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In the News
A College Players Union Is Not Going to Happen. Here’s Why.
October 14, 2025 // Scott Schneider for Hoops HQ
While the NCAA fights off challenges and Congress slouches towards a solution, the idea of a pro-style Collective Bargaining Agreement is appealing but totally unworkable
NALC President Michelle Simmons Pleads Guilty to Crimes
October 14, 2025 // author for National Institute for Labor Relations Institute
Michelle Simmons has left a negative mark on the NALC union as Branch 390 President, after pleading guilty ot failing to maintain and retain union records.
REI Co-op to close Boston location, a unionized store, in ‘late 2026’
October 14, 2025 // Phil Tenser for WCVB 5
REI Co-op's only Boston store will be closing next year. A spokesperson for the company, which is headquartered near Seattle, confirmed the Boston location will be closing in "late 2026." Stores in Paramus, New Jersey, and in New York City's SoHo neighborhood will also be closing next year.
Proposed review to modernize federal workers’ pay shot down by unions, Sen. Curtis says
October 14, 2025 // Cami Mondeaux for Deseret News
Despite having support leading up to the vote, the American Federation of Government Employees, the largest federal employee union in the country, sent a message to senators opposing the amendment — which Curtis said prompted many of his Democratic colleagues to taper off. The group argued the amendment would “open up the federal pay system” to systemic audits and reviews by the Trump administration, which it says would be “devastating for federal workers.” Rather than ensuring higher pay, the AFGE claimed the Trump administration would use it to justify pay cuts or even freeze some spending altogether.
US Transportation Secretary threatens to fire absent air traffic controllers
October 14, 2025 // Lisa Lambert for BBC
Last week, the president said some employees who are not at work might not receive retroactive pay once the government reopens. Air traffic controllers, though, are considered "essential workers" and are still required to carry out their duites. "When you come to work you get paid," Duffy said. "If you don't come to work, you don't get paid. That's the way we're going to do it."
Black worker’s use of anti-Black slur not protected under Title VII, judge holds
October 14, 2025 // Ryan Golden for HR Dive
“The results of such a rule would be impossible to apply,” Weilheimer wrote. “How is a manager to know whether the person who just used an anti-Semitic slur is Jewish, or who used a homophobic slur is homosexual? The questioning required to get to the bottom of those sorts of determinations would be sure to lead to more discrimination, not less.” Recent case law has produced mixed results for employees who allege discrimination over the use of racial slurs by others in the workplace. In 2024, a Louisiana federal court held that a plaintiff’s alleged overhearing of one co-worker calling another a racial slur did not rise to the level of harassment, in part because the plaintiff was not the target of the slur. And last month, a Michigan federal judge found that a manager’s use of a single ethnic slur was insufficient to show that the plaintiff faced unlawful discrimination.
Talks resume as Broadway actors consider a strike
October 13, 2025 // Jennifer Vanasco for NPR
Plays have performed better recently, especially limited runs headlined by A-list celebrities, which can charge higher ticket prices and have lower costs. Last season, seven plays made money, out of 21 that opened. Broadway musicians are also currently working under an expired contract. They are expected to bargain next week over wage increases, work rules, and health care. Bob Suttman, the president of the American Federation of Musicians, Local 802, said that they are "standing in lockstep" with actors.
Pa. House approves bill opening unemployment benefits to striking workers
October 13, 2025 // Andrew Goldstein for Union Progress
New York and New Jersey have similar laws concerning unemployment compensation, and workers in nine other states are eligible for the benefits while on strike under certain circumstances, such as an employer breaking a contract, according to the state representatives. The legislation, which passed in the House 106-97, now moves to the state Senate for consideration. A similar bill sponsored by state Reps. Dan Miller, D-Mt. Lebanon, and Mandy Steele, D-Fox Chapel, passed through the House in 2023 but died in the Senate.
Newt’s World Episode 899: Employee Rights Act
October 13, 2025 // Newt Gingrich for Newt's World
Newt talks with Vincent Vernuccio, President of the Institute for the American Worker about the Employee Rights Act of 2025, a legislative proposal aimed at enhancing and safeguarding the rights of American workers while promoting fairness and accountability in the workplace. Introduced by Senator Tim Scott and Congressman Rick Allen, the bill represents a Republican vision for the workforce, focusing on empowering workers, improving unions, and fostering innovation and growth. Vernuccio highlights the outdated nature of current labor laws,
CBS News Union Cautions Staffers Against Responding to Bari Weiss Memo About Work Activities
October 13, 2025 // Katie Kilkenny for Hollywood Reporter
On Friday representatives of the Writers Guild of America East suggested their members refrain from replying until they get more information about the message. "Many of you have expressed concern to us about the purpose of the email, and we share those concerns," wrote the director of the union's broadcast/cable/streaming news division and three field representatives. "That is why we sent the company an immediate demand to provide information about the email by Monday," the message continued. "We suggest that you refrain from responding until we are able to share the information that we receive so that you can make an informed decision by the Tuesday deadline." The guidance was first reported by Variety.
California Dramatically Expands State Labor Board’s Powers to Cover Employees Under NLRB’s Exclusive Jurisdiction, Following New York’s Lead
October 13, 2025 // Proskauer for JD Supra
California’s legislation comes on the heels of and follows the same logic behind New York’s recently enacted “NLRB Trigger Bill” that similarly empowers the Empire State’s PERB to step into the shoes of the Board, which we covered here. The NLRB has lacked a quorum for months and as a result remains unable to process appeals from decisions by Board administrative law judges or regional directors in unfair labor practice or representation cases. However, AB 288 will likely face similar legal challenges to New York’s “NLRB Trigger Bill,” which the Board has sued over, as we covered here. Specifically, AB 288 may be preempted by the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA” or “Act”), which covers most private-sector employees, under longstanding Supreme Court precedent.
Union Hypocrisy Alert: SEIU-UHW Says “Do as We Say, Not as We Do”
October 13, 2025 // author for Labor Pains
One union spokeswoman defended the measure by saying it would ensure that funding goes to “the core mission”of the organization rather than to overhead. That’s a standard that SEIU-UHW is nowhere close to following itself. The core mission of a labor union is representing its members. Fortunately for the public, labor unions file publicly-available documents detailing exactly how much they spend on “representational activities” every year. In 2024, SEIU-UHW spent just over a third of its revenue on “representational activities” – the union’s “core mission.”
VIDEO: California Caregiver Exposes SEIU 2015 for Coercion and Silencing Members
October 13, 2025 // Arielle Brown for Freedom Foundation
In a video released today by the Freedom Foundation, Chaquan May, a California mother and in-home healthcare provider for her medically fragile daughter, exposes how SEIU 2015 has ignored, coerced, and trapped her in union membership against her will. May recounts how, despite multiple attempts to opt out over the past two years, the union continues to withhold dues and refuses to acknowledge her requests.
The future of white-collar work may be unionized
October 10, 2025 // Tristan Bove for Washington Post
“The way layoffs happened at Google, where it wasn’t clear what the reason for people getting laid off was, definitely created a sense of job insecurity and mistrust,” says Parul Koul, a software engineer at Google and president of the Alphabet Workers Union. Another driver has been artificial intelligence threatening to replace entry-level knowledge work. Few white-collar industries epitomize the challenge of integrating AI into workflows more than the practice of law. While many legal experts say AI will have a transformative impact by automating repetitive research tasks, some also fear it will dilute entry-level associate roles at law firms.
Chicago Teachers Union undermines yet another charter school
October 10, 2025 // Hannah Schmid for Illinois Policy Institute
There are currently 559 students enrolled in ChiArts, according to the district’s enrollment report for fall 2025. Four-in-five students are Black or Hispanic. Last year, the Acero Schools charter network announced it was closing seven of its 15 schools. As with ChiArts, CTU made a show of claiming it supported the parents and students affected by the closing of the seven Acero schools after its actions to hurt the school staffing, flexibility and ability to plan. Ultimately, CPS board members – appointed by CTU crony Mayor Brandon Johnson – voted to transition five of the Acero schools into district-run schools by the 2026-2027 school year. The absorbed schools will no longer be charters.
Testimony: Rachel Greszler: Labor Law Reform Part 1: Diagnosing the Issues, Exploring Current Proposals
October 10, 2025 // Rachel Greszler for Heritage Foundation
SummaryToday’s challenges—from the rise of artificial intelligence to the expansion of independent work and the growing demand for flexibility, autonomy, and new skills—necessitate modernized labor laws that are pro-worker and pro-employer, regardless of the type of workplace. Heavy-handed government interventions and attempts to bring back the 1950s’ ways of work are not the answers. American labor laws should preserve the freedom, dignity, and opportunity that make American work exceptional.
Opinion: Time to Protect Workers’ Pay
October 10, 2025 // David Guenthner for Workers for Opportunity
The United Auto Workers bears no resemblance to the collaborative employee councils common in Germany. Another lesson from the proposed strike: If employers won’t protect their employees from unions, it’s a signal to every red-state governor and Legislature that they need to mount a more vigorous defense of workers’ paychecks.
Uniting Behind the American Franchise Act: A Bipartisan Effort to Clarify the Joint Employer Standard
October 10, 2025 // Lewitt Hackman for JD Supra
Seven Republican and seven Democratic Congressional members introduced the bipartisan act and limited its application to future proceedings only, preventing retroactive implications. If approved, the American Franchise Act only applies to joint employer matters regarding franchising; it is not a universal modification to all employer relationships.
NY sisters who own DQ franchise hit with $6M lawsuit for paying workers every 2 weeks — they helped change the loophole but it was too late for them
October 10, 2025 // Mike Crisolago for Moneywise
New York's Frequency of Pay law (2) requires “manual workers” to receive their pay on a weekly basis. It’s a law that the sisters said they’d never heard of, which is why they paid their employees biweekly — a process that they said was never flagged by anyone, including during an audit conducted by the state’s Department of Labor. Robey told CBS that the lawsuit was “ridiculous,” adding, “we knew we paid every employee every dime that they were owed." But her sister noted that the former employee, who’d been laid off, “would say all the time, 'I'm gonna get you, I'm gonna get you,' and she did.”
Commentary: AB 1340 Is a Death-Knell to Rideshare Independence for California Drivers
October 9, 2025 // Jennifer Oliver O’Connell for Independent Women's Forum
Long odds predict that, just as with the fallout from AB5, rideshare drivers will ultimately not like the end result. Just as California’s AB5 has infected the nation, with AB5-like restrictive measures being considered in Minnesota and New Jersey, this new California law is a bellwether to the erosion of the rideshare model in other states.