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In the News
Turbulence at LAX: Union Revolt Against Airport Police Chief Cecil Rhambo Exposes Leadership Crisis Ahead of World Cup and Olympics
October 20, 2025 // Cece Woods for Current Report
Union leaders argue that while executive pay has ballooned, front-line officers are left to shoulder the burden with minimal resources. LAAPOA noted that morale and recruitment are at all-time lows even as top administrators enjoy salary hikes. Meanwhile, passenger satisfaction scores have dropped, and incidents requiring police response are rising. “Rhambo’s leadership is not only ineffective—it’s dangerous,” said one veteran officer. “When the Olympics arrive, the global spotlight will expose just how broken things are behind the scenes.”
Caregivers sue state over ‘false’ public employee classification
October 20, 2025 // Jamie A. Hope for Capitol Confidential
The practice drew widespread condemnation when the Mackinac Center brought it to light early in the previous decade. But the SEIU refused to accept defeat after the Legislature ended the practice. The union struck back with a 2012 ballot initiative that failed by a 56% to 44% vote. Following that failure, SEIU used various means to keep alive the idea that home care workers are employees of the government. The union got its second chance last year, when the Democratic trifecta under Gov. Gretchen Whitmer quietly enacted laws classifying home care workers as public employees and opening caregivers’ personal records to the union. As happened in 2005, the SEIU got its win, but with a very small vote.
How Josh Hawley Is Empowering Unions in New York and California
October 19, 2025 // Eric Boehm for Reason
A week later, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee voted to confirm two of Trump's NLRB nominees. Mayer's nomination was tabled. Without that seat filled, the NLRB still lacks a quorum—and, as a result, the labor boards in New York and California have power. Of course, blocking Mayer's appointment to the board is within Hawley's authority as a senator and a member of that key committee. Still, exercising that authority has opened Hawley to criticism. "Hawley is definitely trying to help unions," Sean Higgins, a research fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a free market think tank, told Reason via email.
The UAW Is Still Fighting to Unionize Auto in the South
October 18, 2025 // Daniel Kopp for Jacobin
Daniel Kopp At the time of your election in 2024, you had a rather supportive National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) under the Biden administration. This is no longer the case, as Donald Trump is starving it of resources. Has that influenced your strategy at Mercedes? Jeremy Kimbrell You don’t change your strategy, because organizing is organizing. Workers have to have courage. You have to understand that the risk will never be zero. Inherently, you hope and expect that the risk is limited.
OMB delays firing federal workers to comply with court order
October 18, 2025 // David Jordan for Roll Call
The unions and other opponents of the reductions say the firings are a significant departure from the norm in a shutdown and are not the type of work agencies can undertake during a shutdown. Previous shutdowns, including during President Donald Trump’s first term, did not result in any reductions in force. In all other shutdowns, federal workers who are classified as “excepted” employees remained on the job while all others were furloughed, and all received back pay after the government reopened.
The Cannabis Labor Crossroads: Historic Strikes, Labor Peace Agreements (“LPAs”), and What Comes Next
October 18, 2025 // Gustav Stickley V for Blank Rome LLP
The strikes at Exclusive Brands in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and at Green Thumb Industries’ RISE dispensary in York, Pennsylvania, now stand as the longest in the legal cannabis market. While both actions reflect shared themes—demands for better wages, a voice in the workplace, and concerns about bargaining conduct—they are unfolding in starkly different market contexts and with different strategic aims.
NALC Union Boss Marcus Miller Faces Embezzlement Indictment
October 18, 2025 // author for National Institute for Labor Relations Research
On September 9, 2025, in the United States District Court for the Western District of Michigan, Marcus Miller, former Vice President of National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) Branch 775 (located in Niles, Mich.), was indicted on one count of embezzlement, in violation of 29 U.S.C. 501(c). The indictment follows an investigation by the OLMS Detroit-Milwaukee District Office and the United States Postal Service’s Office of Inspector General.
City of Everett Employee Appeals to Washington State PERC in Case Challenging Unconstitutional Money Seizures by AFSCME Officials
October 18, 2025 // author for National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation
Davidsen’s latest filing in her case, which is an appeal from a PERC Hearing Examiner’s ruling, maintains that after revoking her dues-deduction authorization, “on 14 separate pay periods…dues were nevertheless deducted from her paycheck.” According to the appeal, Davidsen requested that dues deductions end in June 2024, at which point union officials informed the City of Everett that it should cease remitting money from her paychecks into the union’s accounts.
Football Union Evidently Colluded With NFL
October 17, 2025 // author for National Right to Work Committee
One plausible, though yet to be proven explanation is that, even as he was ruling over the NFLPA, Mr. Howell was also working as a “paid, part-time consultant for the Carlyle Group, one of a select group of league-approved private equity firms now seeking minority ownership in NFL franchises,” as Mr. Van Natta and Ms. Kahler reported in a July 10 followup story for ESPN. “Enhancing the profitability of NFL teams by tamping down the compensation of football players arguably advanced the interests of the Carlyle Group,” explained Mr. Mourad. “That could be why Mr. Howell seemingly sided with NFL executives and against the players he purportedly represented.”
Dollar store workers fight to improve jobs, even without a union
October 17, 2025 // Jesse Baum for Capital & Main
In 2022, Williams joined an organization that seemed, to him, like his best shot: Step Up Louisiana. Like several successful campaigns before it, Step Up organizes workers to improve their jobs, but stops short of calling for a union under the National Labor Relations Board. The approach, sometimes referred to as “premajority unionism,” is a natural fit for places like the South, with histories of public hostility to unions. Today, suggest experts, it may also be workers’ best bet for building power amid the hostility of the Trump administration.
Blizzard’s Platform & Technology workers vote to unionize
October 17, 2025 // Vikki Blake for Game Industry Biz
Early today, over 400 staff from the company's Platform and Technology department – including designers, engineers, QA testers, localization teams, and workers on Battle.net – voted to join several other Blizzard divisions to unionize. Microsoft has reportedly recognized the union. As reported by GameDeveloper, organizing committee members Daniel Weltz, Alex Kohn, and Timothy Biley decided to unionize following the departure of colleagues because of low pay or redundancies, stating "workplaces will now have to offer certain things in order to remain competitive to workers."
Horseshoe casino dealers prepare to strike for right to unionize
October 17, 2025 // Russ McQuaid for Fox 59
The workers, flanked by organizers from Teamsters Local 135, said they have been turned down on an alternate third-party observer, which would have permitted the Oct. 17 election to go forward without delay. “We’ve already had a vote,” said Zachary Holbrook, a dealer/supervisor. “92% of the majority voted for strike authorization.”
Why California Teachers Are Walking Away from Their Union
October 16, 2025 // Chip Rogers for Americans for Fair Treatment
Yes, you read that right. The nation’s biggest teachers’ union circulated classroom content that literally wiped Israel off the map and connected educators to sources that excuse terrorism. When caught, the NEA quietly deleted the materials. No apology. No accountability. Just silence. That kind of moral blindness is not confined to Washington. In California, it has become a way of life.
The 15 Most Unionized Places in America
October 16, 2025 // Jonathan Jones for Money Talks News
To determine the most unionized locations in the U.S., researchers at Construction Coverage analyzed data from UnionStats.com and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The researchers ranked metropolitan statistical areas according to total union members as a percentage of total employment. In addition to union membership, the researchers also included statistics on union representation, which is the share of workers whose terms of work are collectively negotiated (whether or not they are union members). Only metropolitan statistical areas with available data were included in the analysis.
The Federal Workforce Will Be a Little Smaller After the Government Shutdown Ends
October 16, 2025 // J.D. Tuccille for Reason
While further reductions in the size of the federal workforce are certainly welcome, the layoffs will have to become significantly more aggressive to more than scratch the federal Leviathan. While smaller than its peak at 3.4 million workers in 1990 and then again in 2010, the federal government still employed 2.9 million people, not counting military personnel, as of August 2025. That's almost 3 million people living off the taxes collected by the federal government (or, increasingly, the money it borrows) rather than productively creating goods and services for willing consumers. And those nearly 3 million people aren't all just sitting around. Too many of them get up to mischief by exercising the power of the government to interfere in people's lives and to enforce intrusive rules and laws. Just see my comment above about the public health establishment and the pandemic. Fewer federal employees mean not so many mischief-makers to cause trouble, along with some cost savings.
Kaiser Permanente workers strike in Oregon and Washington, join nationwide picket lines
October 16, 2025 // Bobby Corser, Darryl Burke for KATU
According to Kaiser's officials, the alliance wants a 25% payroll increase, but Kaiser has instead put a 21.5% increase on the table. Officials say they've been planning for the strike for months and told KATU all of their facilities will remain open, and adjustments are being made accordingly. Kaiser says it's bringing on up to 7,600 nurses, clinicians, and other staff to work during the strike and says more than 1,000 of their employees have volunteered to be reassigned to work in locations impacted by the strike.
Major federation of unions calls for ‘worker-centered AI’ future
October 15, 2025 // Elissa Welle for The Verge
The AFL-CIO represents the UAW and dozens of other unions and wants more collective bargaining and state bills regulating AI.
US Supreme Court won’t review rule allowing H-1B holders’ spouses to work
October 15, 2025 // Daniel Wiessner for Reuters
The justices denied a petition, opens new tab by Save Jobs USA, which represents American tech workers who it says were displaced by foreign labor, to review a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit that said the Department of Homeland Security had the power to adopt the rule in 2015. Following its usual practice, the court did not explain its decision.
Pennsylvania EMT/Rescue Workers File Second Petition for ‘Decertification’ Vote to Remove Teamsters Local 205
October 15, 2025 // author for National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation
Shannon Martin, an employee of North Huntingdon EMS/Rescue, has filed a second petition with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) seeking a “decertification” election to remove Teamsters Local 205 union officials as the employees’ “representative.” Martin is receiving free legal aid from National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys.
‘No Kings’ protest organizer: ‘Anger level is way higher’ than in June
October 15, 2025 // Sarah Fortinsky for The Hill
Along with Public Citizen, the daylong series of protests is organized by Indivisible, MoveOn, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Human Rights Campaign, Working Families Power and other union and grassroots groups, the news outlet reported.