The Weekly Download

“Underlying these anti-unionization tactics lies a telling question for Catholic leaders: are we prioritizing Catholic law or statutory law, and why? For worker organizers, there is a different central question: how do workers and their unions engage Catholic history, philosophy, and doctrine to win better contracts that serve not only workers but their respective communities?”

“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.”

“Episode #6 of the Power Half-Hour has arrived! The Power Half-Hour is a livestreamed, fast-paced, bi-weekly roundtable with a rotating group of regular guests. Our guests discuss the biggest labor story of the preceding week and the labor story everyone should be talking about over the next two weeks.”

“In the first year of President Donald Trump’s second term, as rural hospitals and abortion clinics close, ICE raids escalate, and federal worker protections get gutted by executive order, many liberal institutions are still trying to figure out how to fight back. But one movement isn’t flailing. It’s filing.”

“Two unions — the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers, and the Transport Workers Union of America — have announced their opposition to the Union Pacific-Norfolk Southern merger proposed today by the two railroads.”

“This past week, Judge Alan Albright – appointed by President Trump – handed down a powerful rebuke to the White House’s aggressive campaign against federal workers. He dismissed a lawsuit filed by eight agencies that attempted to invalidate collective bargaining agreements covering AFGE members and other union-represented federal employees. ” 

“Donald Trump’s crackdown on immigration is piling pressure on US factories, according to employees and union leaders, as veteran workers from overseas are forced to leave their jobs. As economists warn the administration’s full-scale deportation ambitions could ultimately cost millions of jobs, workers at two sites – in Michigan and Kentucky – told the Guardian that industrial giants are grappling with labor shortages. The US president has moved to strip more than a million immigrants of their legal status in the US, including by shutting down the Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, Venezuelans (CHNV) Parole Program, which allowed hundreds of thousands to work legally in the country. It has meanwhile ramped up immigration arrest operations with prospective daily quotas of 3,000 arrests per day.”

“This July 24, 2025 memorandum from Acting General Counsel William B. Cowen provides updated guidance for NLRB Regional Offices investigating "salting" cases - situations where union members apply for jobs at non-unionized workplaces with the intent to organize employees. The memo supersedes previous guidance and establishes new case processing procedures.”

“Colorado is suing the pet care retailer PetSmart for allegedly ‘trapping’ dog groomers in their jobs by having them sign contracts in which they agreed to pay thousands of dollars in training costs if they quit too soon. The state’s Democratic attorney general, Phil Weiser…argues the practice violates Colorado’s consumer protection law and has asked the court to bar PetSmart from collecting any training fees from groomers…HuffPost detailed PetSmart’s use of the contracts in a 2022 story about a dog groomer who was on the hook for thousands of dollars after quitting her $15-per-hour job before the 24 months outlined in her contract. PetSmart said she owed $5,000 for the cost of its grooming academy and another $500 for the cost of the tools she was given.”

“Effective October 1, 2025, updated regulations from the California Civil Rights Council will formally restrict the use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools in employment decision-making by California employers. In the employment context, these tools can be applied in a litany of ways to manage the workforce, including to screen resumes, make predictions about an applicant or employee, measure an applicant or employee’s skills or abilities, direct job advertisements and recruiting materials to targeted groups, and screen, evaluate, and/or recommend applications or employees.”

“Early career researchers at the University of Pennsylvania voted by a large margin in mid-July to unionize. Organizers say they are pushing for better salaries, job security and more protections for international scholars, especially under the current political climate with the second Trump administration’s threats to science funding and visiting researchers.”

“Workers in Norfolk become the second botanical garden in the state to unionize in as many years. Norfolk Botanical Garden workers have voted to unionize, with nearly two-thirds of them supporting the formation of the union…The workers will join the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, or IAM Union. The National Labor Relations Board will certify the results later this month.”

“American professionals are right to be anxious about the security of their jobs amid a dim economic outlook as economists are reporting a high likelihood of a recession within the next year. Layoff anxiety is real and fueled by more and more companies announcing staff cuts. This month, Glassdoor, Indeed, and Intel joined the growing list of companies laying off staff this year. Corporate leadership is further adding to professionals' worries by citing a greater investment in artificial intelligence (AI) as the basis for layoffs. Professionals face a critical choice: to be passive recipients of change or to actively shape our future. We are not powerless and should not be left to shoulder the burden resulting from a changing, unstable economy. By joining together in union with our coworkers we can assert some measure of control and predictability over our work lives.”

“Jeff Sellers said Tuesday morning union leaders helped gain regulatory approval for a 144-megawatt, solar-powered electric generating facility in northern Morrow County. Now workers in those same unions, including two based in Mansfield, have been denied the opportunity to fill what they believe are around 350 construction jobs as the $100 million Blossom Solar Project is built by Sol Systems.”

“Meatpacking workers in Austin, Minn., filed a class-action lawsuit against Hormel Foods on Wednesday for allegedly failing to provide them paid leave benefits required by state law. United Food and Commercial Workers Local 663 union represents over 1,600 meatpacking workers at Hormel Foods. The class-action lawsuit claims the corporation failed and refused to provide union members with paid leave benefits under Minnesota’s Earned Sick and Safe Time laws.”

“As educators fend off attacks at the federal and state level, they’re also seeing some local wins. From striking for more recess to demanding more nurses and support personnel, teachers across the country have successfully organized for policies that improve children’s school day. In May, members of the Coquille Educators Association in Oregon challenged the district on a critical decision and won. And they did it in a way that built unity between the union and their small community.”

“It’s been 550 days and counting spent at the negotiating table, but the Maryland chapter of the American Federation of Teachers says they've yet to reach an agreement with Howard Community College, affecting its 150 faculty members.”

“Workers at the UC San Francisco Medical Center went on strike Friday to protest its recent layoffs, which included some frontline workers. The strike included service and patient care workers who believe UCSF Health has ‘wrong financial priorities’ that will worsen an already severely understaffed frontline workforce, said the union that represents the workers, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299, in a news release Friday. ”

“The future is unclear for concession workers at Fenway Park, after they hit the picket line during the Red Sox’s weekend series against the Los Angeles Dodgers. According to UNITE HERE Local 26, the strike ended Sunday night at 11. The next home game for the Red Sox is not until Friday, so concession workers are expected to go back to their jobs this week.”

“In front of IBEW Local Union 369 in 90 degree weather on July 26, workers fanned themselves, shaded their heads with shirts and draped cold towels around their necks, all of which claimed: ‘It’s Better in a Union,’ as two BlueOval SK employees spoke about what they’ve been experiencing at the Hardin County-based battery park.”

“Sixteen members of Laborers Local 110 remain on strike at Central Stone Company over wages. Members picketing at the company’s Jefferson Barracks location at 5000 Bussen Road were joined on the strike line Monday, July 28, by St. Louis Labor Council President Pat Kellett, Missouri State Senator Doug Beck, president of the Missouri State Building & Construction Trades Council, and representatives from Plumbers & Pipefitters Local 562, IBEW Local 1 and Sheet Metal Workers Local 36.”

“The union representing nearly 200 House food service workers has filed lawsuits against two vendors set to open for business this summer on the Capitol campus. The suits were brought earlier this month in D.C. Superior Court and come amid a larger pressure campaign from the union, including a boycott they hope will gather support from members of Congress and staff. They allege FCW Investments LLC, which will run a Jimmy John’s in the Rayburn Building, and Elite Management Group, which will operate a Starbucks out of the former Dunkin’ in the Longworth Building, are failing to comply with a local law that protects some workers from displacement when contracts change hands.”

“When hospice nurse Kristina Nauheimer joined the growing unionization push among end-of-life care workers in 2022, she knew there was a fight ahead. But she and her coworkers at two Bay Area hospices in California didn’t expect to be at the negotiating table with Providence, their hospice operator, for more than two years — or that their employer would merge with a private-equity-owned firm. ‘I didn’t think it would take this long to achieve this little,’ said Nauheimer, who joined about 100 workers from the company’s Hospice of Petaluma and Santa Rosa Memorial Hospice in a two-day strike with their union, the National Union of Healthcare Workers, on July 2 and 3. They struck, said Nauheimer, because contract negotiations with Providence, their operator, have been at a standstill.”

“Nurses at a Baltimore hospital that treats low-income patients launched a one-day strike Thursday against the company that operates it — a dramatic move they believe can pressure the hospital into addressing years-long frustrations over unsafe staffing levels, high nurse turnover, and inadequate patient care. The strike at Ascension Saint Agnes Hospital comes during contentious, 18-month-long negotiations between Missouri-based Ascension Health and the national union that represents the nurses. This is the first time caregivers in Baltimore have walked off the job. The nurses say poor working conditions at the hospital put them under unnecessary stress and endangers the hospital’s patients — a disproportionate number of whom are Black.”

“After months of tense negotiations, the Teachers Association of Baltimore County members voted to ratify the agreement with Baltimore County Public Schools. The union announced through a news release that its members voted in favor of the tentative agreement on Tuesday. The agreement was reached after two days of mediation earlier in July and the members were able to vote on it from July 25-29.”

“Boeing Co. expects more than 3,200 union workers at three St. Louis-area plants that produce U.S. fighter jets to strike after they rejected a proposed contract Sunday that included a 20% wage increase over four years. The International Machinists and Aerospace Workers union said the vote by District 837 members was overwhelmingly against the proposed contract. The existing contract was to expire at 11:59 p.m. Central time Sunday, but the union said a ‘cooling off’ period would keep a strike from beginning for another week, until Aug. 4.”

“Journalists at The Hill, represented by the Washington-Baltimore NewsGuild, have voted 46-1 to ratify their first collective bargaining agreement with Nexstar Media Group, Inc., securing increases in pay, vacation time and family leave. The agreement is the culmination of nearly three years of negotiations and organizing, despite union-busting tactics from Nexstar management. The Hill voted overwhelmingly to unionize in May 2022, less than a year after Nexstar acquired it, and began negotiating its first-ever contract that September.”

“Flight attendants at United Airlines voted on Tuesday to reject the tentative agreement for a new contract with the carrier, their union said. The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, which represents 28,000 of United's flight attendants, said 92% of the eligible voters cast a ballot, with 71% voting not to ratify the agreement. The agreement, which the union and United had reached in May, was estimated to result in a financial gain of 40% for the flight attendants in the first year of the new contract.”

“Nearly three weeks after Butler Hospital management issued what it called its ‘last, best and final’ contract proposal, the union representing striking workers has ‘overwhelmingly’ rejected the offer. The New England Health Care Employees Union (SEIU 1199NE) announced Wednesday that 98% of members voted against the July 11 offer, amid what is now the longest hospital strike in Rhode Island history.”

“The University of California-Berkeley’s Labor Center has announced a new data tool to help labor union negotiators, researchers, media, and policymakers better understand the state of play of union negotiations around the digital economy. The searchable inventory, developed by researcher Lisa Kresege, offers insights into how labor unions are responding to responding to AI, electronic monitoring and surveillance, and other emerging technologies.”

“Full remarks from AFT President Randi Weingarten's address to the TEACH conference. Weingarten lays out a bold, actionable blueprint to strengthen public education for every student in every community. She champions strategies that work—like community schools, project-based learning, CTE and literacy—while calling out the political forces trying to dismantle our schools and our democracy.”