The Weekly Download

“In this very special blogcast, Burnes Center for Social Change Senior Fellow Seth Harris is joined by Governor Tim Walz, the two-term governor of Minnesota and the 2024 Democratic nominee for Vice-President of the United States. Watch now to learn more about the state of worker power in America, the relationship between the Democratic Party and working-class voters after the re-election of Donald Trump, some of Gov. Walz’s pro-worker accomplishments during his seven years as Minnesota’s governor, and about the elections of 2026 and 2028.”

“On July 23, United States President Donald Trump revealed his administration’s plan for AI. In contrast to the years of doom and gloom about how robots will take all the jobs, the plan promises to center American workers. Alongside proposals to export the US AI stack and roll back regulations on energy and data center infrastructure, it highlights new apprenticeships, AI‑literacy initiatives, and retraining for workers. The race to advanced AI would mean, as Trump promised in a summit on AI and energy in Pennsylvania last month, ‘lots of jobs.’”

“Graduate student workers have organized in record numbers over the past decade. At universities from coast to coast, these workers have won union recognition and successfully negotiated collective bargaining agreements that have secured better pay, benefits, and workplace protections. But a case filed with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) could put much of that progress in jeopardy.”

“As the country pauses on Labor Day to honor the contributions of workers and the labor movement, the government watchdog that is responsible for protecting working people’s rights is facing a crisis. Both President Trump and his powerful corporate allies are waging war against this small, independent agency, threatening its ability to serve the public and undermining the power and voice of working people across the country.”

“Labor Day is the federal holiday meant to honor and celebrate workers. But this year, the Trump Labor Department is once again making clear they just don’t care about workers. In July, the Trump Labor Department proposed more than 60 rollbacks to rules that protect and promote pay, safety, and job opportunities. Workers have until the day after Labor Day to provide feedback on these potential rollbacks, but the agency isn’t giving workers and their advocates enough time or information to fully weigh in. The Trump Labor Department is already ignoring a rule they want to roll back, a clear indication that they don’t care what workers think anyway.”

“In countries across the capitalist world, trade union movements are being challenged to their very core by the growth of right-wing populist and neofascist mass movements. What makes this situation especially dangerous is that labor unions and supporters are facing not just maniacal leaders or even military juntas, but a strengthening political alignment between segments of the capitalist class and these same right-wing social movements. The post-Cold War rise of right-wing populism overlapped with, but had different roots than, neoliberal authoritarianism which, over the second half of the 20th century, curtailed the growth for left and progressive politics, while the ability to protest became increasingly limited. During this period, capitalist states reduced their role in any degree of wealth redistribution and enhanced their repressive apparatuses.”

“The conversation about AI and workers is often centered on which human jobs might be “replaced by robots,” rather than what working humans want from AI tools. Researchers at the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI, led by Yijia Shao, asked about 1,500 workers what they want from the technology. The survey found that while some workers find AI useful for repetitive work, other respondents wanted more — sometimes, more than the technology is capable of, according to research co-author and Stanford economist Erik Brynjolfsson. Marketplace’s Meghan Mccarty Carino spoke with Brynjolfsson about the disconnect between what workers want and what workplace AI software is actually doing for them.”

“Teachers measure time in school years, not calendar years. As the new school year begins, I’ve been reflecting on my experiences from last year as an unexpected candidate for president of the 200,000-member United Federation of Teachers in New York City. When last school year started, I was focused on teaching my students, supporting colleagues, and coaching middle school soccer. Running for the highest office in the largest local union in the country was not on my radar. I didn’t see myself as a potential presidential candidate, but fellow organizers within the UFT reform movement did.”

“At Mountain Cement Company in Laramie, Wyoming, where two massive rotary kilns fire day and night, workers have won a hard fight for union representation that will echo across Wyoming’s labor movement for years to come. With a 63% vote, the entire 110-person workforce including quarry crews and truck drivers to operators, lab technicians, mechanics, electricians and shipping staff, chose to stand together and vote to unionize. The only job classification excluded was the security guard at the front gate.”

“California labor unions held their ground on membership last year, representing about one in six workers across the state, even as the ranks of organized workers continued to decline in the nation as a whole, according to a new report from two University of California labor centers. Labor organizations in the Golden State likely have seen greater stability because of the pro-union political leadership here and the creativity and energy of organizers, said Toby Higbie, director of the UCLA Institute for Research on Labor and Employment. However, this year’s report, ‘State of the Unions: California Labor in 2024’ , arrives in the shadow of escalating federal immigration enforcement and a GOP attempt to strip hundreds of thousands of federal workers of their union memberships. These developments could reshape the state’s workforce and its economy in ways not seen since the Great Recession or the COVID-19 pandemic, making it crucial to weigh data that may not be available by the end of this year, Higbie said.”

“America did not get to the bad place it is in today by accident. We are here as a result of the combination of a political system that serves money, and a half-century long explosion of economic inequality that has produced an oligarchy…Climbing out of the hole that we are in will require more than one or two favorable election cycles. It will require shifting that underlying balance of power away from the oligarchs and their allies, and back towards the rest of us. Power that has accumulated among the rich and ultra-rich will have to be wrested back into the hands of the working class majority…Unfortunately, organized labor today is under an assault that is worse than anything we have seen since the WW2 era. At the very time that it is most vital for working people and unions to rise to the defense of democracy, they are crippled by three related crises.”

“Just a few months before being appointed to city council in the Florida Keys’ tiniest city, former Michigander Jared Rodriguez had a different kind of job up in New Jersey. It lasted just one month and earned him a pretty penny — much more than his unpaid job leading Layton, a city on the island of Long Key with a population of just over 200 people. Federal records show Rodriguez, a longtime anti-union advocate in Michigan state politics, was hired last November as a ‘union avoidance’ consultant for Amazon. A federally mandated report, filed with the U.S. Department of Labor, lists Layton city council member Rodriguez as a contractor who was hired at a rate of $2,100 per day to ‘identify and assess work-related issues, problems, and concerns’ of warehouse workers at an Amazon facility in Rutherford, New Jersey.”

“If it were up to Mauser Packaging Solutions management, there would be nothing in its contract with the union to stop federal immigration authorities from walking into the company’s Chicago plant whenever they want, maintenance mechanic Arturo Landa tells me as we sit under a navy blue tent with ‘Teamsters Local 705’ printed on the canopy.”

“About 12,000 members of UFCW Locals 135, 324, 770, 1167 and 1428 who work at Stater Bros. Markets stores across Southern California voted to ratify a new contract on August 15. This contract, which was reached after months of negotiations and active participation from thousands of Stater Bros. members, marks a major milestone for the Grocery Workers Rising campaign, a coordinated effort among the locals to improve standards across the retail food industry.”

“Nearly 300 Los Angeles city employees were saved from being laid off after two major unions signed off on cost-cutting measures. The Los Angeles Police Protective League, which represents more than 8,700 rank-and-file officers, agreed to create a voluntary program in which its members can take days off in exchange for some of the overtime hours they previously worked. The layoffs would have affected 222 civilian LAPD employees, such as clerks and administrative support workers. No sworn LAPD officers were slated to be laid off, but some would have had to do the work of the civilians who departed.”

“Boeing and officials of the striking machinists union are slated to resume contract negotiations on Monday, the company and union confirmed Friday. Roughly 3,200 members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) went on strike at Boeing Defense's St. Louis-area facilities on August 4 after rejecting the company's four-year contract offer. They assemble Boeing's F-15 and F/A-18 fighters, the T-7 trainer jet, munitions, and wing sections for the company's commercial 777X jet.”