Posts tagged DOL
Illinois Federation of Teachers: 7 things the union doesn’t want teachers to know
August 4, 2026 // IFT represents educators in more than 200 districts across Illinois. But teachers’ zip codes dictate how much support they actually get from the union.
Senate committee advances Sonderling’s labor nomination
July 31, 2026 // U.S. senators voted on Thursday to advance the nomination of Keith Sonderling, President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the U.S. Department of Labor. Lawmakers on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee, in a 12-11 vote, advanced Sonderling’s nomination to lead the Labor Department. The former secretary, Lori Chavez-deRemer, stepped down due to accusations of an improper relationship with a subordinate.
Op-ed: Republicans should stop helping Democrats empower union bosses
July 29, 2026 // 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.
Billionaire tax backers burn big money on retreats, out-of-state political efforts and breathing ‘coach’
July 22, 2026 // The Post’s review of federal records found that officials for Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West burned millions on an out-of-state political effort as well as dues on travel, conferences and beachfront retreats — all while paying nearly $235,000 to a “clarity coach” who appeared in a series of low-budget mindfulness videos on Instagram.
1-in-3 reject union membership in AFSCME Council 31
July 21, 2026 // AFSCME Council 31’s questionable spending could be driving workers away. The union’s report with the Labor Department reveals that: Just 20% of its spending was on “representational activities” in 2025. It spent a record-high $3.4 million on politics that year. Nearly half of its own officers and employees made over $100,000.
Secretary of Labor: Keith Sonderling
July 20, 2026 // Keith Sonderling is President Trump’s nominee to serve as the next Secretary of Labor. He currently serves as Acting Secretary of Labor, a role he was designated to on April 20, 2026, following the departure of former Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer. Prior to that, Sonderling served as the U.S. Deputy Secretary…
Teachers Pay Dues. Union Leadership Funds Activism.
July 20, 2026 // The Department of Labor proposed a remedy in 2019. Under the proposed rule, public-sector intermediate union bodies subordinate to national organizations would file detailed annual financial reports like those required of private-sector unions. That change would give teachers, parents, and taxpayers greater visibility into how dues are spent, where political spending occurs and how much money flows through organizations that frequently rely on taxpayer-funded facilities, payroll deduction systems, release time and administrative support. Some states have acted. Florida prohibits payroll deduction of union dues for teachers. Connecticut requires unions to provide members a copy of their financial reports, a requirement enforced inconsistently for years, until public scrutinyand litigation by the Fairness Center pushed the state Department of Labor to begin enforcing it.
Don’t Panic: A Skeptic’s Guide to the AI Jobs Doomsday
July 16, 2026 // Overall, US unemployment was 5.9 percent in mid-1979 and 5.3 percent by mid-1989.[25] During this same period the working-age population swelled by 21.5 million, or about 13 percent.[26] So, while some manufacturing jobs were lost, overall unemployment actually declined slightly over that period despite an increase in job seekers. New jobs in new fields were created by automation. Somebody had to operate the machines, build and maintain them, and transport them to foreign countries. This is the nature of automation: It focuses on eliminating the more tedious tasks, freeing up time, labor, and resources for other pursuits.
Op-ed: Union transparency rules are only as strong as their enforcement
July 12, 2026 // Only after Ormond and Bilodeau sued their unions to compel them to follow the law did the agency finally start doing some of that “paperwork.” Last month, the department sent public-sector unions in the state a notice reminding them to follow the law, and it created an apparently new online portal for them to file the required financial reports. The department’s official guidance also said that unions must provide employees with hard copies of the reports and hold a meeting to discuss them.
US judge blocks labor board’s Trump-era move to take control over union elections
July 1, 2026 // A federal judge on Monday blocked the U.S. agency that oversees union elections for federal employees from shifting authority over all labor representation decisions to its top body, which is dominated by Republicans appointed by President Donald Trump. Chief U.S. District Judge Denise Casper in Boston sided with, opens new tabeight unions who had sued to prevent the Federal Labor Relations Authority from stripping its regional directors of their decades-old power to decide cases themselves by having its three-member body of presidential appointees handle all of them.