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In the News
Congressional progressives introduce $25 federal minimum wage plan
April 28, 2026 // Sean Reed | The Center Square Sean Reed Sean Reed Reporter Author twitter Author email for The Center Square
Noah Finley, National Federation of Independent Business Illinois state director, has argued both the previous increase and new proposal would be harmful to businesses across the state. “Our members here in Illinois, they've been really struggling with the $15 an hour minimum wage in the state. That has been a huge burden for them,” Finley said. “They've had to cut back on employees. They've had to raise their prices. So, this is bad for workers, it's bad for consumers and it's bad for small businesses.”
A quiet filing could decide what happens next inside one of gaming’s biggest studios
April 28, 2026 // María José Gutierrez Chavez for Fast Company
From layoffs and return-to-office mandates to challenges around AI and creativity, it’s not all fun and games for video game workers. And now, some are seeking to unionize. On April 27, a group of game developers behind the digital collectible card game Magic: The Gathering Arena announced the intent to form a union in affiliation with the Communications Workers of America (CWA). The group is a part of the gaming studio Wizards of the Coast (WOTC), a division of Hasbro.
Hachette Employees Seek to Unionize
April 28, 2026 // Sam Spratford for PW News
The HWC would be the largest union in trade publisher history, according to the announcement, comprising hundreds of in-person and remote non-management workers. Among the Big Five, it joins the Association of HarperCollins Employees, members of Local 2110 of the UAW, which encompasses 180 staffers.
Op-ed: Kathy Hochul and Bruce Blakeman must BOTH stand up to the union thugs threatening an LIRR strike
April 28, 2026 // Post Editorial Board for New York Post
To avoid a strike, the agency generously offered pay hikes of 4.5% in the fourth year, but the unions would have to agree to fix some perverse work rules to produce savings. Under one rule, for example, an engineer who operates a diesel train and an electric train on the same day must be paid for two days.
Flight Attendant Receives Nearly $1,000,000 Following Ruling Against Airline and Union
April 28, 2026 // Author for National Right To Work Foundation
Carter’s case began in 2017 when she sued both the union and airline in the Northern District Court of Texas for firing her in violation of both the federal Railway Labor Act (RLA) and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. Through private communications, Carter had criticized the TWU Local 556 president for using union dues to send flight attendants to the 2017 “Women’s March” and also panned the union’s support for a host of divisive political positions. Title VII protects against religious discrimination in the workplace, while the RLA guards the right of workers in the air or rail industries to criticize union leadership. Five years later, a jury found in Carter’s favor, awarding her a $5 million verdict. The District Court ordered Southwest (NYSE: LUV) and the union to give Carter the maximum amount of compensatory and punitive damages permitted under federal law, in addition to other forms of relief.
JBS faces another US strike
April 28, 2026 // Satarupa Bhowmik for Yahoo
The dispute comes after JBS reached a separate wage agreement with workers in Greeley, Colorado earlier this month, which included base wage increases and one-time bonuses but no retroactive pay. Under that deal, base wages will rise by $0.70 at ratification, followed by $0.40 in July this year and $0.40 in July 2027. The agreement includes no provision for retroactive pay.
Acting Labor Sec. Sonderling likely to move up to top job
April 28, 2026 // John Gizzi for Newsmax
Sonderling, 43, is a veteran of Trump's first administration, in which he served as acting administrator of the Labor Department's Wage and Hour Division and later as a member of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The West Palm Beach attorney and grandchild of Holocaust survivors has been widely considered a voice for conservatives within the Labor Department. This contrasts with Chavez-DeRemer, who was appointed largely due to support from Teamsters union President Sean O'Brien and drew criticism on the right for her past opposition to right-to-work laws.
Op Ed: Workers deserve a vote
April 28, 2026 // Robert Pape, former President of the New York School Bus Contractors Association and the New York Association for Pupil Transportation, and former owner of a school transportation company serving Long Island school districts. for Mid-Hudson News
Collective bargaining in this industry works because both sides have to live with what they negotiate. An arbitrator on a federal deadline doesn’t have to live with anything. They write the contract and move on. But the district and the workers are stuck with it for two years. That’s the bill’s core flaw: it assumes labor negotiations only ever go slowly because of bad faith, but really, they often just take time to get right. Rushing that process and handing the outcome to an outside panel doesn’t produce better contracts.
How a $15 minimum wage will regionally affect a diverse and unequal Virginia
April 28, 2026 // Molly Parks,
The age-old economic debate over minimum wage has been a sticking point between Republicans and Democrats in the Old Dominion, as Youngkin called the $15 minimum wage proposal a "one-size-fits-all mandate" that "ignores the vast economic and geographic differences," in his veto memo last year. "Implementing an arbitrary $15-per-hour wage mandate may not impact Northern Virginia, where economic conditions lead to historically higher wages, but this approach is detrimental for small businesses across the rest of Virginia, especially in Southwest and Southside," Youngkin wrote.
New Jersey Wells Fargo Bank Employees Formally Oust CWA Union Bosses
April 28, 2026 // author for National Right To Work Foundation
Employees at Wells Fargo’s Seaside Park branch have successfully removed Communications Workers of America (CWA) union bosses from their workplace. The effort to remove the union was initiated when bank employee Lisa Sholtis filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) seeking a “decertification” election to remove CWA union officials from the Seaside Park Wells Fargo location. Sholtis filed the petition for her coworkers with free legal aid from the National Right to Work Foundation.
Watchdog report exposes teachers union ‘political machine’ funneling more than $1 billion to liberal causes
April 27, 2026 // Andrew Mark Miller for Fox News
According to research from Defending Education, national teachers unions alone have directed roughly $669 million toward left-wing political groups, advocacy organizations and campaigns since 2015. When state and local affiliates are included, that figure balloons to more than $1 billion in total political spending. The reports track spending from the two largest unions, the National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), as well as their state-level affiliates, using federal filings and campaign finance records.
General Assembly rejects amended bill on collective bargaining for public workers
April 27, 2026 // Emily Leayman for Fairfax Now
The General Assembly is holding a reconvened session to consider the governor’s amended and vetoed bills, including SB 378 and HB 1263 from Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell (D-34) and Del. Kathy Tran (D-18). The General Assembly did not take up Spanberger’s substitute to the legislation yesterday or today (Thursday). The General Assembly-passed legislation expands upon a 2020 Virginia law that gave localities the choice to adopt ordinances to collectively bargain with public employees for the first time since 1977. Fairfax County is among the jurisdictions to subsequently authorize collective bargaining, approving contractors for general county government employees as well as police and firefighters.
Opinion: NC teacher walkout is sacrificing students for left-wing politics
April 27, 2026 // Andrew Dunn for Charlotte Observer
The N.C. Association of Educators has scheduled a mass walkout for May 1, urging teachers to leave school and rally in downtown Raleigh. School districts are already beginning to close in response, keeping children out of the classroom at a critical point before the end of the school year. Durham Public Schools shifted May 1 to a teacher workday after more than 600 teachers, about a quarter of its educators, requested leave. Asheville City Schools said it could not provide “adequate supervision of students” because so many staff planned to be out. Guilford, Chatham and Chapel Hill-Carrboro have made similar moves.
Pennsylvania unions know that money talks
April 27, 2026 // Linda Stein for Broad and Liberty
The union PACs spent $2.2 million on the judicial retentions. Voters retained all three justices, Kevin Dougherty, Christine Donohue, and David Wecht. The unions spent $2.2 million to retain them. Dougherty received the most union funding — $1.1 million. The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Locals 5 and 98 spent $180,000 to help retain Dougherty. Dougherty’s incarcerated brother, John “Johnny Doc” Dougherty, led the Local 98. Government unions overwhelmingly supported Democrats for political office. Roughly 91 percent of partisan candidate donations went to Democrats, while Republicans received just over 9 percent, the report said.
Union says US bailout of Spirit Airlines must protect employees
April 26, 2026
The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, which represents Spirit's ramp service employees, said any bailout must require "no furloughs, no layoffs, and no shifting the burden onto the very people who keep this airline running."
Union membership rate 10.0 percent in 2025
April 26, 2026 // author for Bureau of Labor Statistics Publications The Economics Daily
The union membership rate of public-sector (government) workers, 32.9 percent in 2025, continued to be more than five times higher than the rate of private-sector workers. The public-sector union membership rate increased by 0.7 percentage point over the year. The union membership rate continued to be highest in local government, which employs many workers in heavily unionized occupations. The union membership rate in the private sector (5.9 percent across all industries) was unchanged over the year. Industries with some of the highest unionization rates in 2025 included transportation and utilities, 14.3 percent, and construction, 11.1 percent. Among the lowest unionization rates were financial activities, 1.5 percent, professional and business services, 2.1 percent, and leisure and hospitality (which includes food services and drinking places), 3.0 percent.
DUNKIRK NY: Mayor responds to contract clamor
April 26, 2026 // M.J. Stafford for Observer
Dunkirk Mayor Kate Wdowiasz defended herself against city unions, stating that they are unwilling to negotiate and that city taxpayers can no longer afford their contracts. Wdowiasz said she wanted to “set the record straight” during the phone interview Thursday with the OBSERVER. Union leaders and workers turned out in force on Tuesday during the Common Council meeting. Jake Stern, representing Local 616 and its 24 uniformed firefighters, said during the meeting the union had unanimously voted no confidence in Wdowiasz and city attorney Elliot Raimondo.
Union workers at Denver meat processing plant vote to authorize strike
April 26, 2026
The union said 97% of union members at Denver Processing voted to authorize the strike, meaning they are prepared to walk off the job if they aren't able to reach a contract agreement with the company. The dates of a potential strike have not yet been determined.
Federal union projects to lose ‘tens of thousands’ of members, court filing shows
April 26, 2026 // Matt Bracken for FedScoop
The National Treasury Employees Union said in a filing Thursday that President Donald Trump’s April 2025 executive order on exclusions from federal labor-management relations programs and subsequent Office of Personnel Management rulemaking has resulted in “irreparable harm” to the labor group. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit previously ruled that harm of that kind was merely “speculative because [the harms] would materialize only after an agency terminates a collective-bargaining agreement.” Since the appeals court issued that opinion in May 2025, OPM told agencies to terminate their collective bargaining agreements with the NTEU, and nine agencies have issued letters doing just that, according to the new court filing. Roughly half of the workers that NTEU represented before Trump’s order came from these agencies, the labor group said.
WATCH: NH teachers’ union head confirms World Economic Forum is helping develop curriculum
April 25, 2026 // author for The Lion
The head of the New Hampshire chapter of the American Federation of Teachers told lawmakers the union is working with globalists to develop curriculum for students. Deborah Howe told a legislative committee Tuesday the AFT is “working with industry leaders from around the world to develop career and technical education curriculum to share with any school in the United States.”