The Weekly Download

“In this blogcast, Burnes Center for Social Change Senior Fellow Seth Harris is joined by Alvin Velazquez, a law professor at Indiana Maurer School of Law; Lynn Rhinehart, a Senior Fellow at the Economic Policy Institute; Gali Racabi, an assistant professor at Cornell ILR School; and Seth Goldstein, a labor law attorney and partner at Goldstein and Singla PLLC to discuss the future of labor law. Watch now to hear four expert labor lawyers debate arguments over the future of worker power given the all-out assault on the National Labor Relations Act and the National Labor Relations Board. One argument focuses on state laws, and the other on whether workers would be better off without federal labor laws.”

“For tens of thousands of Angelenos, this month’s “No Kings” protests were a way to peacefully register discontent with the Trump administration. For some in their midst, the protests represented something else entirely: a bonanza of potential signers. The June 14 demonstrations turned into an unexpected battleground for those organizing on both sides of a roiling, pre-Olympic conflict between Los Angeles’ formidable travel industry and powerful unions.”

“Hundreds of nurses employed by the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center — the city’s largest employer — say they are having to fight just to schedule a union election. Meanwhile, their employer is justifying delays by citing the Trump administration’s changes to the National Labor Relations Board. On June 13, a throng of scrub-clad nurses and supporters gathered in the damp shadow of Pittsburgh’s iconic U.S. Steel Tower — which now bears the UPMC logo across its roofline. Joined there by a range of elected officials, including city councilmembers, U.S. Reps. Summer Lee and Chris Deluzio, and Pittsburgh’s mayor, Ed Gainey, they demanded a date for their union election.”

“A record-breaking heat wave is cresting across the United States, with about 100 million people under extreme heat alerts. Local TV news stations, governors and health officials advise to plan accordingly, drink water, go to cooling centers if needed and above all, refrain from excess outdoor exertion. But if you pick fruit in a field, walk door to door delivering packages, stack boxes in an oppressively hot warehouse or do any number of other jobs without air-conditioning, you don’t have much legal protection against working under sweltering conditions. In 2022 alone, 43 people died from exposure to extreme heat while working, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Last year, there were others, including a postal worker who died of heat stroke in Dallas, and at least one farmworker who died after falling ill while working in extreme heat in Florida. From fields to warehouses to restaurants, laborers are in danger of illness, injuries and even death in this heat wave.”

“While DOGE made headlines for firing tens of thousands of federal workers, Elon Musk's departure will not slow down the Trump administration’s efforts to end collective bargaining for more than 1 million workers, slash wage protections for hundreds of thousands, and muzzle a key agency protecting organizing rights.”

“Los Angeles County’s looming agreement with its biggest labor union is expected to cost a little more than $2 billion over three years — the latest hit to a budget besieged by financial woes. The cost estimate, provided to The Times on Monday by the county chief executive office, will necessitate more belt-tightening for a government that’s running out of notches. The deadly January wildfires are expected to cost the county $2 billion. The Trump administration has threatened cuts that would ravage the county’s public health budget. The L.A. County supervisors agreed this year to a historic $4 billion sex abuse settlement — the largest of its kind in U.S. history — and required most departments to make 3% cuts to help pay for it.”

“The future of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB or Board), the venerable agency that since 1935 has been the exclusive investigation, enforcement, and adjudicatory body under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA or Act), is in doubt. As of this writing, it seems likely, that perhaps sometime in fall 2025 or spring 2026, the Supreme Court will overrule or substantially narrow Humphrey’s Executor v. United States (1935). There will be some consternation over imperiling the structure of the Federal Reserve Board, which like the NLRB is a multimember agency whose members are insulated from at-will presidential removal before the end of their terms. The Court will, we suspect, find some way to distinguish the Federal Reserve Board, whether persuasively or not.”

“Southern lawmakers have neglected basic worker protections and disinvested in social safety net programs while offering hefty subsidies to corporations, privatizing public goods, and giving the wealthy big tax breaks. When policies in the South fail to raise adequate revenue to pay for public goods and services, these same harmful policies are leveraged as ‘the cure,’ creating a vicious cycle that keeps millions of Southerners locked into poverty and out of the benefits from economic growth. The Southern economic development model is the result of policy choices that can and must be undone for the South to thrive. The racism and anti-worker sentiments that have influenced economic policymaking in the South for generations must be uprooted and replaced by new policies centered on empowering and investing in workers, families, and communities.”

“Fire fighters in Iowa now have one of the strongest presumptive cancer laws in the United States thanks to the enactment of House File (H.F.) 969. The new law expands the state’s disability program to cover all fire fighter cancers and is the culmination of years of advocacy from the Iowa Professional Fire Fighters Association (IPFF) working to educate lawmakers about the risk occupational cancer poses to the fire service. ‘H.F. 969 will not only make a difference for our members, but it will give their families some peace of mind knowing that if their loved one receives a tragic diagnosis, they won’t be left behind,’ said Iowa”

“A federal judge has granted a preliminary injunction after ruling that the Trump administration likely violated the law by stripping nearly a million federal government employees of their union rights. Six unions filed a lawsuit on April 3 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, challenging President Trump’s March 27 executive order that removed collective bargaining rights from about 950,000 federal employees the unions collectively represent. Trump cited national security as the reason for the executive action, but the unions, led by the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), argue that the executive order was unconstitutional retaliation meant to punish them for engaging in activity protected by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, including vocal opposition and legal challenges to the administration.”

“Taft-Hartley marked the beginning of a long-term strategy to isolate, weaken, and demobilize organized labor in the United States. It sought to narrow the scope of what unions do by restricting what they bargain over, limiting their political activity, and constraining the tactics they can legally use. This helped shape public perception of unions as narrow, service-oriented entities rather than vehicles for broader economic and social change — a legacy that haunts the US labor movement to this day. As workers across the country seek to rebuild their collective power, it’s worth taking a look at the legal behemoth making their mission harder to achieve.”

“This week we joined journalists, protestors and legal observers suing the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Secretary Kristi Noem for federal law enforcement’s excessive use of force in the protests in Southern California. We joined the ACLU Foundation of Southern California, the Los Angeles Press Club and several individual journalists in the suit, including Guild members. Our suit alleges that DHS’s brutal use of force at demonstrations punishes and suppresses the exercise of First Amendment-protected rights.”

“The UFT has turned up the pressure on City Council leaders to bring the ‘RESPECT check’ bill for paraprofessionals to a committee hearing and a vote. Forty-seven of 51 City Council members have co-sponsored the bill, which would give every UFT-represented paraprofessional an annual recurring payment of approximately $10,000. More than 104,000 people have signed a petition in support of the legislation. But Council Speaker Adrienne Adams has not brought the bill to a committee hearing, which is a prerequisite for a vote.”

“Islam is one of the fastest-growing religions in the U.S., with an estimated 8 million Muslim-Americans projected by 2050. Muslims have long been part of American history, especially within African American communities. Today, Muslim Americans are racially, ethnically, and nationally diverse—and face significant economic hardship and workplace discrimination. According to the Pew Research Center, they are three times more likely to be unemployed and more likely to earn under $30,000 annually than the general population. Despite these challenges, Muslim Americans are politically engaged and active in community issues. Their experiences make them a key group for labor and community organizing.”

“The NCAA is lobbying for congressional legislation giving them an anti-trust exemption. If they get it, they can do whatever they want – including halting compensation for athletes once the House settlement fund is paid out. A legislated exemption would be a setback for athletes’ rights that will lead to continued uncertainty and turmoil. Antitrust suits might be avoided, but inventive plaintiffs’ lawyers will turn to wage and hour complaints, tort and breach of contract suits, anti-discrimination, workers’ comp, and other employment lawsuits. It’s a Gordian Knot for college sports. But the way to cut through it is a tested framework for reconciling competing interests in other areas of economic and social life: collective bargaining.”

“Many months of sacrifice by the video game performer community and nearly three years of diligence by the Interactive Media Agreement Negotiating Committee have brought us to this moment: the ratification of our new Interactive Media Agreement. Getting here was far from easy, but you came out to the picket lines and brought questions to meetings. You held a lengthy work stoppage and raised awareness of the key issues, while remaining informed and engaged as the committee did its bargaining work on your behalf.”

“Nonfiction entertainment workers who are members of the Writers Guild of America East have ratified a first union agreement with prestige documentary company Story Syndicate. Story Syndicate employees who belong to the WGA East, roughly 30 in total, many of them producers, unanimously voted to greenlight the deal after it was reached June 6.”

“Now that the City of Fresno has put its $2.3 billion budget to bed, what’s next? That would be negotiating with the city’s 11 different bargaining units, representing thousands of employees, over new contracts. All those contracts expired this month, within days of the budget passing. Those simultaneous expiration dates across 11 city worker contracts are partly the product of last year’s bargaining cycle. In 2024, the city negotiated one-year contracts with several city workers’ unions.”

“Union workers at Microsoft-owned Fallout developer ZeniMax Media have voted to ratify their first union contract after two years of negotiations. It's a historic moment for ZeniMax Workers United-CWA that will help usher in substantial across-the-board wage increases and new minimum salaries for employees.”

“At time-clock meetings, we learned that custodians were thoroughly irritated by Rob’s ban of cups on carts. It wasn’t the biggest issue, but it was a completely unnecessary indignity. Some members who hardly ever engaged with the union seemed to wake up around the issue. One evening, a bunch of custodians came down to the office and prepared 300 white Styrofoam cups, placing a UAW sticker on every one. We got enough cups for every steward to hand one out to every custodian the next morning at six. It was mass defiance. Workers who had voted against having a union, workers who had scabbed during our first strike, took the UAW cup and proudly gave Rob the middle finger that morning. We held our breath, waiting for management’s move. It came not with a bang but with a whimper. No one was disciplined, and no one ever heard another peep about having a beverage on their cart.”

“After months of negotiations, members of UFCW Local 400 who work at the Story cannabis dispensary in Mechanicsville, Md., ratified their first union contract on June 9. These workers joined UFCW Local 400 in October of 2023, and stood their ground for a union voice in the workplace by rejecting an alternate contract offer that included ousting the union by their employer. The three-year contract, which was ratified by an overwhelming margin of the workers, has several highlights, including: Guaranteed raises every year; Guaranteed minimum hours per shift; Seniority privileges; 401(k) retirement plan; Just cause protection from unfair discipline.”

“After roughly a full year of contract talks and several rallies to publicize workers’ demands, hundreds of employees at Hilton’s Buena Vista Palace hotel have approved a new union contract that will deliver increased job protections as well as immediate pay raises. UNITE HERE Local 737, a hospitality union representing 19,000 service and hospitality workers in Central Florida, announced the news of the new contract on social media Thursday. The union represents over 300 housekeepers, bartenders, pool attendants, food service workers, and other employees of Hilton Buena Vista Palace near Disney Springs and the Hilton-owned DoubleTree Universal near the Universal Orlando resort.”

“A federal judge on Tuesday blocked the Trump administration from eliminating union bargaining for thousands of workers across the federal government. U.S. District Judge James Donato ruled that President Trump’s executive order letting several federal agencies dispense with union bargaining is likely unlawful.”

“The working class is done with business as usual. We were proud to be the first union to endorse Zohran because it’s time for a political movement that puts the working class first. Our members spoke out and turned out in a big way — and we’re just getting started. Congratulations to Region 9A Director Brandon Mancilla on an exceptional field operation. Congratulations to Zohran for building a movement, and congratulations to the working-class New Yorkers for showing the world that when we unite and stand up nobody can stand in our way!”