The Weekly Download

“Art museum workers in the U.S. are in the midst of the most exciting period of labor organizing in decades. Since the launch of the New Museum Union in January 2019, there has been a 223% increase in new organizing at private, not-for-profit art museums alone. Though precarious working conditions long predate the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a boom in organizing in its wake after institutional responses exposed and exacerbated worker exploitation, unsafe working conditions, and layoffs and furloughs, predominantly affecting front-of-house workers.”

“In this blogcast, Burnes Center for Social Change Senior Fellow Seth Harris is joined by Javier Ramirez to discuss the future of labor mediation after President Trump shut down the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS). Ramirez takes you inside the negotiating room and explains the critical role labor mediators play.”

“The Trump administration is doubling down on the president and his Department of Labor’s (DOL) deep hostility toward workers. Over the past six months, Donald Trump, his inaptly named Department of Government Efficiency (whose efforts to cut the federal budget by $2 trillion was a colossal failure and which reversed itself on many occasions, actions that cost more than they saved), his union-busting cronies, and his Department of Labor leadership have actively—and in many cases illegally—cut funds for programs that support workers, worker organizing, worker safety, and job training.”

“President Trump just gutted the government services your family relies on to give CEOs another $489,000 each. The average CEO took home a $1.24 million raise last year while working families struggled to make ends meet.”

“In a major legal victory for fire fighters and union rights, a federal jury has unanimously awarded $1 million in damages to two IAFF members who were wrongfully terminated for organizing their department and speaking out on matters of public concern. Harrodsburg, KY Local 5418 President Derrick Steele and Secretary-Treasurer Jamie Bottom were fired by the City of Harrodsburg in violation of their First and Fourteenth Amendment rights to free speech and freedom of association. The jury also found their terminations violated Kentucky state law.”

“A federal judge has dismissed a bid by President Donald Trump's administration to obtain judicial permission to cancel dozens of collective bargaining agreements between eight federal agencies and unions representing their employees. Waco, Texas-based U.S. District Judge Alan Albright decided late on Wednesday that the agencies do not have legal standing to bring a lawsuit to implement a Trump executive order exempting them from having to bargain with unions, as the American Federation of Government Employees, or AFGE, union had argued. Albright's ruling deals at least a temporary setback to the Republican president's broader efforts to lift restrictions on firing federal employees and shrink the federal bureaucracy.”

“Senate Republicans are chafing at President Donald Trump’s decision to leave in place a Biden-era project labor agreement mandate for large federal construction projects, as the president tries to balance the interests of union members that voted for him with competing demands from his party and businesses. A group of nearly two dozen GOP senators pressed the president to rescind a 2024 rule requiring bidders on federally-funded construction contracts above $35 million to enter into a pre-hire pact with a union that covers the terms and conditions of the entire project….The push from Republicans on Capitol Hill comes after the Office of Management and Budget sent a memo to federal agencies last month reminding them that the Trump administration supports the use of union pre-hire pacts on federal construction projects where “practicable” and that the underlying executive order and amendments adding the requirement to the Federal Acquisition Regulation remain in place.”

“Workers at the US state department say firings, resignation buyouts, a proposed budget cut of 48%, and reorganization under the Trump administration has left staff with low morale and will likely have long-term impacts. Foreign programs and services aimed towards LGBTQ+ communities, maternal and reproductive health, and minority groups have been removed or cut in place of far-right ideological policies being pursued by a 26-year-old senior adviser and Trump appointee at the agency. Senate Democrats and workers have criticized recent firings at the department, characterizing them as ‘unlawful’, ‘sloppy’ and ‘rushed’.”

“In this blogcast, Burnes Center for Social Change Senior Fellow Seth Harris is joined by Victor Mineros and Kathy Torres to discuss the nationwide strike by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters against Republic Services, which is a solid waste management company that collects and disposes of garbage and recycling in cities across the U.S.”

“Attorneys with three publicly funded legal services providers for low-income New Yorkers went on strike Friday morning after failing to reach an agreement with management on raises. Staff at the Bronx Defenders, the Center for Appellate Litigation and the Office of the Appellate Defender join the roughly 400 attorneys and legal staff across four other nonprofit organizations already on the picket line seeking better pay and working conditions, bringing the total number of strikers to more than 700.”

“The frontline workers of Ozone House Youth and Family Services have officially gone public with their campaign to unionize with the Newspaper Guild of Detroit, TNG-CWA Local 34022. Workers now seek voluntary recognition from management. As staff who support youth and families facing homelessness, poverty and food insecurity in Southeast Michigan, the workers say they are organizing to protect their dignity on the job, improve conditions for clients and ensure the agency operates in a way that reflects shared values of justice, equity and care.”

“Postdoctoral researchers and research associates at the University of Pennsylvania have voted to form a union. The roughly 1,500-person bargaining unit is just the latest to emerge from a wave of organizing efforts by multiple groups, comprising thousands of student workers, who have voted in favor of unionizing at Penn, Philadelphia’s largest employer.”

“Amid rising labor militancy over the past few years, one group of workers has gone under the radar: medical residents. Also known as resident physicians or housestaff, medical residents are doctors who have finished medical school and are working in hospitals as apprentices on the path to getting independently licensed. They are the patient-facing backbone of hospital operations, working extremely long hours under stressful conditions for mediocre pay.”

“On Jan. 7 of this year, six weeks after UAW officials announced that a majority of BlueOval SK workers had signed union cards, the workers filed for a union election with the National Labor Relations Board. At the NLRB, which administers labor law, the median wait between petition and election under the Biden administration was 31 days. But it was not until June 26, nearly six months after workers had requested an election and five months after Donald Trump took office, that the board even ordered BlueOval SK to hold one. An election date has not yet been set…The election delay began when BlueOval SK responded to workers’ election request by filing an NLRB complaint. The company argued that current workers represented too small a share of the eventual workforce at the plant to gain standing as a union.”

“Just a few months after unanimously voting to join the Transport Workers Union, aircraft fuelers at Orlando International Airport, employed by airline contractor PrimeFlight Aviation Services, have approved a new union contract that delivers a 15 percent wage increase and guaranteed paid time off. According to a union spokesperson, the vote to approve the agreement was unanimous…The TWU, representing roughly 155,000 workers across the country — including onboard attendants for the Brightline rail service — describes itself as the largest union on the property of the Orlando airport, representing flight attendants and maintenance workers for several airlines. According to the TWU, the new union contract with PrimeFlight will cover 72 fuelers who work at MCO, servicing flights for airlines such as Southwest, United, American and Spirit, among others.”

“The Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes Division (BMWED) has reached a tentative agreement with Union Pacific that includes significant wage increases, enhanced vacation accrual, improved health and welfare benefits, and key reforms to work rules. This deal, pending ratification, would extend to Dec. 31, 2029. Under the new agreement, which follows the national pattern, BMWED members will receive a compounded total of 18.5 percent in general wage increases over five years.”

“Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 700 members across Indiana voted on July 10 and 11 to reject a tentative agreement covering 8,000 Kroger retail workers. This is the second contract Kroger workers have rejected, after 74 percent voted down the first offer in May. Local 700 has not announced the vote percentage on the second tentative agreement.”

“A Harvard custodian withdrew a petition to decertify the union representing University custodians last week, saying he hopes to gauge the union’s response before moving further in a campaign to replace it…Rivera said he hoped to give the union more time to address the issues raised in the decertification petition, including a lack of communication and favoritism in worker treatment, but added that workers may still try to remove the union again before their contract expires on Nov. 15.”

“Open bargaining is when members are allowed to be present at negotiation sessions between their unions and employers. It means workers can be informed in real time on how bargaining is going, learn about the process itself, and weigh in and participate. It opens up dialogue with membership before a tentative agreement is reached and voted on, and gives members more opportunities to exercise their rights as workers and contribute to the mission of their union. There is no law limiting who can come to bargaining, although unions sometimes agree to ground rules with employers that could limit who is allowed in the room. Open bargaining can build an internal culture of union democracy, and frequently leads to stronger contracts.”

“In 2024, the AAUP, in partnership with the Center for the Study of Community Colleges, conducted an inaugural shared governance survey focused on community colleges, the institutions educating nearly 40 percent of all undergraduates in the United States. The survey instrument mirrored the one used for four-year institutions, examining faculty authority across twenty-six areas of institutional decision-making. (Three areas included in the 2021 survey instrument did not apply to community colleges.) Findings from this survey provide insights into areas of faculty authority and administrative collaboration in the nation’s public community colleges and allow for a more robust understanding of shared governance across American higher education.”