The Weekly Download

“In the fourth blogcast of Power At Work’s series "What Could Happen Under Trump?”, Burnes Center for Social Change Senior Fellow Seth Harris is joined by Steven Schwartz, LIUNA Organizing Director, Emily Stewart, SEIU Deputy Organizing Director, and David Cann, AFGE Organizing Director to discuss the future of organizing. Watch now to learn how these organizing leaders are prepared and ready to combat anti-worker policies in this administration. While the playing field is designed to be favorable towards employers, this discussion shows that unions are not phased and will continue to fight for collective action and workers’ rights.”

“In this special blogcast, Burnes Center Senior Fellow Seth Harris is joined by music and labor experts to reveal the results of Power At Work’s #LaborGrammys2025. This awards ceremony features Elise Bryant, the founder-director of the DC Labor Chorus and co-host of the Labor Heritage Power Hour podcast; Chris Garlock, the Executive Director of the Labor Heritage Foundation and founder-coordinator of the Labor Radio Podcast Network; and Ruben Garcia, Professor of Law and Director of the Workplace Law Program at the University of Nevada. Watch now as our experts offer their opinions on the nominated songs in six categories and give their takes on worker power songs more broadly.  But most importantly, find out which nominated songs won the vaunted “Guthrie” as chosen by Power At Work’s subscribers.”

“The nominated version of ‘Joe Hill’ is the one by Paul Robeson, and that is as it should be. Of all the versions of ‘Joe Hill’ that have been recorded—from Joan Baez and Pete Seeger to the Dubliners, Tom Morello, and Billy Bragg—Robeson’s remains the definitive recording. He was the single artist most responsible for the prominence and perpetuation of the song. And of course nobody sang like Paul Robeson. Another person who recorded the song was its composer, Earl Robinson. It was Robinson who, in the summer of 1936, took a poem handed to him by its author, Alfred Hayes, and converted it into one of the most widely known songs in the international labor movement.”

“A pair of labor unions has sued the Treasury Department for granting the Trump administration’s ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ access to the federal government’s payment systems. The American Federation of Government Employees and the Service Employees International Union filed their lawsuit on Monday, alleging Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent violated federal law meant to protect people’s sensitive personal and financial information.”

“The United Food and Commercial Workers union is promoting two pro-labor candidates for the ballot in REI’s board elections slated for March. The UFCW and its sister union, the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, have organized 11 of REI’s roughly 190 stores since 2022 in a workplace battle that’s prompted union-busting allegations and shaken the company’s progressive reputation. Though anyone can nominate themselves to serve on the retailer’s board, that doesn’t mean their name will end up on the ballot. The final candidates are selected by the board’s ‘nominating and governance committee,’ which ultimately provides members a menu of potential directors to choose from. In other words, the REI board decides who can sit on the REI board. And that’s a big problem for workers like Sue Cottrell, who believes the company has strayed from its roots. She wants new board members who will bring fresh perspectives and moderate REI’s opposition to the union campaign under its outgoing chief executive, Eric Artz, who’s expected to retire in March.”

“Union members are building protections against threats from the Trump administration’s recent authorization of raids targeting places such as schools. In January, members of Saint Paul Federation of Educators (SPFE) Local 28 organized an Immigration Defense Committee to take action and stand in solidarity with the immigrant community in St. Paul, Minn. They are planning know-your-rights trainings and emergency resources for teachers and families.”

“In the face of what they say was a vicious anti-union campaign, and at a time of anti-worker right-wing advance nationally, Philadelphia Whole Foods workers successfully voted to form a union. We spoke to one of the workers about how they did it.”

“In this live blogcast, Burnes Center for Social Change Senior Fellow Seth Harris will review the 2024 Union Member Survey results with Aaron Sojourner, a labor economist and senior researcher at the W. E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research. Watch now to hear Harris and Sojourner interpret what these results meant for worker power and collective in the past year, and what they will mean for the upcoming year. Also hear Harris and Sojourner answer questions from a live audience made up of the Power At Work community regarding the survey results.” 

“A former member of the top US labor watchdog has sued Donald Trump over her firing last week, describing it as an ‘unprecedented and illegal’ attempt to strip the agency of its independence. Gwynne Wilcox said her removal from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) was a ‘blatant violation’ of the National Labor Relations Act in a lawsuit against the president and Marvin Kaplan, whom Trump installed to chair the watchdog. Wilcox’s abrupt departure left the board with only two members, short of the quorum of three which the NLRB needs to issue significant decisions on US labor disputes. She is seeking an injunction for her immediate reinstatement so the board can continue functioning as a congressionally mandated independent agency.”

“Today, effective immediately, President Donald J. Trump appointed William B. Cowen Acting General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board. Prior to today’s appointment, Mr. Cowen served as Regional Director in the Agency’s Los Angeles Regional Office (Region 21) since 2016. ‘I am truly honored to be asked to serve as Acting General Counsel,’ Cowen said. ‘The men and women of this agency represent the finest in public service and I thank the President for the confidence that he has shown in me by this appointment.’”

"A federal judge in Massachusetts paused the deadline for the Trump administration’s buyout program for federal workers Thursday afternoon, two days after unions representing more than 800,000 federal workers asked the court to halt the program, calling it an 'arbitrary, unlawful, short-fused ultimatum.' U.S. District Judge George A. O’Toole Jr. set another hearing for Monday at 2 p.m. for full arguments."

“AFSCME and the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) filed a lawsuit today against the Trump administration, challenging its efforts to politicize the civil service through illegal executive orders. The lawsuit asserts that President Donald Trump illegally exceeded his authority in trying to unilaterally roll back a regulation that protects the rights of civil servants. Trump is trying to make it easier to fire career civil servants in order to appoint loyalists to do his bidding.”

“As the third week of Donald Trump’s presidency begins, workers across federal agencies are scrambling to find their footing among the chaos. From the US Agency for International Development and the Department of Agriculture, to the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Labor, federal workers are facing an onslaught of changes that threaten to upend their work and the systems that keep the country running. Sweeping orders from the White House threatened to freeze funding for basic grants and programs, before being blocked by a judge and walked back by Trump. Using a made up meme agency, unelected billionaire Elon Musk is attempting to stage a takeover reminiscent of his remaking of Twitter, now X, except this time hollowing out the US government.”

“On the first day of his new administration, President Donald Trump issued an executive order directing federal agencies to place their diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) employees on administrative leave. Later pronouncements suggest that the Administration will soon eliminate these jobs. This is misguided. Pushing out federal DEI professionals threatens the progress made by previous administrations in diversifying the federal workforce. It also threatens similar gains made at private firms that work on behalf of the government.”

“The new administration wants to freeze federal money that helps communities, including billions of dollars that fund AFSCME jobs and the services we provide. The move, which is straight out of the Project 2025 playbook, temporarily brought services like Medicaid to a screeching halt in many states. Portals for Head Start and other vital programs were also temporarily shut down.”

“President Donald Trump’s purging of key members of two independent panels governing labor and workplace [anti-bias] laws prompted a probe from the ranking member of the Senate’s labor and health panel. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the Democratic leader of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, in letters Friday told leaders of the National Labor Relations Board and the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that he’s ‘seeking answers about these deeply concerning firings’ and to hand over “copies of all communication between the President’s Transition Team or Admission staff” and agency employees since November.”

“Soon after Whole Foods employees in Philadelphia celebrated winning a union election early this week, drama in Washington overshadowed the victory. The same night workers voted 130-100 to join the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union, President Donald Trump rendered the federal agency that protects rights to unionize effectively toothless. He fired two leaders of the National Labor Relations Board — including one historically considered immune from presidential dismissal. That unprecedented move late Monday temporarily disables the NLRB until Trump appoints his own board members, creating an opportunity for employers such as Amazon-owned Whole Foods. Nelson Lichtenstein, a labor historian at the University of California at Santa Barbara, said Amazon’s track record of opposing unions suggests the company will try to delay contract negotiations with the Philadelphia workers. ‘And with the NLRB neutered, there won’t be anything anyone can do about it,’ he said.”

“Hundreds of union members demonstrated outside the Utah State Senate doors as lawmakers put a bill on hold that would strip public employee unions of their collective bargaining rights…But Senate Majority Leader Kirk Cullimore, R-Sandy, asked for the bill to be circled, putting it in limbo. A new version of the bill was being released and he wanted to give unions and his fellow senators a chance to review it…FOX 13 News first reported on a possible deal on Thursday. The new version of the bill offers some collective bargaining rights to unions, if a percentage of them agree to it. But it also requires re-certification and imposes other restrictions.”

“As the national media dissects the early days of a second Trump administration and a new Congress, some are asking whether they will prioritize the needs of the working-class voters who provided much of the Republicans’ margin of victory in last year’s elections. But state legislative sessions are also beginning, and too little attention is being paid to how they may shape local economies to workers’ benefit. Increased focus on the working class is sorely needed. Wages for workers without a four-year college degree have stagnated over the past five decades, even as corporate CEOs’ compensation soared and corporate profits approached record highs. A key reason for this wage stagnation is that workers do not have sufficient power to negotiate for higher compensation. Decades of attacks against unions have weakened worker power. By supporting good-quality, high-wage jobs and empowering workers to bargain for decent wages and working conditions, lawmakers can strengthen their local economies.”

“Workers across five upscale DC restaurants—Le Diplomate, Pastis, and St. Anselm from restaurateur Stephen Starr and Rasika and Modena from Knightbridge Restaurant Group—announced plans to unionize last month. A labor organizing drive of this size is unprecedented in the local restaurant industry, and the unions could collectively represent 500 front- and back-of-house workers if they’re successful. So far, Knightsbridge and Starr Restaurants have said they will not voluntarily recognize the unions. Employees at some of the restaurants now claim that they are facing intimidation and retaliation in an attempt to quash their efforts—allegations that both restaurant groups deny.”

“Over the past year, Klarna and [CEO] Mr. Siemiatkowski have repeatedly talked up the amount of work they have automated using generative A.I., which serves up text, images and videos that look like they were created by people. ‘I am of the opinion that A.I. can already do all of the jobs that we, as humans, do,’ he told Bloomberg News, a view that goes far beyond what most experts claim. According to Klarna, the company has saved the equivalent of $10 million annually using A.I. for its marketing needs, partly by reducing its reliance on human artists to generate images for advertising. The company said that using A.I. tools had cut back on the time that its in-house lawyers spend generating standard contracts — to about 10 minutes from an hour — and that its communications staff uses the technology to classify press coverage as positive or negative. Klarna has said that the company’s chatbot does the work of 700 customer service agents and that the bot resolves cases an average of nine minutes faster than humans (under two minutes versus 11).”

“The unionized workers of New York Magazine, represented by The NewsGuild of New York, have informed management that they are prepared to walk off the job unless they get a fair contract, including strong AI protections. On Thursday, the New York Magazine Union, which represents around 150 writers, editors, fact checkers, copy editors, photo editors, designers, and other editorial producers, sent Vox Media Chief Executive Jim Bankoff, Vice Chair Pam Wasserstein, and New York Magazine Editor-in-Chief David Haskell a notice of members’ intent to withhold their labor if necessary, as well as launched a public pledge drive asking subscribers to honor a digital picket line should they walk off the job.”

“Colorado Kroger workers are striking this week, and 130,000 union grocery workers are bargaining contracts this year. Reformers see it as a chance to transform the UFCW from America’s largest private sector union into a fighting force.”

“UAW members at Detroit Axle voted by 84% on Saturday to ratify a new collective bargaining agreement with Daimler Truck of North America. The contract covers more than 400 workers at Daimler Trucks’ Detroit Axle facility in Redford, which builds axles and transmissions.”

“United Farm Workers, the California-based union co-created by Cesar Chavez, secured its first contract in New York Thursday after years of organizing and amid a major legal battle. UFW secured a three-year deal for agricultural workers at Cahoon Farms in Wolcott after the union was certified in December 2022. Negotiations kicked off June 2023 following a failed appeal attempt by the company and back-and-forth with New York’s Public Employee Relations Board to define which employees the union could bargain for, UFW says.”

“Members of the National Association of Letter Carriers have voted to reject a tentative agreement with the U.S. Postal Service. Of the members, 63,680 voted to reject the agreement while 26,304 voted to accept it, the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) said in a news release Friday. NALC President Brian L. Renfroe said in a statement that the union plans to reopen negotiations within five days. ‘In a democratic vote, the will of NALC’s membership has been made clear’ Renfroe said. “The tentative agreement that represented the best offer the Postal Service put on the table is not good enough for America’s city letter carriers. We have earned more and we deserve more.”

“The union representing Costco Wholesale Corp. workers reached a new tentative agreement with the retailer, avoiding for now a strike by thousands of employees. The contract between the retailer and Costco Teamsters, which represents less than 10% of the company’s roughly 219,000 employees in the US, had been set to expire late Friday. The union’s negotiating committee ‘reached a tentative agreement for a new contract’ with additional details to be shared soon, the Teamsters said in a post on X early Saturday.”

“When the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. stood with Memphis sanitation workers in 1968, he wasn’t just fighting for fair wages — he was embodying a centuries-old alliance between the faith community and labor. From the secret meetings of enslaved people plotting liberation to the pulpit speeches of modern-day labor leaders, the bond between faith and labor has long been a cornerstone of the fight for justice. This partnership, a bedrock of the civil rights movement, continues as leaders like the Rev. William J. Barber II and unions like the AFL-CIO carry the torch, advocating for living wages, voting rights, and economic equity.”