Posts tagged Donald Trump
Trump taps veteran labor lawyer to fill out Republican NLRB majority
April 14, 2026 // Trump's appointees are expected to target a series of labor board policies favored by unions that have helped fuel a spike in union organizing in recent years. But board rules require three members to vote in favor of overruling existing precedent, and Murphy and Mayer said during confirmation proceedings that they would not break with that practice. Murphy and Mayer have already revived a rule adopted by the NLRB during Trump's first term that makes it more difficult to hold companies liable as the "joint employers" of contract and franchise workers, and relinquished jurisdiction over a case involving Elon Musk's SpaceX to a different federal labor agency.
Potas: Trump cut federal employees — and the system didn’t break
April 14, 2026 // The federal workforce is smaller than at any point since the 1960s, the result of a deliberate effort by the Trump administration. Critics have asked how many employees the federal government can lose before it breaks. So far, the answer appears to be more than a 10% reduction. Most of the cuts were in white-collar roles: administrative, accounting and human resources.
Long Island Rail Road Strike Looms, as M.T.A. and Unions Reach Impasse
April 13, 2026 // Five unions representing more than 3,500 workers have threatened for months to walk off the job unless they receive bigger raises than other divisions of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the state agency that runs the railroad. The unions, which represent engineers, machinists, signalmen and other jobs critical to the rail operation, are seeking a retroactive 9.5 percent wage increase covering the last three years — the same offered to many other New York transit and civil servant unions. But they also want an additional 5 percent raise starting in 2026. The M.T.A. has argued that such a divergence in pay would upset the typical pattern for wage increases established with other groups, and would not be feasible unless the unions compromised on other aspects of the contract.
Teamsters still bankrolling Democrats, including Jay Jones, despite openly flirting with Trump and GOP
April 9, 2026 // “As for whether the Teamsters is compatible with the GOP, the union officialdom isn’t,” Mike Watson, an organized labor expert and director of research at the Capital Research Center, told the Washington Examiner. “The members are more open to the GOP for social-issues reasons, but the staffer class and officers are largely committed Everything Leftists.” “Everything Leftism” is a turn of phrase used to describe the tendency of some liberal staffers and activists to adopt causes seemingly unrelated to their primary area of focus;
Opinion: Unions are on a comeback. Americans are paying the price.
April 2, 2026 // So far, the union comeback has mostly been confined to courthouses and state legislatures. Membership hardly budged last year, rising from 9.9 percent of U.S. workers in 2024 to 10 percent in 2025. Yet if more states continue to mandate collective bargaining for public-sector workers — or decide to repeal right-to-work statutes for the private sector — rates can be expected to rise in those jurisdictions. If workers at a unionized shop are forced to pay dues regardless of their membership status, more will opt in as the financial incentive to remain unorganized slips away.
General Strike to Take Place Nationwide on April 5: Here’s What Is Impacted
April 2, 2026 // The General Strike 2026 movement describes itself as a decentralized, grassroots campaign made up of unions, organizations, and individual participants rather than a single centralized leadership structure. Organizers emphasize that the campaign doesn’t require registration and doesn’t collect personal data or information from participants. The website also states that the group will not publish a list of collaborating organizations—positioning the strike as participant‑driven and flexible in how people choose to engage. Updates and organizing materials are shared primarily through social media channels, blog posts, and downloadable flyers that supporters are encouraged to distribute at protests, marches, or community events.
Op-ed: New Options for Your 401(k)
April 1, 2026 // The law doesn’t allow ulterior motives to infect plan investments. The duty to invest for the sole financial benefit of plan participants doesn’t allow fiduciaries to pursue political agendas or engage in self-dealing. The Labor Department will be ready to enforce the law if plan fiduciaries act with a disloyal motive or threaten the retirement security of American workers. The department isn’t promoting any particular investment option. We aren’t picking winners and losers. We are leveling the playing field so that plan fiduciaries can exercise their judgment—selecting plan investments without fear of undue liability. We are applying the principle-based rules that the law requires.
VA re-terminates AFGE contract for 300K employees, despite court order to restore it
March 30, 2026 // The Office of Personnel Management initially told agencies to hold off on terminating labor contracts with unions while legal challenges were still pending. But OPM reversed course last month, when it advised agencies to proceed with either amending or fully canceling their collective bargaining agreements. In granting her preliminary injunction, DuBose wrote that she did not determine whether the Trump administration exceeded its legal authority when it issued its executive orders rolling back collective bargaining rights. The legality of the executive order is still under review by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and the District of Columbia Court of Appeals.
FLRA to boost political involvement in federal union representation cases
March 30, 2026 // The Federal Labor Relations Authority issued a pair of interim final rules on Tuesday, revising its internal operations for how it processes the labor-management cases. Once the rules take effect next month, the FLRA’s three-member board of political appointees will become involved in initial decisions on amending bargaining units, overseeing union elections and certifying new union chapters. That initial process is currently designated to regional directors — career federal employees — from FLRA’s Office of General Counsel.
No Rail Strike This Time
March 23, 2026 // But there are other reasons as well for the clear tracks for this deal. The National Railway Labor Conference (NRLC), which negotiates on behalf of the railroads with the 12 main rail worker unions, said that the latest bargaining round “has seen historic collaboration between freight rail carriers and unions.” “Historic” could be a small stretch, but it does appear that both union negotiators and management went into this round determined to strike a bargain that workers and railroads could live with. In addition to money, both unions and management have touted better benefits and more paid leave.