhang and Nyah Phengsitthy
July 14, 2025
The US Department of Health and Human Services officially laid off employees on Monday, following an order from the Supreme Court on July 8 that allowed its restructuring plans to proceed, according to emails viewed by Bloomberg. Many employees who were supposed to be released during the agency’s first round of 10,000 layoffs in April have been in limbo as the effort made its way through the court system and was paused by federal judges. The reorganization, in addition to cutting staff, was supposed to consolidate the department’s 28 divisions into 15 and cut regional offices from 10 to five.
Federal Workers’ ‘Emotional Roller Coaster’: Fired, Rehired, Fired Again
The New York Times
By Eileen Sullivan
July 15, 2025
Getting fired once was painful. Getting rehired and then fired a second time was excruciating. But federal workers are learning that waiting for the government to make it official may be worst of all. When President Trump and his Department of Government Efficiency began slashing jobs in February, the mass layoffs were supposed to cut through America’s hulking bureaucracy and streamline government functions. For workers caught up in those firings, and the legal wrangling that ensued, the process has been anything but efficient.
Pro sports unions urge Congress not to give antitrust exemptions to colleges
NBC Sports
By Mike Florio
July 14, 2025
The NCAA and its member institutions have a mess, thanks to decades of corruption that prevented athletes from making money, directly or indirectly. They can either clean it up on their own, or they can run to Congress. For now, they’re running to Congress. And the American pro sports unions have aligned to ask Congress not to give the NCAA and its members what they want — an antitrust exemption that would allow them to impose rules regarding matters like player pay and movement. “Since many of today’s college athletes will become our future members, we have a vested interest in ensuring they are protected now,” the unions said in a statement.
Trump's spending bill will likely boost costs for insurers, shrink Medicaid coverage
Reuters
By Amina Niasse
July 14, 2025
President Donald Trump's spending bill is set to raise administrative costs and make managing costs more difficult for insurers like UnitedHealthcare and CVS Health's Aetna that operate Medicaid health plans, experts say. As a result, those insurers will likely pull back their Medicaid coverage and invest more in existing markets to retain their healthier members, experts said.
Trump administration leaves Congress in dark on spending decisions
Reuters
By Bo Erickson
July 14, 2025
The lack of clarity follows a broader pattern in which the Trump administration has provided less detail on how it plans to spend taxpayer dollars, drawing criticism from some Republicans in Congress. "Delayed budgets, missing details, and omitted spend plans make the federal budget less transparent and less accountable to the people and their elected representatives," Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee told Russell Vought, director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, at a June 25 hearing.
Trump sued by US states over withholding $6.8 billion for schools
Reuters
By Nate Raymond and Daniel Wiessner
July 14, 2025
A coalition of mostly Democratic-led states filed a lawsuit on Monday challenging a move by U.S. President Donald Trump's administration to withhold about $6.8 billion in congressionally approved federal funding for K-12 schools. Attorneys general or governors from 24 states and the District of Columbia sued in federal court in Providence, Rhode Island, arguing that the U.S. Department of Education and the Office of Management and Budget threw schools nationwide into chaos by unconstitutionally freezing funding for six programs approved by Congress.
White House preps for legal fight over firings — despite court victory
The Washington Post
By Meryl Kornfield and Hannah Natanson
July 14, 2025
The coalition of unions and other groups that has sued the administration over the firings has said it plans to challenge any resumption of the staffing cuts.
How Trump plans to dismantle the Education Department after Supreme Court ruling
AP
By Collin Binkley
July 14, 2025
Education Secretary Linda McMahon is expected to move quickly now that the Supreme Court has cleared the way for the Trump administration to continue unwinding her department. The justices on Monday paused a lower court order that had halted nearly 1,400 layoffs and had called into question the legality of President Donald Trump’s plan to outsource the department’s operations to other agencies. Now, Trump and McMahon are free to execute the layoffs and break up the department’s work among other federal agencies. Trump had campaigned on closing the department, and McMahon has said the department has one “final mission” to turn over its power to the states.
What a Smaller Education Department Is Doing Under Trump
The New York Times
By Dana Goldstein and Michael C. Bender
July 14, 2025
President Trump’s order to dismantle the U.S. Education Department can move forward, the Supreme Court said on Monday, but the department has already been greatly diminished. It is now about half the size that it was when Mr. Trump took office in January. After the department started the year with about 4,000 employees, the administration fired some probationary workers and offered early retirement to other workers.
Senate to vote to formalize DOGE cuts to public broadcasting, USAID
ABC News
By Allison Pecorin
July 14, 2025
Senate Republicans are expected to spend the week rushing to try to deliver President Donald Trump a package that formalizes some of the cuts made by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency by striking $9.4 billion from the previously approved federal budget. Congress has until the end of the week to send the bill to Trump's desk, but the path forward for the rescissions package remains a bit murky ahead of a series of critical votes on it this week.
A Senate vote this week will test the popularity of DOGE spending cuts
AP
By Kevin Freking
July 14, 2025
Senate Republicans will test the popularity of Department of Government Efficiency spending cuts this week by aiming to pass President Donald Trump’s request to claw back $9.4 billion in public media and foreign aid spending. Senate Democrats are trying to kill the measure but need a few Republicans uncomfortable with the president’s effort to join them. Trump’s Republican administration is employing a rarely used tool that allows the president to transmit a request to cancel previously approved funding authority. The request triggers a 45-day clock under which the funds are frozen. If Congress fails to act within that period, then the spending stands. That clock expires Friday.
US agencies shrink layoff plans after mass staff exodus
Reuters
By Courtney Rozen
July 14, 2025
The Trump administration will reduce planned federal worker layoffs, a personnel official said on Monday, after tens of thousands of employees accepted buyouts or retired early to avoid dismissal. "Several agencies are now not planning to proceed" with staff cuts, Office of Personnel Management senior adviser Noah Peters said in a statement filed in federal court.
Republican-led US Senate confirms Trump's first second-term judicial nominee
Reuters
By Nate Raymond and Jack Queen
July 14, 2025
President Donald Trump secured approval of his first judicial nominee of his second term, as the U.S. Senate confirmed a former law clerk to three members of the U.S. Supreme Court's conservative majority to a seat on a federal appeals court. The Republican-led Senate voted 46-42 along party lines in favor of Whitney Hermandorfer, a lawyer serving under Tennessee's attorney general, to be appointed as a life-tenured judge on the Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
SUPREME COURT
Supreme Court Clears the Way for Trump’s Cuts to the Education Department
The New York Times
By Abbie VanSickle
July 14, 2025
The Supreme Court agreed on Monday that the Trump administration can proceed with dismantling the Education Department by firing thousands of workers. The order is a significant victory for the administration and could ease President Trump’s efforts to sharply curtail the federal government’s role in the nation’s schools.
Supreme Court lets Trump fire hundreds of Education Department workers
USA Today
By Maureen Groppe
July 14, 2025
The Education Department workers were placed on administrative leave in March and were to stop receiving salaries on June 9 before a judge intervened at the request of Democratic-led states, school districts and teachers' unions. The government has been spending more than $7 million a month to continue paying the employees who remain unable to work, according to the American Federation of Government Employees.
US Supreme Court clears way for Trump to gut Education Department
Reuters
By John Kruzel
July 14, 2025
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday cleared the way for President Donald Trump's administration to resume dismantling the Department of Education, part of his bid to shrink the federal government's role in education in favor of more control by the states. In the latest high court win for Trump, the justices lifted a federal judge's order that had reinstated nearly 1,400 workers affected by mass layoffs at the department and blocked the administration from transferring key functions to other federal agencies. A legal challenge is continuing to play out in lower courts.
Supreme Court allows Trump to proceed with mass firings at Education Department
CNN
By Devan Cole and John Fritze
July 14, 2025
The Supreme Court on Monday said President Donald Trump may proceed with his plan to carry out mass layoffs at the Department of Education in the latest win for the White House at the conservative high court. In an unsigned order, the justices lifted for now a lower court ruling that had indefinitely paused Trump’s plan. The Supreme Court’s decision puts that ruling on hold while the legal challenge plays out. In a scathing dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the court’s senior liberal member, said her colleagues had made an “indefensible” decision to let Trump proceed with taking apart an agency that ordinarily can be dismantled only by Congress.
Supreme Court allows deep cuts at Education Department for now
The Washington Post
By Justin Jouvenal, Laura Meckler and Danielle Douglas-Gabriel
July 14, 2025
More than 20 states, teachers unions and school districts filed challenges to the cuts, and the lawsuits were later consolidated. They said in a filing with the Supreme Court that the cuts would effectively strip the department “down to the plywood,” with deleterious effects on schools, districts and children across the country. Sheria Smith, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 252, urged the administration to reconsider the cuts. Smith was one of the Education Department employees targeted as part of the downsizing.
IMMIGRATION
More immigration judges are being fired amid Trump's efforts to speed up deportations
NPR
By Ximena Bustillo
July 14, 2025
Another round of immigration judges received an email on Friday informing them they are being let go, NPR has learned, adding to the growing list of immigration court personnel cut by President Trump amid his efforts to speed up deportations of immigrants without legal status. Fifteen immigration judges learned that they would be put on leave and that their employment would terminate on July 22, according to two people familiar with the firings and a confirmation from the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE), a union that represents immigration judges. The two people spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.
INTERNATIONAL
US labor union flexes muscles against Korean battery makers
The Korea Times
By Park Jae-hyuk
July 15, 2025
The United Auto Workers' (UAW) recent deployment of its leaders to Korea has signaled that union influence could become stronger in regards to joint ventures between Korean battery manufacturers and U.S. carmakers. Last week, the American trade union representing workers in the automotive industry met the unions of Samsung SDI and WCP to discuss the unionization of workers in the battery sector. “The UAW explained how Ultium Cells, a joint venture between LG Energy Solution and General Motors, achieved its goal through the 2023 ‘stand-up strike,’” the Korean Metal Workers' Union (KMWU) said.
LABOR AND ECONOMY
Why Trump's push for a 1% Fed policy rate could spell trouble for US economy
Reuters
By Howard Schneider
July 14, 2025
U.S. President Donald Trump says the Federal Reserve should set its benchmark interest rate at 1% to lower government borrowing costs, allowing the administration to finance the high and rising deficits expected from his spending and tax-cut bill. Trump should be careful what he wishes for. A Fed policy rate that low is not typically a sign that the U.S. is the "hottest" country in the world for investment, as Trump has said. It is usually a crisis response to an economy in serious trouble.
UNION NEGOTIATIONS
‘Saturday Night Live’ Visual Effects Artists Ratify Historic First Union Contract
Variety
By Jazz Tangcay
July 14, 2025
Fifteen visual effects workers at “Saturday Night Live” have unanimously ratified their first union contract. All 15 eligible voters voted “Yes,” marking a significant milestone for VFX artists and leads at the legendary sketch comedy show, which just celebrated its 50th season. IATSE confirmed the development on Monday. After successfully organizing in October 2024, contract negotiations began in April 2025.
‘Saturday Night Live’ Visual Effects Workers Ratify First Union Contract
The Hollywood Reporter
By Katie Kilkenny
July 14, 2025
Visual effects workers employed by Saturday Night Live have ratified their first union contract. All 15 eligible members of a recently formed IATSE union voted to approve a deal reached by negotiators in May, the labor group announced Monday. The agreement was reached following an accelerated negotiations process that began in April and concluded before the long-running sketch comedy show’s 50th season finale on May 17.
‘Saturday Night Live’ VFX Workers Ratify First Union Contract Via IATSE
Deadline
By Katie Campione
July 14, 2025
Visual effects workers at Saturday Night Live are now officially operating under a union contract. The 15-member group voted unanimously in July to ratify its first union contract since organizing with IATSE in October, the union announced on Monday.
Five years in making, New Haven finalizes substitute teacher contract with raises and benefits
New Haven Register
By Crystal Elescano
July 14, 2025
Five years after it's last one expired, a substitute teacher contract between the New Haven Board of Education and the city’s teacher union was unanimously approved by the Board of Alders. Jenny Graves, vice president of the New Haven Federation of Teachers, said the contract had been a long time coming. The previous agreement expired in 2020, she said, a time when the district and Board of Education were focused on navigating the early stages of the COVID pandemic.
Union that represents City Hall, PPA and PHA workers to vote on strike authorization
NBC Philadelphia
By Hayden Mitman
July 14, 2025
Philadelphia is facing the potential of a second city workers strike as Monday is the final day of voting on whether District Council 47 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees will authorize a strike as it seeks a new contract with the city. The union, which represents 6,000 administrative and supervisory employees in City Hall as well as at the Philadelphia Parking Authority and the Philadelphia Housing Authority, is set for a final day of voting on strike authorization.
Is another city workers strike on the horizon? District Council 47 holds strike authorization vote
Philly Voice
By Molly McVety
July 14, 2025
Acity workers union that represents white-collar employees concluded a four-day voting period on a potential strike authorization on Monday afternoon. Results are expected to be announced Tuesday. With contract negotiations having stalled, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees District 47 had urged its members to vote to authorize a strike, a move that would bring the union one step closer to a work stoppage. It also comes on the heels of a strike by AFSCME District Council 33 that had entered its ninth day before a deal was reached. The work stoppage by the 9,000 blue-collar workers halted trash and recycling collection, and disrupted other city services.
Baltimore nurses plan to strike over concerns about patient care, staffing and turnover
CBS News
By JT Moodee Lockman
July 14, 2025
Nurses at Ascension Saint Agnes Hospital in Baltimore are planning to strike over concerns about patient care, staffing and high turnover, according to National Nurses Organizing Committee/National Nurses United (NNOC/NNU). The one-day strike planned for July 24 comes after union leaders said hospital management has refused to address the issues. The strike was unanimously approved in a vote on May 16.
IN THE STATES
NAACP events call for pro-union voting in the NC midterm elections
The Charlotte Observer
By Damenica Ellis
July 14, 2025
During the peak of a 90-degree day, labor union speakers on Monday called for attendees to vote for candidates who are in favor of labor unions in the upcoming North Carolina midterm elections. “It may be hot outside but we’re going to turn up the heat,” said Jamal Watkins, senior vice president of NAACP’s strategy and advancement, as attendees swatted handheld fans and AFL-CIO members passed out bottles of water. The AFL-CIO’s “It’s Better in a Union: Fighting for Freedom, Fairness and Security” nationwide bus tour began on July 9 and made its first stop at the NAACP National Annual Convention, held in Charlotte this year. Altogether, the bus tour will visit 26 states over the next two months using three buses, for the western, southern and central areas of the United States.
Maine high court upholds wording for referendum to require voter ID, change absentee rules
Spectrum News
By Spectrum News Staff
July 14, 2025
On the other side of the issue, the Save Maine Absentee Voting coalition, which includes the ACLU of Maine, Maine AFL-CIO, Defend Our Health and several other groups, celebrated the ruling.
Federal funding cuts, cost of living dominate questions as Democrats end town hall series in Utah
Daily Herald
By Alixel Cabrera
July 14, 2025
In addition to Jacobs, the town hall panelists were Utah Democratic Party Chair Brian King, state Rep. Grant Miller, D-Salt Lake City, Utah AFL-CIO President Jeff Worthington, Millcreek Mayor Jeff Silvestrini and Utah Democratic National Committee member Clare Collard.
LABOR AND ENTERTAINMENT
Anonymous donation means Milwaukee Ballet's 'Nutcracker' will have a live orchestra after all
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
By Jim Higgins
July 14, 2025
An anonymous donor has contributed the funds necessary to ensure a live orchestra for every public performance of "The Nutcracker" this season, the Milwaukee Ballet announced in a statement July 14. That reverses a decision Milwaukee Ballet announced earlier in July that it would go to recorded music instead of an orchestra this season for financial reasons. That earlier decision drew laments from some fans and criticism from the Milwaukee Musicians Association, also known as Local 8 of the American Federation of Musicians.k