The Weekly Download

“In this blogcast, Burnes Center for Social Change Senior Fellow Seth Harris is joined by three reporters who cover labor in different parts of the United States: Claudia Irizarry Aponte of THE CITY, Suhauna Hussain of the Los Angeles Times, and McKenna Schueler of the Orlando Weekly. Their conversation covers the recent wave of anti-union legislation in Florida; how the Trump administration’s attacks on immigrants are impacting workers in Southern California’s hospitality industry; what’s at stake for unions and worker power in New York City’s upcoming mayoral election; and much more!”

“With the Trump administration implementing a blizzard of anti-worker initiatives on a near-daily basis, it’s difficult to imagine that these early assaults could be only the tip of the iceberg. But President Trump and billionaire Elon Musk may well have far worse plans to attack U.S. workers and labor relations. One little-seen proposal from outside the White House has the potential to upend our entire system of labor relations. It comes from the ‘Coalition for a Democratic Workplace’ (CDW)—an anti-union trade association of several hundred employers and employer associations, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and National Association of Manufacturers. The coalition sent a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi asking her to repudiate and invalidate more than a dozen major decisions issued by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) during the Biden administration, and to instruct all NLRB appointees and employees that they cannot treat these properly issued decisions as governing law.”

“In the first days of March, a team of advisers from President Trump's new Department of Government Efficiency initiative arrived at the Southeast Washington, D.C., headquarters of the National Labor Relations Board. The small, independent federal agency investigates and adjudicates complaints about unfair labor practices. It stores reams of potentially sensitive data, from confidential information about employees who want to form unions to proprietary business information. The DOGE employees, who are effectively led by White House adviser and billionaire tech CEO Elon Musk, appeared to have their sights set on accessing the NLRB's internal systems. They've said their unit's overall mission is to review agency data for compliance with the new administration's policies and to cut costs and maximize efficiency. But according to an official whistleblower disclosure shared with Congress and other federal overseers that was obtained by NPR, subsequent interviews with the whistleblower and records of internal communications, technical staff members were alarmed about what DOGE engineers did when they were granted access, particularly when those staffers noticed a spike in data leaving the agency. It's possible that the data included sensitive information on unions, ongoing legal cases and corporate secrets — data that four labor law experts tell NPR should almost never leave the NLRB and that has nothing to do with making the government more efficient or cutting spending.”

“The AFL-CIO and unions representing workers across private and public sector industries sued the Trump administration today over its dismantling of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS), including firing mediators and staff, and closing field offices across the country.”

“Less than an hour after President Donald Trump unveiled sweeping ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs on dozens of countries, Denny Butler, a United Auto Workers local union vice president, received word that Stellantis would temporarily lay off 370 of his members. The maker of Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep brands explained that it was taking ‘immediate actions’ because of the president’s tariffs, which have hit the auto industry particularly hard. Last week, company officials went into its three Kokomo plants searching for volunteers before forcing some workers with less seniority to be laid off temporarily, Butler said. For now, the layoffs last only two weeks but could be extended, as they have been in the past. For some 470 Stellantis workers placed on indefinite layoffs last year, these new layoffs could further delay their return to work and even force them out of the industry.”

“Labor groups have filed a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s abrupt termination of international labor rights programs aimed at ending child labor and other abuses. The Solidarity Center, Global March Against Child Labour, and the American Institutes for Research (AIR), filed the lawsuit on Tuesday seeking to stop the cuts, enacted by Elon Musk’s so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge), and arguing the programs were authorized by Congress and that the secretary of labor has no authority to cancel the funds. Several groups supporting workers and corporations have criticized the Trump administration’s decision to abruptly cancel all ongoing grants and contracts for programs with the Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB) at the Department of Labor which works to improve labor conditions outside the US.”

“Last month, the Trump administration issued an Executive Order seeking to eliminate the Institute of Museum and Library Studies (IMLS), the federal agency funding programming and research for all types of libraries. Just days later, the White House issued another Executive Order to begin dismantling the Department of Education. In libraries, there have been crises building over recent years—the astronomical rise in censorship via book challenges, and the threat to university libraries' existence through the slashing of federal research grants and their associated overhead, which helps fund our library operations. [...] All libraries, regardless of their type, uphold the principle of the freedom to read, which is essential to our ability to exercise our rights under the First Amendment. But in order to protect your rights as readers, library workers need to secure our rights as employees. In order to do our jobs without undue political influence or the capricious interference of management, we must be able to act without fear of retaliation. We believe a union and collective bargaining are the best way to achieve these protections.”

“Factory jobs are not inherently good jobs. Even if Donald Trump’s trade policies bring factories back to the United States, workers need unions to make those jobs well-paying and safe — and Trump has been the most anti-union president in years.”

“The Boilermakers union welcomed 145 new members in March after workers in the machine shop micro-unit at BWXT, Lynchburg, Virginia, voted in favor of unionizing. According to Northeast Area organizer John Bland, workers contacted Local 45 Business Manager/Secretary-Treasurer Kevin Battle in late December seeking information and help organizing. He said workers were fed up with working conditions and constantly changing rules. The Boilermakers and other unions had attempted at least three prior organizing efforts at BWXT since 2008, so some of the machinists had heard the message about how unionizing could provide a voice for them on the job. The time was right to organize.”

“Two hundred union workers, out of 5,700 who assemble dishwashers, refrigerators, washers, and dryers for GE Appliances-Haier at Appliance Park in Louisville, Kentucky, received notice this month that the Trump administration is revoking their work authorizations. The immigrant workers from Cuba, Nicaragua, Haiti, and Venezuela have received a mixed reaction to their imminent deportation—hostility from some co-workers and an outpouring of support from their union and the local labor movement. They’re part of the Communications Workers’ industrial division, IUE-CWA Local 83761.”

“Some 300 employees at two famed museums here have won formal recognition for their joint union. After an official count of union cards revealed 70% support, the Natural History Museum & La Brea Tar Pits Workers Union (NHMTPWU) recently made history recently by becoming an official entity. This means workers can begin working on the details of their first contract.”

“If you want to fight the rise of fascism, organize a union in your workplace—or get a job and help your coworkers organize. There’s a reason that authoritarian regimes often make crushing unions their top priority: Free and independent unions are the best safeguard of democracy. Unionizing provides workers with the means of building power outside of capital and the state. A strong labor movement could launch a general strike in protest of a repressive regime that would shut down the economy and force concessions—or at least galvanize resistance and turn popular opinion against the state, as the 1943 strike at the Fiat factory in Mirafiori, Italy, which helped bring down Benito Mussolini’s dictatorship, demonstrated. The threat of a general strike has not lost its power: In 2019, during the first Trump administration, Sara Nelson, the president of the Association of Flight Attendants union, helped end a government shutdown by calling for one. After flights were grounded in New York City, politicians reached a deal to reopen the government within hours.”

“The University of Southern California is attempting to block faculty from forming a union with an argument pushed by SpaceX and Amazon: that the National Labor Relations Board is unconstitutional. In December, non-tenure-track faculty members at USC filed a petition for a union election in hopes of certifying the United Faculty-United Auto Workers union as their representative. The petition was submitted after a majority of the roughly 2,500 non-tenure-track faculty signaled their support for a union. Ten days later, as first reported by USC Annenberg Media, USC asked the NLRB to dismiss the petition in part by arguing the structure of the board itself — an independent federal agency that works to protect worker rights by enforcing the National Labor Relations Act — ‘is unconstitutional.’ Corporations including Amazon, Trader Joe’s and SpaceX have all challenged the constitutionality of the NLRB in recent years. In February, the administration of President Donald Trump also declared that provisions limiting the administration’s ability to fire members of regulatory commissions, including the NLRB, were unconstitutional.”

“Union members at General Dynamics (GD.N), opens new tab Electric Boat unit voted to authorize a strike, the United Auto Workers said on Tuesday. The move comes amid an ongoing labor dispute post the expiration of the members' contract on April 4 at Electric Boat, a part of the defense contractor's marine systems segment, which assembles nuclear-powered submarines for the U.S. Navy. The union represents over 2,400 marine drafters, who design submarines at the unit and are fighting to win cost-of-living adjustments (COLA) to keep up with inflation, along with affordable healthcare.”

“Over 300 grocery store workers represented by seven California UFCW local unions will stage a strike march to support better benefits. The April 15 march from Vons to Stater Bros. in La Verne is part of the fight for fair wages, secure health benefits, reliable retirement plans and adequate hours and staffing levels, according to Grocery Workers Rising.”

“The president of the Pacific Northwest Newspaper Guild testified in support of a bill advancing in Oregon that would require Big Tech platforms to compensate Oregon newsrooms for local content. Mai Hoang, the president of the Pacific Northwest Newspaper Guild, a local of The NewsGuild-CWA, testified in the Oregon State Senate Committee on Rules last week in support of Senate Bill 686, which would level the playing field and make sure large companies like Meta and Alphabet would have to pay for news appearing on their apps and websites such as Facebook, Instagram and Google.”

“Amid ongoing efforts by the Trump administration to slash the size and scope of the federal government, a group of unions and labor movement allies on Wednesday announced the launch of a legal defense network to assist federal workers who have been dismissed by the administration and has already trained hundreds of lawyers as part of the project. The project, called ‘Rise Up: Federal Workers Legal Defense Network,’ offers federal workers who have been ‘wrongfully terminated’ or are still at their jobs but are concerned about their employment rights the opportunity to connect with free legal support. The Federal Workers Legal Defense Network has trained over 1,000 lawyers so far to assist workers with pro bono support, Mia Jacobs, the director of media relations for the AFL-CIO, told Common Dreams.”

“Union members at General Dynamics Electric Boat unit voted to authorize a strike, the United Auto Workers said on Tuesday. The move comes amid an ongoing labor dispute post the expiration of the members' contract on April 4 at Electric Boat, a part of the defense contractor's marine systems segment, which assembles nuclear-powered submarines for the U.S. Navy. The union represents over 2,400 marine drafters, who design submarines at the unit and are fighting to win cost-of-living adjustments (COLA) to keep up with inflation, along with affordable healthcare. The union members are also seeking the restoration of pensions, as they argue that General Dynamics is pushing for increases of 52% to 161% in weekly medical insurance costs.”

“From working in fields during wildfires to working in factories without air conditioning in summer heat, many workers are all too familiar with the harsh realities of the climate crisis. Many responses to the climate crisis, like the Green New Deal, recognize that marginalized people are the most affected and any solution must uplift both people and the planet. While many unions have taken important steps in the right direction, we are yet to see broad, coordinated, actions from the labor movement to address this crisis. With emissions rising faster than ever, corporations scaling back their climate commitments, and federal agencies meant to protect workers and the environment now hostile to these very interests, unions must act with greater urgency. This post will be part of a series exploring how unions are addressing the climate crisis and the obstacles they face. This post focuses on the first question—what are unions currently doing to address climate change?”

“One year after making history as the first Southern autoworkers outside the Big Three to unionize, Volkswagen workers in Chattanooga are preparing to secure a landmark first contract—one that guarantees, in writing, the better wages, benefits, and workplace protections they fought to win. No longer at the mercy of Volkswagen’s shifting promises, workers are demanding a legally binding agreement that puts their priorities—fair pay, affordable health care, paid time off, safer working conditions, and protections against favoritism—into writing. Since their union victory in April 2024, they have elected a 20-person bargaining committee, which has been negotiating contract language that reflects the demands of the 4,000-member workforce.”

“On April 2, more than 40 members of UFCW Local 152 who work at Autumn Lake Healthcare at Oceanview in Ocean View, N.J., ratified a new union contract. Autumn Lake Healthcare at Oceanview is a rehabilitation and assisted living center, and these members are employed as nursing aides and in the food service, activities, and maintenance divisions, and more. The three-year contract includes substantial across-the-board wage increases. Members will also receive wage increases every six months for the life of the agreement. The contract also maintains affordable union health insurance. Members also received a one-time, tiered longevity bonus dependent on their years of service.”

“The Chicago Teachers Union won a tentative agreement in December that, for the first time, addresses climate and environmental justice demands—making healthy green schools a priority in our city. We achieved this breakthrough even while broader contract negotiations stalled. Finally, in April, we ratified the full agreement, which also includes big raises and lower class sizes.”

“The recognition Lelo earned for his years of organizing farmworkers created the pressure that kept him off the deportation flight, according to Rosalinda Guillen, director of Community2Community, the farmworker rights organization of northwest Washington. He joined FUJ when it won a contract at Sakuma Farms in 2017, after a watershed four-year strike and boycott of the giant Driscoll’s berry company, buyer of the fruit Sakuma workers picked. [...] The sharp increase in detentions and deportations raises big questions: Will unions be able to organize in this political environment? And can they protest the raids and displacement of immigrant workers who are already residents (including their own members), and at the same time organize and defend the rights of H-2A workers brought by growers to replace them?”