The Weekly Download

“In the seventh blogcast of Power At Work’s series “What Could Happen Under Trump?”, Burnes Center for Social Change Senior Fellow Seth Harris is joined by Ambassador Katherine Tai, the 19th U.S. trade representative, to make sense of President Trump's trade policies and their implications on workers. Ambassador Tai was the architect of the 'worker-centered trade policy' during her tenure under President Biden –– Watch now to hear her analysis on the current 'America First trade policy,' the tariffs being placed by the Trump administration, and what it means to have a worker-centered trade policy.”

“The Department of Homeland Security announced March 7 that it was cancelling the union contract for 47,000 workers at the Transportation Security Administration. The American Federation of Government Employees signed its contract with TSA in May 2024, and it wasn’t set to expire until 2031. DHS also stopped deducting union dues, and ordered all union officers to immediately return to their TSO duties. Workers voted in the union in 2011.”

“President Donald Trump has revoked an executive order from his predecessor that increased the minimum wage for federal contractors, a move that could end up stripping low-wage workers of a pay raise. In an order issued Friday, Trump said he was rescinding more than a dozen policies implemented by former President Joe Biden. Several of the Biden-era reforms were aimed at improving workplace conditions, including one that set a wage floor of $17.75 per hour this year for labor performed for the federal government.”

“A federal court judge has reversed President Donald Trump’s abrupt firing of National Labor Relations Board chair Gwynne Wilcox and ordered that she be immediately reinstated with a scathing ruling that said ‘an American president is not a king.’ Trump has already appealed the ruling, which likely is just the beginning of what is sure to be a long, drawn out battle. In her ruling, Judge Beryl A. Howell said the framers of the Constitution ‘made clear that no one in our system of government was meant to be king — the President included — and not just in name only.’”

“Organizing in the South has always been challenging, and Florida’s latest union-busting legislation has only made it harder. Public sector unions had successfully fought off these attacks for years, but the tide turned in May 2023. The new law imposed severe restrictions: requiring public sector unions to maintain 60 percent membership, banning payroll dues deductions, and mandating a cumbersome four-page membership form. Notably, police, fire, and corrections unions were exempt.”

“The New York Legislature is set to make another attempt to ban non-competes for all but highly compensated individuals. At the end of the 2023 legislative session, the New York Legislature passed a bill that would have banned non-compete agreements for all employees regardless of wage or income level. Governor Kathy Hochul vetoed this bill while expressing her support for a more limited ban stating that she wanted to ‘strike a balance’ between protecting middle-class and low-wage workers and ‘allowing New York’s businesses to retain highly compensated talent.’ On February 10, 2025, New York State Senator Sean Ryan introduced a new bill (S4641) that would ban non-compete agreements that responds to some of Gov. Hochul’s criticisms of the previous bill.”

“Teamsters proudly endorse California Assembly Bill 33, a bill that would require a trained human operator in any autonomous vehicle used to deliver commercial goods directly to residences or businesses. The legislation, introduced by Assembly Majority Leader Cecilia Aguiar-Curry, comes on the heels of a new poll that shows California voters overwhelmingly support efforts to regulate driverless cars and trucks as well as artificial intelligence.”

“In a major victory for AFGE, allies, and federal workers, a judge in California ordered the Trump administration to reinstate probationary employees fired at six agencies, saying the firing “is based on a lie” and that the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) didn’t have the authority to order it. The administration's request for an emergency administrative stay has also been denied by the 9th Circuit.”

“The University expelled Grant Miner, president of the Student Workers of Columbia-United Auto Workers, UAW announced in a Thursday news release. Miner is a Ph.D. student in the department of English and comparative literature. [...] Earlier on Thursday, Columbia announced that the University Judicial Board had decided the disciplinary cases of students who participated in the April 2024 occupation of Hamilton Hall. Columbia University Apartheid Divest wrote in a Thursday Instagram post that the University had disciplined 22 students with expulsions, suspensions, or degree revocations for their alleged involvement in pro-Palestinian protests.”

“Federal workers in Philadelphia faced layoffs last month, and now as a government shutdown looms, some face the reality of having to work through it. If the shutdown comes to fruition, it would represent ‘fear, anxiety and insult to injury’ for some Philadelphia Internal Revenue Service workers, deemed ‘essential’ federal employees, who would be required to continue to work without pay, said Alex Jay Berman, who represents IRS workers in the city. ‘If the shutdown drags on, how do you keep coming into work? Where’s the money for the gas coming from? How are you coming into work when you might not have the copay for your doctor if you’re getting ill?,’ asked Berman, the executive vice president of the National Treasury Employees Union Chapter 71.”

“The next time you’re due for a medical exam you may get a call from someone like Ana: a friendly voice that can help you prepare for your appointment and answer any pressing questions you might have. With her calm, warm demeanor, Ana has been trained to put patients at ease — like many nurses across the U.S. But unlike them, she is also available to chat 24-7, in multiple languages, from Hindi to Haitian Creole. That’s because Ana isn’t human, but an artificial intelligence program created by Hippocratic AI, one of a number of new companies offering ways to automate time-consuming tasks usually performed by nurses and medical assistants.”

“Amid widespread frustrations with U.S. President Donald Trump's attacks on working people, including his pursuit of an economic agenda ‘of, by, and for billionaires,’ the Republican is reportedly considering yet another betrayal: installing a partner at ‘a go-to union-busting law firm’ as the next general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board. That's according to David Dayen, executive editor of The American Prospect. Shortly after taking office in January, Trump fired NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo—and Democratic board member Gwynne Wilcox, who is fighting her ouster in court. Dayen exclusively reported Monday that Trump plans to replace Abruzzo with Crystal Carey from ‘the notorious anti-union law firm Morgan Lewis.’ Carey is ‘a former NLRB attorney with experience on both the general counsel and board sides of the agency,’ according to her biography on the firm's website. Now, ‘she represents employers’ across a wide range of industries for collective bargaining, labor law counseling, and NLRB investigations and litigation.”

“Labor unions representing federal workers are facing another challenge to collective bargaining rights – and even their very existence – in a newly introduced Republican bill meant to prevent American taxpayer dollars from subsidizing union costs. The Federal Workforce Freedom Act would prohibit federal employees from organizing or joining labor unions in order to collectively bargain, as well as forbid federal agencies from participating in collective bargaining negotiations with labor unions representing federal workers. The bill, introduced Thursday, would also terminate any and all collective bargaining agreements between labor unions and federal agencies ‘established before, on, or after the date of enactment of this bill.’”

“This past fall semester, Matthew Williams worked with national organizer Gisselle Cervantes to help students start a chapter of Students for International Labor Solidarity (SILS) at Loyola University Chicago, where he was a faculty member. Together, they reached out to students to invite them to the first meeting where he explained the causes of sweatshops in the global economy and what student activists can do about it. Gisselle discussed one of SILS’ ongoing campaigns: holding Nike accountable for wage theft at Hong Seng Knitting, one of their contract factories in Thailand.”

“Now legal for recreational use in 24 states, the cannabis industry has become a major economic force in the United States, employing over 400,000 people. While cannabis is still unlawful under federal law, state-level legalization has made cannabis less of a black market, as run-of-the-mill health codes, employment laws, and other regulations now apply to cannabis businesses. So does the National Labor Relations Act. While some cannabis workers (i.e. those who grow and harvest the plant) are agricultural employees outside the NLRA’s purview, many others who work in dispensaries and processing facilities are subject to federal labor law, as Michelle outlined here. In recent years, unions including the United Food and Commercial Workers and the Teamsters have organized cannabis workers, now representing tens of thousands of them.”

“The world has radically changed over the past four-plus decades. Unions haven’t. Or at least they haven’t changed nearly enough to match what they’re up against. In this context, unionizing Amazon — iconic in status and fanatically anti-union — stands as a definitive challenge for this generation of trade unionists. The catch-22 is that while unionizing Amazon holds out the promise of renewing labor, bringing Amazon to heel demands an already-revived labor movement in place. The only way around this lies in moving to transform labor through the process of unionizing Amazon. With the first strike of Amazon [...] now behind us, it seems especially important to have the widest discussions about its outcome and relationship to reviving labor. What went right in the strike? What went wrong? What might we collectively learn and incorporate for ‘next time’?”

“The Communications Workers of America union is stepping up its organizing efforts in video games following thousands of job losses in the industry. The union has formed the United Videogame Workers-CWA Local 9433, officials announced Wednesday at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. The goal is to “build worker power irrespective of studio and current job status,” the UVW-CWA said in a statement.”

“Union workers in Toledo have joined their Fort Wayne counterparts in going on strike against Coca-Cola, after the union said negotiations with the company failed. Teamsters Local 414 at the Coca-Cola facility in Fort Wayne, Indiana, went on strike recently after they said the company proposed increasing health insurance costs, but refused to provide workers with information pertaining to the increased cost.”

“US Postal Service workers and advocates are holding a day of action today in more than 150 cities as they brace for the Trump administration to launch an ‘illegal hostile takeover’ which they warn will slash jobs, boost prices and shut down post offices. Donald Trump’s officials are weighing plans to transfer the USPS to the Department of Commerce, stripping it of its independence. The president and his allies have also signaled they are willing to privatize the service…Cities where actions are being held include Atlanta, Buffalo, Cincinnati, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Nashville, New York, Orlando, Philadelphia, Seattle and Washington DC. A flyer in support of the day of action notes privatization would result in higher prices and eliminated services, especially for rural areas that rely on the USPS.”

“Budtenders and shift leaders at Ascend in Aberdeen, Md., have ratified their first collective bargaining agreement, making them the first cannabis workers in the state to be covered by a Teamsters contract...Teamsters already have a strong track record of securing strong contracts for Ascend workers in Illinois and Michigan. The new collective bargaining agreement guarantees the workers increases in wages, job security, paid time off, and safety improvements.”

“The American Federation of Government Employees filed the legal challenge in the U.S. District Court for Western Washington against Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Adam Stahl, a senior official performing the duties of the Transportation Security administrator. At issue is TSA and DHS’ announcement last week that management would strip TSA workers of their collective bargaining rights and unilaterally repudiate the union contract signed just last May.”

“Monica Duque never knows how many hours she is going to get in a given week. She works at the Jerry’s Cub Foods on East Lake Street at the front of the store, helping customers, overseeing cashiering, and running online shopping. She finds out her hours, she explains, ‘when the schedule is posted on Friday, for the week after next.’ [...] Duque is one of around 9,000 Minnesota grocery workers whose union contracts with 14 different companies expired in early March. Of these workers, the vast majority are engaged in coordinated bargaining with seven employers: Haug’s Cub Foods, Jerry’s Cub Foods/Jerry’s Foods, Kowalski’s Markets, Radermacher’s Cub Foods, Lunds & Byerlys, Knowlan’s Festival Foods, and UNFI Cub Foods.”

“Registered nurses who held a 24-hour strike at San Joaquin General Hospital have ratified a new three-year contract, bringing the labor dispute to an end. The California Nurses Association and National Nurses United said registered nurses for San Joaquin County’s health system voted overwhelmingly in favor of ratifying the contract on Tuesday, winning protections to improve patient safety and nurse retention. The union said the settlement and ratification came after nurses issued notice to the county for a three-day unfair labor practice strike, which was set to begin on March 9. Nurses also held a one-day unfair labor practice strike on Jan. 17.”

“In a landmark victory for worker safety, a coalition of labor activists has secured a major commitment from a developer to implement stringent heat protections for construction workers on its $3 billion redevelopment project. The achievement, resulting from relentless advocacy efforts, sets a new precedent for responsible development amid rising temperatures. The 63-acre mixed-use project in the Little River and Little Haiti neighborhoods, spearheaded by Swerdlow Group Holdings, was reviewed by the Miami-Dade Housing Committee on March 11 during a meeting to negotiate a development agreement with the group. Residents and activists with the Build a Better Miami Coalition and nonprofit WeCount! mobilized to demand a fairer deal amid growing concerns over affordability and worker rights. In a breakthrough move, Swerdlow Group agreed to voluntarily implement a comprehensive heat safety program, making it the first developer to take such action since the passage of HB 433, a state law that prohibits local governments from mandating heat protections for workers.”

“The new documentary American Agitators looks at the life and legacy of Fred Ross Sr., one of the most influential community and labor organizers of the 20th century. Ross, who died in 1992, was active during some of the most sweeping and consequential periods of California history, from the Dust Bowl migration to the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II, before mentoring a generation of Mexican American leaders that included Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta. Capital & Main recently spoke with award-winning director Ray Telles about the making of the film and what lessons Ross’ life can offer budding organizers today. The film premieres in San Jose, California, on March 16 at the Cinequest Film & Creativity Festival.”