The Weekly Download

“In this blogcast, Burnes Center for Social Change Senior Fellow Seth Harris is joined by Todd Wolfson, the president of the American Association of University Professors, to discuss the attack on college campuses by the Trump administration. Watch now to hear about the efforts to deport academics and students who do not align with the current administration’s policies, strategies on how unions should respond to these attacks, and the threat to academic freedom.”

“Since early February, the Trump Administration has been pressuring the Internal Revenue Service to support the deportation of undocumented immigrants. In April, court filings showed that the I.R.S. ultimately capitulated, signing a ‘Memorandum of Understanding’ with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Although the agreement was heavily redacted, an anonymous ICE official told Politico Pro that the ‘[I.R.S.’s] data would likely improve efficiency by helping ICE confirm addresses, streamlining time-consuming work that agents often have to do manually.’ Immigration groups, including worker organization Centro de Trabajadores Unidos, sought a preliminary injunction against the data sharing. In mid-May, a federal judge denied the motion, reasoning that the MOU complied with the letter of the law. While immigration advocates have loudly criticized the data-sharing deal, labor and employment advocates should be concerned too because the immigrant taxpayers threatened by the deal are immigrant workers.”

“Drastic cuts at a federal workplace safety research agency increase the risk of illness and injury for workers across the US and undermine preparations for public health emergencies, fired employees warn. The Trump administration ordered widespread layoffs at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, inside the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, when it issued a ‘reduction in force’ notice to some 85% of the agency’s 1,100 workers employees on 1 April. While some of those terminations were later reversed following pushback from labor unions and the public, only 328 employees were reinstated.”

“Truck driving used to be a solid middle-class job. Not anymore. Driverless trucks just hit the highway in Texas. It’s displacing truck drivers. And truckers warn, ‘your job could be next.’”

“‘There’s a big difference between the old Republican Party that focused on Wall Street,’ said Republican senator Jim Banks of Indiana in a video clip titled ‘The new GOP is the party of the working class’ a couple weeks ago, ‘and the new Republican Party that focuses more on Main Street and working-class families.’ That party, Banks said, ‘has to recognize that those mechanics, factory workers like my dad and members of my family, teachers, police officers, people who go to work and make an hourly wage and a working-class living, that has to be the emphasis of the tax cuts this season.’ [...] It’s easy to get jaded about fraud and humbuggery in politics. But the notion of the contemporary Republican Party as champion of the working class is a particularly brazen scam. There’s no better example of why than House Republicans’ gleefully approving the most devastating cuts to Medicaid in the program’s history, alongside a budget gifting the rich with enormous tax cuts.”

“The Los Angeles City Council this month passed a law requiring hotel staff and airport catering industry workers be paid at least $30 per hour and given comprehensive health benefits by July 1, 2028. The minimum wage will be raised to $22.50 this year and increase by $2.50 each July for the next three years. This is a huge victory for UNITE HERE Local 11, the union that campaigned for the legislation, and represents the highest minimum wage in the country. (California’s statewide minimum is currently set at $16.50, and the highest minimum wage in the country currently is in D.C., with a $17.50 floor.) ‘Put together, it’s extraordinarily high in terms of an economic package employers provide to their workers,’ Kurt Petersen, co-president of UNITE HERE Local 11, told Truthout.”

“Workers producing tires at Goodyear’s factory in San Luis Potosí, Mexico, faced major impediments to securing honest representation of their interests. Their employer refused to comply with the sectoral agreement for the national rubber industry won by prior worker struggles. It avoided meaningful collective bargaining by maintaining a contract signed between the employer and a corrupt union acting more in the interests of the state and employers than the workers. Yet, national labor reforms implemented since 2019 required that workers elect their unions, union leaders, and contracts. Today, the national union federation Liga Sindical Obrera Mexicana (LSOM) [Mexican Workers Union League] legitimately represents workers’ interests, including by enforcing the sectoral agreement.”

“A majority of workers at Chrysler parent Stellantis NV's electric vehicle battery joint venture in Kokomo, Indiana, have signed authorization cards to join the United Auto Workers, the Detroit-based union said Tuesday. StarPlus Energy, the partnership between Stellantis and Korean battery maker Samsung SDI, has agreed to recognize the union as representing the 420 workers at the site, the UAW said in a news release. The organizing victory is a product of the 2023 contract between the union and Stellantis following a 44-day targeted strike, which paved the way for the card check system at the Kokomo plant by having the maker of Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram lease employees to the joint venture.”

“Nurses at one of Pittsburgh’s largest labor and delivery centers are launching a union push this week, citing concerns about staffing and quality of patient care. SEIU Healthcare PA filed a request for a union election with the National Labor Relations Board Tuesday on behalf of nearly 1,000 registered nurses and advanced practice professionals at Magee-Womens Hospital. ‘When we’re regularly struggling with what we feel are inadequate staffing levels, it is difficult to care for our patients to the degree we believe they deserve,’ said Gianna Pomponi, who works in the adult intensive care unit at Magee. She’s been a nurse for five years but volunteered at the hospital for several years prior to her nursing career. While standards set by the Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses recommend a ratio of one nurse for every one to two patients requiring intensive care, Pomponi said she often manages several more complex cases at a time.”

“GlobalLogic workers might be developing Google products, but they don’t enjoy Google perks. ‘There’s no Ping-Pong tables and free lunch for these people,’ says Shannon Wait, an organizer with the Alphabet Workers Union. GlobalLogic, a subsidiary of the multinational conglomerate Hitachi, employs about 1,400 raters under a contract with Google, which is a subsidiary of Alphabet. It’s a common setup—since 2018, contractors have made up the majority of the workforce at Alphabet, working under inferior conditions and the constant threat of losing their jobs. That tangled corporate web can deter solidarity on the shop floor, but GlobalLogic workers have moved to organize anyway. “

“The U.S.-headquartered banana giant Chiquita said Thursday that it moved to fire thousands of Panamanian workers who walked off the job last month as part of nationwide protests against the right-wing government's unpopular reforms to the nation's pension system. Citing an unnamed source close to Chiquita, Reuters reported that the mass firings are expected to impact around 5,000 of the company's 6,500 Panamanian workers. Jose Raul Mulino, Panama's right-wing president, defended the banana giant formerly known as United Fruit, accusing striking workers of unlawful ‘intransigence.’ The company estimates that the strike, which began in late April, has cost it at least $75 million.”      

“Hundreds of workers at Butler Hospital are getting back on the picket line on Tuesday. They have been on strike now for nearly two weeks, demanding better pay and a safer workplace. The workers tell us they are dealing with a rise in assaults on staff by patients at the mental health hospital. They are calling on Butler’s owner Care New England to create safer working conditions, and to offer better pay and benefits. Several employees have even gone to the State House to make their case.”

“As nearly 1,000 bedside nurses from UnityPoint Health — Meriter began their strike Tuesday morning, the hospital released a statement saying they were prepared for the moment. ‘Our thoughtful preparations have paid off, and we have had a successful morning, said Meriter spokesperson Nicole Aimone. "Our visiting nurses were onboarded over the holiday weekend and arrived at the hospital safely early this morning.’ The nurses represented by SEIU Wisconsin issued a formal 10-day strike notice to the hospital on May 9. At 6:30 a.m. Tuesday the nurses began their planned strike.”

“Kroger drivers could soon be striking, potentially disrupting how well the supermarket chain is able to keep items in stock at some locations. Teamsters at Kroger's Forest Park, Georgia, fulfillment center voted in favor to authorize a strike on Tuesday, after they say the company has "repeated refusal to negotiate a fair agreement." According to a May 27 press release, the workers–who are represented by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 528–are ‘demanding a first Teamsters contract with strong wages, good benefits, and enforceable workplace protections.’”

“About 3,000 machinists at jet engine-maker Pratt & Whitney in Connecticut approved a new four-year contract Tuesday, ending a three-week strike over wages, job security and other issues. Union members were expected to return to work Wednesday after 74% of them voted in favor of the new deal, according to locals 1746 and 700 of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers. Pratt & Whitney, a subsidiary of Arlington, Virginia-based RTX Corp., makes engines for commercial and military jets, including the GTF line for Airbus commercial jets and the F135 for the military’s F-35 Lightning II fighter aircraft fleet.”

“Attorneys for the union that represents frontline employees at the Transportation Security Administration on Tuesday argued that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s March determination outlawing collective bargaining at the agency amounted to a violation of the labor group’s First Amendment rights. In March, Noem issued a determination stripping TSA employees of their collective bargaining rights, arguing that union representation presented an impediment to responding ‘swiftly and effectively’ to security threats and insinuating without evidence that the American Federation of Government Employees was wasting workers’ voluntary union dues.”

“Union members at General Dynamics' Electric Boat submarine-making unit have voted to ratify a new contract, the United Auto Workers said on Wednesday. The union, representing over 2,400 marine drafters at Electric Boat, said 85% voted in favor of the ratification of the new five-year agreement which secures a 30% wage increase over the life of the contract and an improved wage progression.”

“Today, the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW), America’s largest private sector union representing 1.2 million workers in meatpacking, food processing, grocery, retail, and other essential industries across North America, announced the ratification of a first-ever national contract that will bring significant wage increases, a newly created paid sick leave program, and with the support of JBS, the establishment of a pension retirement plan for 26,000 JBS workers at 14 facilities across the country, among other contract gains.”

“Earlier this month, about a dozen workers arrived in Wolcott, a small town halfway between Rochester and Syracuse, to grow apple trees. At this time of year, farmworkers are grafting and budding — farmer-speak for fusing trees together — and planting long rows of seedlings. They traveled to Wafler Farms, an apple orchard and fruit tree nursery, from Jamaica. Some have been making the journey for many years, living on the farm for up to three seasons and earning money to support their wives and send their children to school back home. It’s a precarious arrangement: They can only return to the farm, and therefore to the US, if their boss brings them back. [...] Things were supposed to be different this year. A long-awaited union contract took effect in April, granting workers benefits including higher pay and the right to return each year if there is work for them. So far, the contract is not being followed, according to the farmworkers.”

“Care workers in Connecticut will be seeing an increase in pay. Earlier last week, thousands of nursing home and group home workers across Connecticut threatened to strike if their demands for higher wages weren’t met. Today, Governor Lamont announced that his administration reached a three-year agreement with the union that will result in significant wage increases for care workers in Connecticut’s nursing homes and group homes. The union has now withdrawn its plans to strike.”

“United Airlines reached an ‘industry-leading’ tentative labor deal for its 28,000 flight attendants, their union said Friday. The deal includes “40% of total economic improvements” in the first year and retroactive pay, a signing bonus, and quality of life improvements, like better scheduling and on-call time, the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA said. The union did not provide further details about the deal. United flight attendants have not had a raise since 2020.”

“Flight attendants at United Airlines (UAL.O), opens new tab have reached a tentative agreement with the company for a new contract, their union said on Friday. The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, which represents United's flight attendants, said the deal provides industry-leading compensation and retroactive pay. The agreement is estimated to result in a financial gain of 40% for the flight attendants in the very first year of the new contract, it added.”

“This case study examines how Revive Oakland! (RO), a community-labor coalition, took a leading role in shaping the billion-dollar redevelopment of the Oakland Army Base (OAB) 25 years ago. The lessons from this experience provide an important model today for policymakers, communities, labor unions, and others as the California economy faces ongoing changes. For 60 years, the OAB operated as a sprawling ‘city-within-a-city’ situated between the San Francisco Bay and the predominantly Black neighborhood of West Oakland. Its 1999 decommissioning was the final stage in a prolonged deindustrialization process that disproportionately affected Oakland’s Black community…This report draws on multiple data sources, including 10 in-depth interviews with local officials, community organizers, union leaders, and workers involved in the redevelopment, complemented by employment data from the City and Port of Oakland. The analysis begins by examining the community organizing campaign that won these historic agreements and evaluates their implementation and policy outcomes. It concludes by offering recommendations for community groups, unions, and elected officials seeking to enhance democratic control over local development.”