Labor Today Logo

Top Stories

Click the star next to a story to save your favorite articles.

Size Matters: Workers at Smaller Museums Are Happier, New Survey Finds

October 31, 2025 // Daniel Cassady for Art News

“Fifty-five percent of unions at art museums were formed in the last five years.” Non-union staff, the report found, earn about 78 percent of what their unionized counterparts make, though unionized workers tend to report higher levels of dissatisfaction overall.

MICHIGAN: SEIU gains power over 32,000 workers with 4,200 votes

October 30, 2025 // Jamie A. Hope for Capitol Confidential

This is the second time in recent decades that the SEIU has installed its dues skim, which takes money from people who receive state stipends to care for someone else, usually a family member. It did so after receiving a majority vote from a tiny fraction of those it purports to represent before state officials. There are 32,000 home health care providers in the Michigan. Only 5,527 valid ballots were cast on the matter of unionization, with 4,205 votes in favor. Another 1,502 providers voted against the effort, according to the Michigan Employment Relations Commission.

Op-ed: The Bad Teamsters Bargain With UPS

October 30, 2025 // The Editorial Board for Wall Street Journal Opinion

Businesses that lose money and are uncompetitive won’t survive. See trucking company Yellow Corp., which filed for bankruptcy in 2023 in part owing to Mr. O’Brien’s labor militancy. Mr. O’Brien refused concessions and tweeted an image of a tombstone “Yellow: 1924-2023.” UPS doesn’t want to be Mr. O’Brien’s next victim. The Teamsters boss has insisted that its contract requires UPS to create 30,000 jobs. He hasn’t read the fine print—or is misleading his members. UPS merely committed to giving part-time employees a chance to apply for some full-time job openings. If UPS reduces job openings, workers don’t have an opportunity to fill them.

Commentary: Trumpworld thinks overturning this Biden labor rule gives GOP a double-digit midterm elections boost

October 29, 2025 // Christian Datoc for Washington Examiner

Only 22% of respondents in Fabrizio’s poll supported the NLRB’s 2023 rule “that allowed unions not to use secret ballots,” with 64% opposed. Fabrizio wrote that Republican Congressional candidates “would benefit significantly from supporting overturning this unpopular rule.” “The initial generic ballot is a statistical dead heat, 44% Democrat – 43% Republican (D+1), but if the Republican candidate supported overturning the NLRB rule so workers could once again rely on secret ballots when voting to unionize, the Republican pulls into a 47% – 36% (R+11) lead, a 12-point shift,” the memo reads. “Among Swing voters, the Republican goes from 1-point ahead to 17-points.”

Chicago Teachers Union spent $173K on poolside recording studio, won’t show audit to members

October 29, 2025 // Mailee Smith for Illinois Policy

CTU’s filing shows it spent $173,000 on a “recording studio” in New Mexico with no helpful context on its purpose. But it did have a pool. If CTU released its annual audits to members, as required in its internal rules, spending on a “recording studio” in New Mexico might have an explanation. But since it hasn’t released those audits since September 2020, members can only guess.

Unions sue Trump over immigrant drivers license crackdown

October 28, 2025 // Andrew Rice for The Center Square

The employee unions challenged a rule implemented by Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy restricting foreign individuals from receiving commercial drivers licenses. Commercial drivers licenses are used for operating large vehicles such as tractor-trailers and buses. Nineteen states and the District of Columbia allow unauthorized immigrants to receive commercial drivers licenses. In California, more than 25% of commercial drivers licenses were improperly issued, according to a Department of Transportation press release.

Featured Research

Jamie A. Hope

Mackinac Center For Public Policy Michigan Capitol Confidential

MICHIGAN: SEIU gains power over 32,000 workers with 4,200 votes

Polsinelli

A Republican-Led NLRB May Soon Revisit Expanded Remedies and Other Labor Precedents

Mailee Smith

Illinois Policy

Chicago Teachers Union spent $173K on poolside recording studio, won’t show audit to members

Christopher Foster, Marjorie C. Soto Garcia, Tony W. Torain, II

Layoffs and Rightsizing for Unionized or Unionizing Workforces

Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP

NLRB Challenges California’s AB 288 as Preempted by Federal Law

Jamie A. Hope

Michigan Capitol Confidential

Caregivers sue state over ‘false’ public employee classification

Chip Rogers

Americans for Fair Treatment

Why California Teachers Are Walking Away from Their Union