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In the News
Longtime Union Leader Prepares to Step Back From a Movement Under Threat
July 30, 2026 // Rebecca Davis O’Brien for New York Times
Mr. Saunders had to reckon with another internal division after George Floyd’s murder, when a subset of members called for law enforcement groups to be banished from the union. The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees is a liberal union, but its political composition can be quite diverse: Its 1.4 million dues-paying members across the country include nurses in Michigan, transportation workers in New York and corrections officers in New Mexico, along with domestic workers, clerks, cops and librarians. Mr. Saunders thought it would be a mistake to push out the police.
Second public defender union goes on strike
July 29, 2026 // Noah Powelson for Queens Eagle
The union said that during its most recent bargaining session, NDS management offered a one percent COLA and did not include no-cost healthcare over the term of the proposed three-year contract. NDS also has offices based in Texas and Michigan, where union members staged picket lines on Friday. The union was joined on their first day of striking by Democratic congressional candidate Darializa Avila Chevalier, who previously worked at NDS Harlem as an investigator before winning the Democratic primary for New York's 13th congressional district in June.
Labor Board to Prosecute UFCW Union for Illegal Strike Fine Against Oregon Fred Meyer Grocery Worker Who Resigned
July 29, 2026 // author for National Right To Work Foundation
On appeal, NLRB General Counsel finds UFCW union bosses violated the law by fining worker nearly $1,000 for supposedly working one hour during strike
ACC union? Stanford players working to lay the groundwork for college sports’ next labor fight
July 29, 2026 // Richard Johnson for CBS Sports
Jason Stahl, the founder of the College Football Players Association, has worked with Cooper and Anderson for more than a year after a former Stanford team employee connected them. The players spent time getting to know Stahl and evaluating his intentions before deciding he was the right person to bring to the team. Stahl has worked to organize players at multiple schools over the years, often quietly. In 2021, he was secretly brought into Penn State's team facility to speak with a group of Nittany Lions before a team employee accidentally walked in, exposing the meeting. Days later, ahead of that year's Big Ten Media Days, an independent news outlet incorrectly reported that Penn State players were unionizing.
$3.85 Million Settlement Of Case Against Labor Unions For Improper Receipt Of Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP”) Loans
July 29, 2026 // author for U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of New York
United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Jay Clayton, announced today that International Union of Journeymen and Allied Trades (“IUJAT”), United Service Workers Union, IUJAT National Union (“USWU”), Home Healthcare Workers of America, IUJAT (“HHWA”), Service Professionals Union Local 726 IUJAT (“LOCAL 726”), and United Welfare Fund - Welfare Division (“UWF”) (collectively, the “Defendants”) agreed to pay $3,850,000 to resolve allegations that they violated the False Claims Act by falsely certifying that they were eligible for Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP”) loans.
Op-ed: Republicans should stop helping Democrats empower union bosses
July 29, 2026 // Tom Jones for Washington Times
Policies built on employee choice, such as right-to-work protections, reflect what American workers actually want. The partisan legislation now moving through Congress reflects only what union leadership wants. Pro-worker legislation is not synonymous with pro-union legislation; in fact, they often are opposites. It is time for Congress to wake up and realize this.
Help Us Equip the Next Generation of Labor Policy Leaders: Future of Work Fellowship
July 28, 2026 // Author for Institute for the American Worker
Institute for the American Worker is excited to expand its successful Future of Work Fellowship program by doubling the number of openings available to young policy professionals this fall. We will accept 20 fellows to join our professional development program, which takes place from Sept. 8 - Nov. 14 and is designed to cultivate the next generation of labor policy leaders.
Idaho Teamsters Face Federal Prosecution for Illegal Threats, Fines Targeting UPS Employee Post-Membership Resignation
July 28, 2026 // author for National Right To Work Foundation
Teamsters Local 983 falsely told worker that informing coworkers how to resign was a “federal crime,” then fined him for exercising his federally protected rights
County workers vote to authorize strike amid contract negotiations
July 28, 2026 // author for Bay City News Service
The vote to authorize a strike comes one year after several strikes in multiple Bay Area municipalities in July 2025. On July 8, 2025, workers started a strike amid contract negotiations between the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and Republic Services, the second-largest waste management company in the country. In west Contra Costa County, Republic Services ran limited trash collection routes before eventually returning to regular scheduled service.
Teachers union uses felons to attack school choice in Arizona
July 28, 2026 // Jason Bedrick for Washington Examiner
The Goldwater Institute’s complaint meticulously challenges the validity of more than half of the union-backed initiative’s signatures. If their challenges succeed, the union could be left with fewer than 200,000 signatures — considerably below the ballot threshold. According to Goldwater, most of the Protect Education Campaign’s signatures are invalid because they suffer from a variety of legal defects. Many signatures were not from registered voters. Others are invalid because the signature gatherer failed to fill out the initiative paperwork properly, such as listing a false address, failing to provide an ID, or failing to notarize the document. Tens of thousands are duplicates.
UC Doctors Seek to Unionize 10,000 Colleagues in Massive Campaign
July 28, 2026 // Farida Jhabvala Romero for KQED
About $24 billion, nearly 40% of the university’s total revenue last year, came from its six academic health centers, serving 2.5 million Californians. UC is the state’s second largest employer. Labor experts said it’s unlikely that university executives would welcome a new large doctors’ union. If the UC Doctors United organizing campaign is successful, it could inspire doctors elsewhere to seek a collective voice on the job, according to John Logan, director of labor and employment studies at San Francisco State University. “People who run the university undoubtedly will not want 10,000 doctors at the UC system to unionize and to have to bargain collectively over things that they can unilaterally decide at the moment,” Logan said.
Federal employees say they’ll quit if they have to move to New Jersey
July 28, 2026 // Fariha Rahman for Government Executive
The International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE) Local 98, representing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ New York District and North Atlantic Division employees, rallied outside 26 Federal Plaza in Manhattan on Thursday, protesting the proposed relocation of their offices to New Jersey. New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin and Lander were among those who joined in person, while Mayor Zohran Mamdani sent a statement in support, calling on the federal government to keep the employees in New York. Members of both the Democratic and Republican New York congressional delegations have sent letters to the Trump administration urging them to reconsider the move.
CTU and SEIU back different candidates for school board president, widening rift between staff unions
July 28, 2026 // Sarah Karp for WBEZ
The SEIU and the CTU used to work together to protest budget cuts, school closings and other actions that affected workers. SEIU was one of the biggest backers of CTU organizer turned mayoral candidate Brandon Johnson, and its related PACs contributed more than $4.6 million to his campaign. But a rift formed after the CTU attempted to get some of SEIU’s members reclassified so they would be under CTU. SEIU officials accused the CTU of raiding its members.
RESEARCH: AI and Independent Work in 7 Charts
July 28, 2026 // Liya Palagashvili for Labor Market Matters
Most debates about AI and work still focus on whether jobs will disappear. But these charts point to another possibility: AI may also be making it easier for more people to work outside traditional firms. This is still early, descriptive evidence—not proof of causation. Even so, both datasets point in the same direction: solo-type business applications and solo self-employment are growing faster in sectors and occupations with greater AI exposure.
Teachers’ Union Boss Vows ‘All-Out-War’ if Mamdani Doesn’t Back Bonuses
July 27, 2026 // Matthew Haag, Dana Rubinstein for New York Times
The legislation would cost New York City $325 million. The Citizens Budget Commission, a nonpartisan watchdog group that opposes the bill, warned that it would set a “dangerous precedent” by encouraging unions to bypass the bargaining table and appeal directly to lawmakers.
Commentary: Unionized workers are bargaining with the bots
July 27, 2026 // Josephine Walker for Axios
"AI is something we can negotiate," Schleuss says. "Without a contract and without a union, you have no say." Former FTC Commissioner Alvaro Bedoya notes that union-negotiated rules could easily map onto federal policy — if Congress ever finds the political will. Case in point: The NewsGuild currently has between 85 and 90 contracts with explicit AI provisions, Schleuss says.
Companies May Soon Be Able to Stop Reporting Employees’ Race
July 27, 2026 // Robert VerBruggen for City Journal
The change is a move in the right direction. It addresses the unseemliness, potential constitutional problems, and implied DEI pressure inherent in the government’s demand for these data. The key caveats are that employers may continue to collect the underlying information, that the numbers may occasionally be missed in legitimate lawsuits and investigations—including challenges to DEI practices—and that a future administration can undo the change. In its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, the EEOC highlights several key justifications for ditching the reporting requirements. These requirements, perhaps surprisingly, are not spelled out in the law and lie within the agency’s discretion.
Dissident Philly Port Worker Successfully Defeats ILA Union Attempt to Exclude Him from Federal Case Defending Win at NLRB
July 27, 2026 // author for National Right To Work Foundation
The United States Third Circuit Court of Appeals has granted a motion to intervene by Stanford Fowler, a longshore worker at the Ports of Philadelphia and Wilmington, in a suit between the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) Local 1694. The successful motion, filed with assistance from National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys, comes over the objection of union lawyers, who attempted to keep Fowler out of a federal case that arose from his legal victory against that union at the NLRB.
Skilled freelancing jumps as AI redefines work
July 27, 2026 // Danica Macayan for Outsource Accelerator
The Upwork (upwork.com) Research Institute surveyed 2,400 U.S.-based skilled workers between March and April 2026 to produce the report. Freelancers performing AI-augmented work on the Upwork Marketplace earned 34% more per hour than those not incorporating AI. AI-augmented professional services grew 72% in volume with earnings rising 22%, while generative AI and creative production work saw 90% growth in contract starts — yet per-contract earnings in that category declined by 13%.
Minimum Wage Myths are Flooding the Internet
July 27, 2026 // Kristian Fors for Libertas Institute
Salaries are a function of supply and demand, not government planning. Employers hire workers up to the point where the value of their labor justifies the wage, while workers decide whether to supply their labor based on the pay offered. As the Texas example shows, the true minimum wage is whatever the market decides, and in 2026 that’s almost never as low as $7.25. Minimum wages can also hurt the workers that they’re meant to help. California’s minimum wage is among the highest in the nation, and California now has the highest unemployment rate of all 50 states.