Last Week in Labor: March 7-13, 2025.

Good morning, Friday morning. I hope everyone had a decent week, and spent just a few moments basking in the evening sunshine now that we’ve sprung our clocks forward for the better part of the year.

You’ll notice that I’ve shuffled the publishing date for the digest to Friday mornings, which I think fits quite well in my increasingly packed schedule–but also makes more sense for an end-of-week roundup. You can expect to see each weekly digest in your inbox on Friday mornings going forward.

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Alright, let’s get rolling. Here’s the headlines from last week.

Notable News in Labor

Employees at the Nonprofit Behind Sesame Street Announce Unionizing with OPEIU Local 153--just days before layoff announcement

More than 200 employees at Sesame Workshop are unionizing, announcing their intention to form a union just days before the nonprofit issued layoffs to its staff. From the original union statement:

The group of more than 200 employees includes early childhood education experts, fundraisers, facilities staff, producers, paralegals, and more—representing a broad cross-section of the people who power Sesame Workshop’s impact. For more than 50 years, Sesame Workshop has been teaching generations of children, through both the iconic Sesame Street television show, as well as social impact programs around the world. Today, the organization reaches 150 million children in 150 countries with critical early learning.  

"Sesame Street has taught generations the importance of kindness, fairness, and standing up for what’s right,” said Phoebe Gilpin, Senior Director of Formal Learning. “As the dedicated staff behind this beloved show and so much more, we believe Sesame Workshop should embody those same values by ensuring all workers have a voice in the decisions that affect us. By coming together, we believe we can build a stronger, more supportive workplace that embodies the crucial lessons we teach the world’s children every day."

Unionized Gannett journalists in NJ overwhelmingly authorize walkout

On Monday, March 10, journalists at the Bergen Record in NJ, represented by The NewsGuild of New York, overwhelmingly voted to walk out. 92% of the bargaining unit voted, with 95% voting in favor of the walkout. The union has been bargaining their first contract with Gannett for more than three years. From the Newsguild’s recent release,

“Gannett continues to bargain in bad faith and insult us at the bargaining table. Our members’ walkout vote shows we won’t let Gannett bully us into submission,” said Kaitlyn Kanzler, Record Guild unit chair and courthouse reporter for The Record. “We’re willing to do what it takes to get a contract done. There is no journalism without us, the dedicated journalists who live in and report on North Jersey’s local communities.”

WGA Zeroes In On AI Protections In CBS News Contract Negotiations To “Safeguard Journalism As A Profession”

WGA began contract negotiations with CBS News this week, and top of the priority list is more protections against AI in the newsroom.

“This is bigger than a question about a wage increase. This is fundamentally a question about, How is this new technology that a lot of folks have invested significant amounts of capital in going to impact an industry that is the lifeblood of our civic life?” WGA East Executive Director Sam Wheeler tells Deadline. “We view journalists as essential workers. We view their work as absolutely critical to healthy society and healthy democracy. So given the absence of standards, certainly from the federal government, we believe that collective bargaining is the best way to address those and to safeguard journalism as a profession.”

USPS agrees to work with DOGE on reform, planning to cut 10,000 workers

In a blow to the country's longest-running infrastructure, USPS says it will work with DOGE to gut the agency. From AP:

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy plans to cut 10,000 workers and billions of dollars from the U.S. Postal Service budget and he’ll do that working with Elon Musk ’s Department of Government Efficiency, according to a letter sent to members of Congress on Thursday.

DOGE will assist USPS with addressing “big problems” at the $78 billion-a-year agency, which has sometimes struggled in recent years to stay afloat. The agreement also includes the General Services Administration in an effort to help the Postal Service identify and achieve “further efficiencies.”

[Editor's note: I have an episode with a member of the National Association of Letter Carriers coming out next Wednesday that discusses a number of related issues. Keep at eye out at The Real News for that--]

BLET, NJ Transit reach tentative agreement on labor pact

From Progressive Railroading,

The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) and New Jersey Transit have reached a tentative agreement on an eight-year contract that would cover 500 locomotive engineers.

If ratified, the contract would be retroactive to 2020 and run through 2027. The contract would end five years of negotiations that involved federal mediation and recommendations by two Presidential Emergency Boards, BLET officials said in a press release.

Included in the proposal is a commuter technology agreement that calls for the introduction of electronic information to be used by NJ Transit locomotive engineers. Other details of the tentative contract were not disclosed in the release.

Labor pushes transit bill to empower RTA over CTA, Metra, Pace

From the Chicago Sun-Times,

Some state senators on the Transportation Committee seemed receptive Tuesday to the labor-written bill that also seeks to build an RTA police force and a cadre of “transit ambassadors” to help provide information to riders.

Maryland union members rally in Annapolis for workplace safety, fair wages

Maryland unions rallied together at the Maryland General Assembly earlier this week to lobby for collective bargaining rights, workplace safety, fair wages, and adequate staffing.

The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 1072, which represents more than 3,700 employees at the University of Maryland and University of Maryland Global Campus, lobbied state lawmakers for more cost of living adjustments and workplace safety regulations. More than 200 people attended the event in Annapolis, which was hosted by the Maryland State and D.C. AFL-CIO.

“When unions express their powers through their numbers, and you have large numbers of people who have common concerns and common goals show up to make their voices heard, that is difficult to ignore,” Todd Holden, AFSCME Local 1072’s president, told The Diamondback. “The outcomes of state workers are often reflective of the concerns that any Marylander faces as well.”

California Senator Introduces Bill To Regulate AI In The Workplace

Democratic State Senator Jerry McNerney introduced the "No Robo Bosses Act" on Thurs, March 6 in the California Assembly.

According to the Senator’s office, Senate Bill 7 would establish “necessary safeguards of AI in the workplace” by:

• Requiring human oversight and independent verification for promotion, demotion, firing, and disciplinary decisions.
• Barring ADS systems from obtaining or inferring a worker’s immigration status; veteran status; ancestral history; religious or political beliefs; health or reproductive status, history, or plan; emotional or psychological state; neural data; sexual or gender orientation; disability; criminal record; credit history or any other statuses protected state law.
• Prohibiting the use of ADS for predictive behavior analysis based on personal information collected on workers that results in adverse action against a worker for what the AI predicts the worker will do.
• Creating a process for workers to appeal decisions made by ADS.

The Center Workers Form Union with CWA for Frontline Workers Serving LGBTQ+ Community

From a CWA press release,

Today, workers at the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center (The Center) announced that they are forming a union with the Communications Workers of America (CWA) Local 1180.

“The LGBTQ+ community suffers when workers are ignored, overworked, or forced to leave,” said Gloria Middleton, president of CWA Local 1180. “A union contract that secures good working conditions ensures that workers at The Center can best serve and support New York City’s LGBTQ+ community.”

"Unionizing to me is the best thing we can do to support the center as people who love The Center,” said Shana Salzberg, a Youth Substance Use Treatment Coordinator. “I feel so lucky that my job as a counselor gets to be to help young people be their full selves. I want myself and my colleagues who love and are committed to this work to be able to work at The Center long term and be able sustain ourselves in the tough work we do day in and day out. For that, we need a union to ensure we are getting paid a fair wage and to support us in an unstable and scary time."

Kentucky lawmakers push to weaken worker safety protections

From reporting here,

Kentucky lawmakers are considering a bill that would ban the state from enforcing existing worker safety laws that are above and beyond federal standards. Critics say it would weaken worker’s rights and put employees in manufacturing, construction, mining, and other dangerous jobs at higher risk. According to state data from 2022, Kentucky’s workplace injury and death rates are higher than the national average.

Dustin Reinstedler, Kentucky AFL-CIO president, said Kentucky needs state laws that match industry-specific needs and challenges.

“There’s so many things like coal mining, the bourbon industry, some of the heavy metals, aluminum and steel manufacturing that we have here that really aren’t in other states,” he explained.

If passed, House Bill 398 would eliminate the right of a worker’s family, clergy, or attorney to request a safety inspection - a right that exists in all other states. It would also shorten the time for an employee to file a worker safety complaint and for the state to issue employer citations.

To close out this section, I'd like to link two pieces of reporting that I worked on this last week. Just to toot my own horn a tiny bit :P

Blue Bottle Coffee Workers Fight Nestle For a First Contract--With International Support

From my article on the Blue Bottle Independent Union,

After workers unionized at six Nestle-owned Blue Bottle coffee shops in Massachusetts in 2024, they have been in the midst of a pitched struggle to secure a first contract for their members. Their landslide victory against the multinational corporation has been a source of optimism for the coffee industry, and the union has enjoyed broad support from their customers, other unions in Massachusetts, and even workers along the international supply chain. Now, months into bargaining, frustrations mount as the company seems determined to drag things out as long as possible.

Show Us The Ropes: How Touchstone Climbing Gym Workers Unionized Five Locations

Workers scaled new heights by unionizing Touchstone Climbing wall-to-wall in 5 of its Los Angeles locations. Now they want to keep a grip on their contract fight.

This week, we’re staying in Southern California, where the workers of Touchstone Climbing Gym in Los Angeles have been negotiating their first contract with their employer. Touchstone Climbing, a regional climbing gym with over a dozen locations in California, experienced a wave of unionization in its Los Angeles locations early last year. The successful campaign with Workers United created a wall-to-wall union at each of the company’s five locations in the Los Angeles area. Members of the LA-based gym are often themselves union members, and the response from the climbing community has been overwhelmingly positive.

However, workers have been navigating a frustrating negotiation in order to reach an agreement on a first contract. Chief among workers’ demands is better communications, higher safety standards, and better pay.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/4pUsjHP7LMoaCLKnd8tv4e?si=81da6a1ab85b42dc

Unions Respond to the Trump Administration

AFL-CIO President on Chavez-DeRemer’s Confirmation to Head Department of Labor

On March 10, AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler issued a statement on the Senate vote to confirm Lori Chavez-DeRemer as secretary of labor, saying in part,

As she assumes duties as head of DOL, we urge Chavez-DeRemer to use her position in the Trump Cabinet to advocate forcefully for working people who depend on the Department of Labor to vigorously defend our wages, health and safety, and freedom to join a union. We also urge her to stop the DOGE purge of DOL employees who uphold our nation’s federal labor laws, protect working people’s sensitive private information, and push back on any attempts by the Project 2025 agenda to gut the rules that protect working people on the job….The labor movement looks forward to working with Chavez-DeRemer to ensure she’s a voice of reason within this administration.

NEA Open Letter on Abduction of Mahmoud Khalil

On March 12, the NEA published an open letter to the Trump admin in support of Mahmoud Khalil, which reads in part,

As a union of 3 million educators, stretching across the country to every community, we have an obligation to act. Together, we will continue the call for justice and to hold powerful people to account. Under the First Amendment, the government cannot retaliate against any of us for our protected speech or punish us for holding any particular viewpoint, even a viewpoint with which others strongly disagree. That protection applies to students on college campuses—no matter their immigration status, race, or religion.

The Trump administration’s actions against Mr. Khalil violate these rights and protections. The government has ripped Mr. Khalil from his home, detained him, and threatened his immigration status solely based on his protected political activities. This is a clear and patently unconstitutional attempt by President Trump to silence dissent. Political speech cannot be the basis for legal punishment. It certainly cannot be the basis for deportation.

Labor Leaders Sign Open Letter Calling for End to Trump’s Attacks on Immigrants and Free Speech in Wake of Mahmoud Khalil’s Arrest

https://www.instagram.com/p/DHHIbNsvyn0/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

AFL-CIO: Ending Collective Bargaining at TSA is a ‘Dangerous’ Move that Would Put Lives At Risk

AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler issued the following statement in response to the Trump administration announcing it is ending collective bargaining rights for transportation security officers at the Transportation Security Administration (TSA):

TSA officers are the front-line defense at America’s airports for the millions of families who travel by air each year. Canceling the collective bargaining agreement between TSA and its security officer workforce is dangerous union-busting ripped from the pages of Project 2025 that leaves the 47,000 officers who protect us without a voice.

Through a union, TSA officers are empowered to improve work conditions and make air travel safer for passengers. With this sweeping, illegal directive, the Trump administration is retaliating against unions for challenging its unlawful Department of Government Efficiency actions against America’s federal workers in court.

IATSE President Meets With Kennedy Center Workers Affected by Trump Turmoil, Urges Productions Not to ‘Walk Away’

From reporting at The Wrap:

Matthew D. Loeb, president of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, met this week with union members who work at the Kennedy Center and who face financial uncertainty as a result of more than a dozen show cancellations made in protest of Donald Trump’s takeover of the performing arts complex’s board.

“Behind-the-scenes workers need to feed our families and have neither participated in any decisions relating to booked content, nor have we considered social issues as a matter of whether we service a production in the history of our relationship at the Kennedy Center,” Loeb said in a statement.

Judge orders rehiring of thousands of fired probationary federal employees

From reporting here,

WASHINGTON — A federal judge in California ordered the Trump administration to immediately reinstate thousands of jobs for probationary federal workers fired as part of billionaire Elon Musk’s campaign to slash the federal workforce.

Judge William Alsup ruled Thursday morning that tens of thousands of workers must be rehired across numerous federal agencies, including the departments of Agriculture, Defense, Energy, Interior, Treasury and Veterans Affairs, extending his previous temporary emergency order issued Feb. 28.

Alsup, appointed in 1999 by former President Bill Clinton to the Northern District of California, ruled in favor of numerous plaintiffs that brought the suit against the Trump administration’s Office of Personnel Management.

Alsup’s order also prohibits OPM from advising any federal agency on which employees to fire. Additionally, Alsup is requiring the agencies to provide documentation of compliance to the court, according to the plaintiffs who were present in the courtroom.

Commentary & Analysis

"Can you be a 'Pro-Worker' Union Buster? No."

Strike, or Else

From Hamilton Nolan,

The most important thing about a union contract is that it is a contract. It is a legally binding agreement. It is not a passing fancy. It is not an empty promise, a public relations ploy. It is a contract. It is a guarantee. The things that are laid out in the contract are guaranteed, for the length of the contract. Abiding by its provisions is mandatory, not optional.

This is a bedrock principle. It is why working people fight so hard to, first, win a union, and then—more fighting—to win a fair contract. The contract makes all of that effort worthwhile. Why? Because it is the ineradicable manifestation of what you have won. You may have struggled, and marched, and endured threats and retaliation, and poured years of energy into organizing, and a big reason why you kept going through all of those hardships is that you knew that once you won your contract, you would get what is in the contract. For well over a century, workers and bosses have fought bitterly over whether workers can have unions, and what those unions can do, and what is fair or unfair to put into contracts, but all of those battles are framed by a shared understanding that what goes into the contract is very important because contracts, once agreed to, are real.

NLRB EDGE - 3/14

Waffle House Illegally Interrogated Employees:

This case involves a dispute between Waffle House, Inc. and the Service Employees International Union regarding alleged unfair labor practices at a Waffle House restaurant in Columbia, South Carolina. The case was tried before Administrative Law Judge Arthur J. Amchan in February 2025, following a charge filed by the union in July 2023.

NLRB EDGE, 3/13

Regional Director Rejects Argument about Lack of Quorum

This case involves a representation petition filed on February 14, 2025, by Local 324, International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE), AFL-CIO seeking to represent a bargaining unit of employees at Magnum Management Corporation's amusement and water park in Muskegon, Michigan.

The key issue in this case was not the appropriateness of the bargaining unit, which was undisputed, but rather the Employer's argument that the Regional Director lacked authority to process representation petitions when the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) lacks its statutorily mandated quorum of three members.

Union Ironworker Explains Why You Should Join a Union

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DHG2-3Wuwx0/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

Labor by the Numbers

There were 54 filings for union representation with the NLRB last week. Here are a few that stand out to me:

• 3 FT directors assigned to 24/7 broadcasts at CBS Interactive unionized with IBEW Local 45. (It only takes a few to form a union!)
• 24 Transit Operations Supervisors at New Orleans Regional Transit Authority unionized with the Teamsters Local 270.
• 40 PT/FT employees at AC Marriott Sacramento unionized with UNITE HERE Local 49.
• 37 FT/PT employees at PetSmart in East Hartford, CT unionized with UFCW Local 371.

Looking Ahead

As I mentioned above, I'll be working diligently over the next six months to build this newsletter out to include more original labor reporting, book reviews and author interviews, interviews with labor organizers, scholars, and others. Some things will begin to be paywalled as I broaden the scope of the newsletter, and I hope that you see the value in an affordable paid subscription so that I can keep doing this work.

As always, this digest will remain free and available to everyone. If you have any labor-related tips that you'd specifically like to see on Words About Work, send me an email at mel.buer.reports@gmail.com

Alright friends, that’s it for our digest. Keep an eye out on my socials for updates on additional reporting I’ll be adding to the website, including more focused labor and movement reporting, book reviews, profiles and interviews, and other exciting items that I haven’t quite found a home for elsewhere.

Thanks for sticking around, and we’ll see you next week for the next round-up.

Much love and solidarity,

Mel