Sam Forstag, who parachutes from planes to fight wildfires, believes pro-worker polices can flip district from Trump ally
Sam Forstag is used to launching himself into heated territory.
As a smokejumper, his job is to jump out of airplanes 3,000 feet in the air and parachute down into the Montana wilderness. Going by air is often the easiest way to access the remote wilderness and combat the wildfires that burn an average of 7.2 million acres a year in the state.
Continue reading...Union coverage slightly increased last year even as White House tried to eliminate contracts for thousands of workers
The number of workers covered under union contracts increased to a 16-year high in 2025, despite ongoing attempts by the Trump administration to wipe out collective bargaining agreements for tens of thousands of federal workers, according to new data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
About 16.5 million workers were covered by a union contract in 2025, up from 16 million in 2024 and the highest level since 2009. The increase stems from workers joining unions as members – 14.7 million US workers were union members in 2025, up from 14.2 million workers in 2024.
Continue reading...Nearly three-month strike includes 3,200 machinists at plants where military aircraft and weapons are developed
Boeing workers at three midwest plants where military aircraft and weapons are developed voted Sunday to reject the company’s latest contract offer and to continue a strike that started almost three months ago.
The strike by about 3,200 machinists at the plants in Mascoutah, Illinois, and the Missouri cities of St Louis and St Charles is smaller in scale than a walkout last year by 33,000 Boeing workers who assemble commercial jetliners but threatens to complicate the aerospace company’s progress in regaining its financial footing.
Continue reading...Rallies from Alaska to Hawaii will highlight cuts to wages, unions and social safety nets under Trump policies
Nearly 1,000 “worker over billionaire” protests are being planned in all 50 states starting this weekend as part of a Labor Day week of action organized by labor unions and advocacy groups in opposition to the Trump administration’s policies.
The actions include marches and rallies in cities such as Chicago and Los Angeles, a Labor Day parade in New York City, rallies in Palmer, Alaska, Freeport, Maine, and a planned protest at the state capitol in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Continue reading...Administration has stripped hundreds of thousands of their union contracts as White House says it is just getting started
The Trump administration has unilaterally stripped hundreds of thousands of federal workers of their union contracts after a federal appeals court overruled an injunction which halted the plans. It is just getting started, according to the White House.
An executive order issued in March sought to cancel all collective bargaining agreements for most federal employees, citing national security concerns – and remove collective bargaining rights from more than a million workers.
Continue reading...Over 3,200 union machinists around St Louis expected to strike at midnight on Monday as they seek new contract
More than 3,200 unionized workers who assemble Boeing’s fighter jets in the St Louis area rejected Boeing’s latest offer on Sunday and will strike at midnight on Monday, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers union said.
“IAM District 837 members ... deserve a contract that reflects their skill, dedication, and the critical role they play in our nation’s defense,” the union’s business representative, Tom Boelling, said.
Continue reading...Freedom Flotilla Coalition says Smalls was ‘choked and kicked’ after aid ship trying to reach Gaza was intercepted
On Saturday night, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) intercepted and boarded the Handala, an aid ship that attempted to reach Gaza as part of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, a grassroots international collective that has worked to end Israel’s blockade of Gaza since 2010. According to the coalition, IDF soldiers beat and choked the American labor activist Chris Smalls, who was onboard the ship. Smalls is most well-known for co-founding the Amazon Labor Union.
The Handala, which carried food, baby formula, diapers and medicine, was attempting to breach Israel’s blockade of Gaza, as Palestinians there continue to starve in what UN-backed hunger experts have called a “worst-case scenario of famine” that is unfolding.
Continue reading...Plane maker expects over 3,200 union workers at three St Louis-area plants to strike after overwhelming no vote
Boeing Co expects more than 3,200 union workers at three St Louis-area plants that produce US fighter jets to strike after they rejected a proposed contract on Sunday that included a 20% wage increase over four years.
The International Machinists and Aerospace Workers union said the vote by District 837 members was overwhelmingly against the proposed contract. The existing contract was to expire at 11.59pm central time on Sunday, but the union said a “cooling off” period would keep a strike from beginning for another week, until 4 August.
Continue reading...Companies hail ‘historic partnership’ to bring ‘massive investment’ but details of agreement remain unclear
Donald Trump on Friday signed an executive order paving the way for a Nippon Steel investment in US Steel, so long as the Japanese company complies with a “national security agreement” submitted by the federal government.
Trump’s order did not detail the terms of the national security agreement. But US Steel and Nippon Steel said in a joint statement that the agreement stipulates that approximately $11bn in new investments will be made by 2028 and includes giving the US government a “golden share” – essentially veto power to ensure the country’s national security interests are protected.
Continue reading...Executive order cites national security to strip bargaining rights from more than 1 million federal workers
The Trump administration is seeking to strip collective bargaining rights from large swaths of federal employees in a test case union leaders argue is part of a broader attack on US labor unions that could land before the US Supreme Court.
A Trump win would deliver a severe blow to labor unions in the US. Some 29.9% of all federal workers were represented by labor unions in 2024 compared to 11.1% for all US workers.
Continue reading...Musk’s Doge targets National Labor Relations Board with cuts and terminated leases as union speaks out
Democrats have warned that cuts to the US’s top labor watchdog threaten to render the organization “basically ineffectual” and will be “catastrophic” for workers’ rights.
The so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge) has targeted the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) for cuts and ended its leases in several states.
Continue reading...Employees brace for president to transfer or privatize Postal Service, which they say will slash jobs and boost prices
US Postal Service workers and advocates are holding a day of action today in more than 150 cities as they brace for the Trump administration to launch an “illegal hostile takeover” which they warn will slash jobs, boost prices and shut down post offices.
Donald Trump’s officials are weighing plans to transfer the USPS to the Department of Commerce, stripping it of its independence. The president and his allies have also signaled they are willing to privatize the service.
Continue reading...Email says employees eligible to take voluntary retirement and directs workers to share accomplishments of past week
The US health department told employees on Monday they could apply for early retirement over the next 10 days and should respond to a request for information on their accomplishments of the past week, according to emails seen by Reuters.
Republican president Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk, who oversees the so-called “department of government efficiency”, are spearheading an unprecedented effort to shrink the federal bureaucracy, including through job cuts.
Continue reading...President has begun slashing federal workforce while hobbling labor watchdogs NLRB and EEOC
As a presidential candidate last fall, Donald Trump repeatedly promised to battle for US workers, but ever since he returned to the White House, he has taken a surprisingly large number of anti-worker actions, labor experts say. Some of those moves, among them hobbling the National Labor Relations Board, will help Trump’s billionaire business friends, most notably Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos.
In his first few weeks back in office, Trump fired the acting chair of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), leaving the US’s top labor watchdog without a quorum to enforce laws that protect workers’ right to unionize. Trump has designated Musk, a vehemently anti-union billionaire, to launch an all-out war against the federal bureaucracy and workforce, and Trump and Musk have essentially treated the country’s 2 million-plus federal employees as if they were disposable.
Continue reading...The man given free rein by Trump to crusade against the federal government supported Democrats until 2022. But some of Musk’s longstanding positions lead a straight line to his far-right sympathies
Elon Musk is not a people person, as millions around the world will be able to attest after the planet’s richest man cut off food supplies, healthcare and probably even life itself to some of the most vulnerable without so much as a fore- or afterthought.
Musk sees himself as a data man, wielding numbers like a machete to slash and burn his way through government waste and corruption as he leads the rightwing charge to capture the US state.
Continue reading...Two-week strike begins as union for King Soopers alleges surveillance of workers and pushes to gut health benefits
Ten thousand workers at Kroger-owned King Soopers grocery stores in Colorado begin a two-week unfair labor practice strike on Thursday.
The union, United Food and Commercial Workers local 7, whose contract expired last month, voted 96% in favor of authorizing the strike.
Continue reading...Office of personnel management workers say anxiety is palpable amid intimidation and threat of dismissal
US government workers are describing an atmosphere of “fear” and “madness” as they grapple with a barrage of executive orders issued by Donald Trump and threats to their jobs from the office of personnel management, the agency tasked with managing the federal civil service, which has been taken over by the billionaire Elon Musk.
Weeks before the administration transition, federal worker unions reported low morale among workers in anticipation of pushes for intimidation, mass firings and harassment.
Continue reading...NIH fellows say policy changes including funding freeze would ‘severely limit’ researchers’ ability to do their work
A union representing about 5,000 researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has issued a legally binding demand to bargain over Donald Trump’s sweeping policy changes, including a funding freeze, a communications blackout and a staff travel ban.
The NIH is the largest biomedical institution in the world, providing more than $40bn annually to fund health research, providing grants to more than 300,000 researchers at more thab 2,500 universities, medical schools and other research institutions globally, with nearly 6,000 scientists performing research in its own labs.
Continue reading...Government employees’ union says offer pressures career workers to quit and will cause chaos in federal programs
The Trump administration has offered federal workers buyouts worth more than seven months’ salary if they would leave their jobs by 6 February as the White House attempts to slash the civil service in an unprecedented overhaul of US government.
The office of personnel management, the government’s human resources agency, sent a memo to the federal workforce on Tuesday evening with four directives that it says Trump is mandating, including a full-time return to the office for most employees. It also said that the federal workforce would be subjected to “enhanced standards of suitability and conduct” and warned that most agencies would be downsized.
Continue reading...Julie Su, acting labor secretary, fears many of Biden’s pro-worker policies will be undone by the new administration
Even as Donald Trump says he will battle for America’s workers, the acting secretary of labor, Julie Su, is voicing fears that Trump will undo many of Joe Biden’s pro-worker policies, which include protecting workers from extreme heat and extending overtime pay to millions more workers.
In an interview with the Guardian, Su said that Trump might fall far short on delivering for workers considering the first Trump administration’s many anti-worker policies and in light of his having Elon Musk and other billionaires advising him. “It’s one thing to say you’re pro-worker, and it’s quite another thing to do it,” Su said. “You can’t be pro-billionaire and pro-working class. You can’t be pro-Elon Musk and pro-worker.”
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