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Worker Rights

Setting The Pace In Auto: Thinking Bigger Than Tariffs

March 31, 2025 Andrew Elrod, Labor Notes. , , , , , ,
President Donald Trump’s infatuation with tariffs dates back to the 1980s, when he first said tariff was “the most beautiful word in the dictionary.” On March 26 he announced “a 25 percent tariff on all cars not made in the U.S.,” but exempted auto parts that comply with the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, the successor to NAFTA. For those parts, and for the 25 percent of U.S.-sold vehicles that are assembled in Mexico and Canada, the tariffs will be applied partially at an undisclosed date to only the non-U.S. part of the vehicle’s value. Essentially, auto manufacturing is already so integrated across North America that the administration has left carve-outs for Mexico and Canada.

Organizing To ‘Green’ Your Job: What Works?

March 30, 2025 Keith Brower Brown, Labor Notes. , , ,
Stewards often build fights around small issues, and they need to. But stewards also have a special charge to stay ahead of the boss—to think big about shifting power on the job, including by driving the move to green production. The union can fight smarter when it’s not just reacting to the boss’s plans—when members have talked over their own goals for making work different. The first task is to open up talk beyond the usual suspects. No matter the good intentions, passing resolutions and creating isolated green committees doesn’t flex much worker power.

Postal Workers Throng To 500 Rallies To Save The Postal Service

March 29, 2025 Alexandra Bradbury, Labor Notes. , , ,
From big cities to small towns, postal workers organized hundreds of rallies across the country in the past week to defend a beloved public service—and the nation’s largest union employer—against privatization and DOGE attack. “Whose Postal Service?” workers chanted in New York: “The people’s Postal Service.” “U.S. Mail Is Not for Sale” was the rallying cry March 20 at 250 rallies organized by the Postal Workers (APWU). “Fight Like Hell” was the theme March 23 for another 210 rallies led by the Letter Carriers (NALC). A hundred people came out to the NALC rally in St. Petersburg, Florida, covering all four corners of the busiest intersection in town, said Roger Ezra Butterfield, a recently minted steward in APWU.

Attacks On Public Workers Are An Attack On The Entire Working Class

March 23, 2025 Samuel Karlin and Julia Wallace, Left Voice. , , ,
Despite contradictions in the U.S. regime and emerging opposition, Elon Musk and Donald Trump are moving forward with their goal of gutting the federal workforce and attacking public sector unions. Both their method of carrying out the attacks and the impact so far have been an absolute shitshow, with many attacks quickly being halted by interventions from the courts, leading to changes by the day. It is clear though that the Trump administration and Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) are hellbent on gutting services that working communities rely on, destroying tens of thousands of jobs in the process.

AFGE Wins! Judge Orders Trump To Rehire Fired Probationary Employees

March 22, 2025 AFGE. , , , ,
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. This lawsuit was brought by AFGE and our allies. Another judge in Maryland also ordered the administration to temporarily halt its planned reductions in force (RIFs) at 18 agencies, including the Department of Education that announced it would fire half of its staff.

Columbia Student Workers Rally Against Expulsions And Arrests

March 16, 2025 Olivia Wood, Left Voice. , , , , , ,
It’s been an intense and infuriating couple of weeks at Columbia University. Students expelled. Visas revoked. $400 million in funding held hostage by the federal government. An escalation, when Mahmoud Khalil was told his green card was suspended before being arrested by government agents from the lobby of his apartment building in the middle of the night. And most recently, Thursday night, the announcement that 22 students and recent graduates had been suspended, expelled, or had their diplomas revoked. One of the expelled students is Grant Miner, the president of the Student Workers of Columbia.

Arizmendi: A Co-Op Of Co-Ops

March 15, 2025 Transition Bus, Grassroots Economic Organizing. , , , ,
I like everything all together. I like the fact that it's a cooperative. I like working with my hands and I like physical labor. Everybody's paid the same wage no matter how long you've been working at the Cheeseboard. Even though I'm one of the newest people there - I've only been there two years - I still have all of the rights, responsibilities and privileges as somebody who's been there for 30 or 40 years. Everybody is valued equally and we operate by consensus, but we all make decisions collectively. We're always trying to work together to make the decision work for everybody. So we reach unanimity on almost every decision.

Army Corps Workers Defend Parental Leave With Direct Action

March 14, 2025 Daniel Kim, Labor Notes. , , ,
The doctor recommended at least 18 weeks to recover from childbirth. But Jane (whose name was changed for this article) was entitled to only 12 paid weeks under the Federal Employee Paid Leave Act. So she put in a request with her employer, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, for advance sick leave to cover the other six weeks. But her request was denied; the Army Corps said her work was too important for her to be gone that long. Jane asked to discuss a solution. Management suggested filing a grievance and declined to discuss it any further, despite its contractual “open-door policy.”

REI Board Blocks Labor-Backed Candidates From Ballot

March 9, 2025 Nate Sanford, Cascade PBS. , , ,
Unionized REI employees are calling on members of the outdoor retail co-op to vote no in this year’s board of director elections after the company excluded two union-backed candidates from the ballot.  The two were Tefere Gebre, chief program officer at the international environmental advocacy group Greenpeace USA, and Shemona Moreno, a Seattle climate activist who leads the nonprofit 350 Seattle.  Anyone who has an active REI membership can vote in its board elections. Members can also nominate themselves to run for a board seat, but bylaw changes in the early 2000s gave the existing board final say over who gets on the ballot. 

Denver Transit Workers March For A Decent Contract

March 1, 2025 Salem Chadwick, Fight Back! News. , , , ,
Denver, CO – On February 25, members of the Amalgamated Transit Union local 1001 (ATU 1001) joined together at Denver’s Union Station to march on the Regional Transportation District headquarters demanding livable wages and a decent contract. Along the march, workers chanted, “Without transit workers, transit doesn't work!” and “Who moves this city? We move this city!” Rank-and-file ATU member Joseph Carriere states, “The 5, 4 ,4% pay scale doesn’t cover inflation, doesn’t cover cost of living, and is essentially a pay cut every year!”

Two Unions Strike The University Of California

February 28, 2025 Staff, Labor Notes. , , , ,
Picket lines formed across California Wednesday as 20,000 health care, research, and technical workers in UPTE (Communications Workers Local 9119) and 37,000 patient care workers in AFSCME Local 3299 walked out on short strikes across the University of California system. AFSCME will stay out for two days, UPTE for three. Both unions are charging that the university system is engaged in unfair labor practices. They have been working under an expired contract since October. The workers struck in November, too. Then, Labor Notes’ Barbara Madeloni wrote how the UPTE workers have been remaking their union to prepare for this contract fight

Deporting Immigrants And Denying Them Entry Will Hurt The US Economy

February 25, 2025 Abraham Marquez, Geopolitical Economy. , , , , ,
Donald Trump and his supporters base their anti-immigrant arguments on the assertion that immigrants have broken the law. Corporate media commentators reinforce this narrative, labeling undocumented immigrants as “illegal aliens” and “criminals”, while failing to mention that US immigration law can change, often quite dramatically, with each administration. Generally, immigration law evolves to meet the capitalist system’s demand for low-paid labor. Immigration and citizenship policies are not fixed standards for every individual. They have double standards rooted in racism, and have always served as a tool of institutional discrimination.

International Solidarity Is The Union Answer To Tariffs And Deportations

February 25, 2025 Jeffrey Hermanson, Labor Notes. , , , ,
United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain has recently expressed the UAW’s readiness to “work with Trump on trade.” Teamsters President Sean O’Brien spoke on a podcast against “illegal immigrants that come into our country to commit crimes and steal jobs.” But based on my experience, in the long run, international solidarity is the only way we can build working-class power. Demagogues like Trump have often exploited the protectionist and anti-immigrant sentiments that have been widespread in American labor for generations. A working class that is divided, both within the U.S. and across North America, is easier to exploit. Corporations have greatly profited from our divisions over the three decades since NAFTA was enacted.

A Federal Worker Speaks Out: ‘Many Jobs And Services Will Disappear’

February 24, 2025 Margaret Flowers, Clearing the FOG. , , , , ,
In the first month of the new Trump administration, there has been a widespread assault on federal workers led by billionaire Elon Musk and his new 'agency' called DOGE. Thousands of federal workers have lost their jobs, funding for government programs has been suspended and technocrats under Musk have entered agencies and demanded access to privileged data. Clearing the FOG speaks with a current federal worker, John, who is being kept anonymous for protection, about what is happening within federal agencies, the legality of the attacks and how workers are organizing and fighting back. John warns that most federal workers are going to be fired and services are going to be cut without a plan for protecting and serving the public. 

For Workers, There’s Nowhere To Go

February 22, 2025 Gabriel Thompson, Scheer Post. , , ,
When Connor Hovey began talking to his co-workers at Trader Joe’s in Louisville about forming a union, he knew it wouldn’t be easy. What he didn’t expect was that the campaign would transform from a marathon into a race without a finish line. Two years after Hovey and his co-workers won a union election in Louisville, their fight for union representation remains in limbo. The grocery chain with a progressive reputation filed six objections with the National Labor Relations Board after workers voted 48 to 36 to join Trader Joe’s United, an independent union.
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