Posts tagged Trump Administration
Trucking industry reacts to Trump administration move to protect independent contractors
September 5, 2025 // According to the ATA, for more than 90 years, independent contractors have played a vital role in trucking, providing flexibility for drivers and capacity for the supply chain. More than 350,000 professional truck drivers choose to run their own businesses, set their own hours, and chart their own routes.
Op-ed: This Labor Day marks 10 years of chaos for franchisees, contractors
September 1, 2025 // Franchises and contractors live in fear of the next anti-small-business administration, which is all but certain to shift the joint employer standard once again. But Congress can act now. The Save Local Business Act would codify the sensible standard in federal law.
The share of Californians in unions holds steady as nationwide numbers continue decline
August 28, 2025 // The report, which analyzed data collected by the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, found that the percentage of Californians covered by a union has hovered between 16% and 18% in the last two decades. In 2024, the most recent year analyzed by researchers, the Golden State’s 2.67 million union-represented workers amounted to 16.3% of its labor force. Unions have only been able to sustain those numbers through consistent new organizing, said Enrique Lopezlira, director of the Low-Wage Work Program at the UC Berkeley Labor Center and a co-author of the report.
Yosemite Workers Vote to Unionize
August 27, 2025 // Federal employees at Yosemite and Sequoia & Kings Canyon national parks have voted to unionize with the National Federation of Federal Employees. Across the two parks more than 97% of ballots cast in elections that ran from July 22 to Aug. 19 were in favor of unionizing, results that were certified by the Federal Labor Relations Authority on Monday. Yosemite and Sequoia & Kings Canyon join a handful of other unionized parks in the US. For decades, government agencies have been required to collectively bargain with employees if they unionize, but the process of negotiating a contract can take years, and the Trump administration has been working to hamstring federal unions’ power.
TVA privatization could spell trouble for unions in Appalachia, workers say
August 27, 2025 // Around 5700 union members work on a range of energy projects across the seven-state footprint of the Tennessee Valley Authority. From Western North Carolina to Tennessee, unionized workers work on TVA energy infrastructure, operate gas, coal, and nuclear plants, and check safety on waste ponds and landfills. While 24 full-time TVA employees work in Western North Carolina, union contractors are regularly called upon to maintain the region’s four major dams. Though all the states in which TVA operates are right-to-work states with resulting low union density, the TVA workforce is 57% unionized.
CDC finalizes roughly 600 layoffs; union says workforce ‘decimated’
August 26, 2025 // “I can confirm that roughly 600 CDC employees were let go,” an American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) spokesperson said in a statement to The Hill. “The cuts are across the agency including the Division of Violence Prevention, EEO, FOIA, the Office of Financial Resources, the offices of the chief information and chief operating officers, and more.” The AFGE blasted the timing of the firings, taking place so soon after the fatal shooting that occurred at the CDC’s offices in Atlanta.
UAW Local 4811 pushes for immigrant protections, pay equity in UC negotiations
August 25, 2025 // About 33,000 of the over 57,000 employees under UAW Local 4811, including academic student employees and graduate student researchers, are being represented in the ongoing negotiations. UAW Local 4811 is also representing nearly 5,000 student services and advising professionals in the determination of another bargaining unit contract – the first contract for the new group, which was recognized by the University in April. There are five bargaining units under UAW Local 4811 – academic student employees, graduate student researchers, student services and advising professionals, postdoctoral scholars and academic researchers – three of which are being represented in the current negotiations. Once a new contract is determined, ASEs and GSRs will merge to simplify bargaining and implementation, according to a press release from the UC Office of the President.
BlueOval SK begins production one week out from pivotal union vote. Here’s what that means
August 21, 2025 // Production is beginning just one week ahead of a major crossroads for workers. Plant staff will vote on whether or not to unionize with the United Auto Workers on Aug. 26 and 27.
Protect Worker Freedom to Best Help Black Women, All Workers
August 21, 2025 // The removal of DEI positions and programming under the second Trump Administration is also credited with having a disparate impact on Black women. This argument might sound reasonable to regular people, but data doesn’t prove it. Black women are overrepresented in federal jobs compared to private sector employment. They comprise 6.6% of the civilian workforce but 12.1% of the federal workforce, the largest differential among racial demographics.
Labor Day 2025: More protests than parades and picnics
August 20, 2025 // But the biggest blowout, organizers hope, is going to be on Labor Day itself. Local events can be found at MayDayStrong.org. There is also a toolkit for event hosts and organizers to coordinate their actions. The organizers hope to exceed the estimated five million people who hit the streets on No Kings Day back in April. The key demands at all the protests will be: “stop the billionaire takeover and rampant corruption of the Trump administration, protect and defend Medicaid, Social Security, and other programs for working people,” plus “fully funded schools, and healthcare and housing for all.” Marchers will also demand the Trump regime “stop the attacks on immigrants, Black, indigenous, trans people, and all our communities and invest in people, not wars.”