08/20/2025 - 9:30pm
AFL-CIO Bus Tour Joins AFSCME for a March on Rep. Kim’s Office to Demand Accountability for Service Cuts
On Tuesday, as part of the AFL-CIO “It’s Better in a Union” bus tour, AFSCME President Lee Saunders and more than 100 union members in Anaheim, California, called for Rep. Young Kim to be held accountable for her vote to cut services at local hospitals, nursing homes and schools to pay for billionaire tax breaks.
Workers gathered for a press conference to speak out against the disastrous funding cuts in the Trump administration’s budget and then marched to Rep. Kim’s office to deliver a letter detailing how the bill will hurt their communities.
“Rep. Young Kim voted for the largest cuts to Medicaid and affordable health care in our nation’s history,” said Saunders. “She voted to increase health care premiums and rip coverage away from [more than] 15 million people across America—including as many as 31,000 people right here in California’s 40th district. She voted to kill thousands of jobs funded by Medicaid—nurses, home care workers, paramedics, special education aides and more….So, today, we’re here to send a message to Congresswoman Kim: With this vote, it’s clear we can’t count on you.”
Kenneth Quinnell
Wed, 08/20/2025 - 15:17
Tags:
Better in a Union Bus Tour
08/20/2025 - 3:30pm
Service & Solidarity Spotlight: Labor Leaders and Workers Rally Nationwide for Stand for Veterans, Stand for Unions Day of Action
Working people across the United States regularly step up to help out our friends, neighbors and communities during these trying times. In our Service & Solidarity Spotlight series, we’ll showcase one of these stories every day. Here’s today’s story.
Across more than 10 cities, union members and veterans gathered to fight back against the Trump administration’s aggressive attacks on Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) staffing and collective bargaining agreements.
The rallies followed the VA's unilateral cancellation of nearly all of its union contracts last week. Workers who provide essential care and services for returning service members are represented by unions like AFGE, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), National Nurses United (NNU), the National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE-IAM) and the National Association of Government Employees (NAGE/SEIU).
“Unfair treatment in the workplace will skyrocket,” said Aimee Potter, a social worker and AFGE Local 789 union steward who spoke in Chicago. “[VA Secretary Douglas] Collins claims this will improve veterans’ care, but the truth is, this decision paves the way for mass job cuts, terminations and the hollowing-out of the agency.”
"They canceled my appointment because they literally do not have the staff to cover everybody," said veteran Alissa Ellman who attended a rally in Syracuse, New York. "The waiting room was empty, and the last three visits I’ve had to the VA, the bathrooms in the Buffalo VA have been absolutely filthy. Why? Not because people don’t want to do a good job, don’t want to clean, they’ve been clean for the last 20 years while I’ve been getting health care there, it’s because they are lacking in staff.”
“The call to order is to stop trying to privatize the VA, to stop trying to give our health care, our health care service to a private sector person that’s going to make a profit off of it,” said Nashville, Tennessee, rally goer and Navy veteran Jim Wohlgemuth. “The government for decades, for decades, has been more than happy to send us overseas to wherever and then leave us alone when we get back.”
Kenneth Quinnell
Tue, 08/19/2025 - 09:59
08/20/2025 - 3:30pm
Service & Solidarity Spotlight: Steelworkers Fundraise for Clairton Coke Works Explosion Victims
Working people across the United States regularly step up to help out our friends, neighbors and communities during these trying times. In our Service & Solidarity Spotlight series, we’ll showcase one of these stories every day. Here’s today’s story.
United Steelworkers (USW) Local 1557 members are mobilizing to raise donations and provide community support for the victims of the U.S. Steel Clairton Coke Works explosion.
The fatal explosion at the Pittsburgh-area coal-processing plant last week killed two workers and injured 10 others. The day after the tragic disaster, the co-chairs of Local 1557’s NextGen committee, Zack Mainhart and Travis Laing, sprang into action with local businesses and faith leaders to support victims, survivors and their families.
“We’ll do everything in our power to help them. If they need school supplies, groceries, a shoulder or an ear, [Local] 1557 will be there,” said Mainhart. “We are in this together. Our members and their families have a tough [road] ahead, but they will not be alone.”
Kenneth Quinnell
Wed, 08/20/2025 - 09:43
08/20/2025 - 3:30pm
Workers First: In the States Roundup
It's time once again to take a look at the ways working people are making progress in the states. Click on any of the links to follow the state federations on X.
Alaska AFL-CIO:
Arizona AFL-CIO:
08/18/2025 - 8:00pm
AFL-CIO Bus Tour Stops in Philadelphia as Teachers Prepare to Strike; Travels to Long Beach to Defend VA Union Contracts
![Photos from the Long Beach [left] and Philadelphia rallies [right].](https://aflcio.org/sites/default/files/2025-08/philly.png)
The AFL-CIO “It’s Better In a Union” bus made two powerful stops on Friday as its nationwide tour rolls on. In Philadelphia, the bus tour joined the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers (PFT) at its last strike preparation gathering before the new school year begins; in Long Beach California, it stopped by a Protect Veterans’ Care and Stop Retaliation Against Workers rally at the Tibor Rubin Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center.
PFT members are currently in negotiations with the School District of Philadelphia in hope of reaching a new contract and avoiding a walkout. However, they are still preparing to strike if necessary. At the event, teachers received support from other local unions and the families of their students. Attendees made signs and gathered materials that will be needed if the strike becomes a reality. PFT’s current agreement expires on Aug. 31.
“You have a calling to prepare and educate the next generations of Philadelphians and Americans. You’re patriots! You’re really making it happen here in Philadelphia and across the commonwealth,” Philadelphia Council of the AFL-CIO President Danny Bauder told the crowd gathered in front of the bus. “No matter what it takes, if it’s escalated activities, rallies or shutting the city down, we’re gonna do it and we’re going to win when we do!”
In Long Beach, AFGE National President Everett Kelley and Reps. Nanette Barragán and Derek Tran joined Los Angeles-area union members, veterans and community members to fight back against attacks on the VA. Speakers called on Congress to stop the Trump administration’s efforts to privatize the nation’s largest public health care system and demanded the restoration of federal workers’ collective bargaining rights.
AFGE Local 1061 President and Army veteran Dewanda Mitchell said: “Trump is trying to silence union VA workers because we’re the ones standing in the way of his ultimate goal: privatizing all VA care and selling veterans out to the lowest bidder. This is retaliation! Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.”
Kenneth Quinnell
Mon, 08/18/2025 - 13:19
Tags:
Better in a Union Bus Tour
08/18/2025 - 8:00pm
Stand Up for Working People: The Working People Weekly List
Every week, we bring you a roundup of the top news and commentary about issues and events important to working families. Here’s the latest edition of the Working People Weekly List.
Julie Su: Union-Buster in Chief: “Up until now, the go-to example of a president using his power to try to destroy unions and set back the labor movement was Ronald Reagan’s firing of striking air traffic controllers in 1981. That move threw 11,000 dedicated workers who kept Americans safe and flight paths clear out of their jobs. It declared open season on workers who exercised their fundamental rights to improve their working conditions, sending a message to private employers that they, too, could fight worker organizing drives, break strikes, and undermine workers’ rights. And its impact—a decades-long decline in union density and workers’ bargaining power—reverberated throughout the 1980s, ’90s, and into this century.”
Mark Dimondstein: Mail Workers Union Leader: The U.S. Postal Service Is Not for Sale: “Growing up near the Boston Post Road, I never appreciated that I had the early postal system to thank for this old thoroughfare between New York and Boston. Nor did I know that I would one day proudly earn a living as a postal worker and spend 12 years as the elected leader of my union of postal workers. As the U.S. Postal Service celebrates its 250th anniversary, my experience lends a unique perspective on its past, present, and future. Older than the country itself and enshrined in the Constitution, the Postal Service reflected a then-radical commitment to the free exchange of ideas and information. The Founding Fathers relied on the Postal Service to organize the Second Continental Congress and to circulate the Federalist Papers. Later, the abolitionist movement agitated and organized against the evils of slavery largely through mailed newspapers and correspondence.”
Over 160 Blizzard Workers in Irvine Join Union as Gaming-Industry Labor Movement Expands: “More than 160 workers at video game company Blizzard Entertainment have voted to unionize. The workers, who produce in-house cinematics, animation, trailers, promotional videos and other narrative content, are just the latest batch in the video game industry to unionize, with more than 6,000 having organized across the U.S. and Canada. A wave of organizing in the industry has been driven in recent years by such issues as crunch-time hours before a product releases, job insecurity and workplace harassment.”
WMU Board of Trustees Approves New Contract with AFSCME Union: “The Western Michigan University Board of Trustees held their first meeting Wednesday with new President Russ Kavalhuna driving the agenda. It was a meeting only in the official sense, as the board met virtually in a special online session to ratify a contract with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) union.”
Labor Unions Mobilize to Challenge Advance of Algorithms in Workplaces: “As employers and tech companies rush to deploy artificial intelligence software into workplaces to improve efficiency, labor unions are stepping up work with state lawmakers across the nation to place guardrails on its use. The renewed drive to regulate AI could change how workers are exposed to AI in their jobs and complicate industry plans to roll out technology such as robotaxis or tools that track individuals’ productivity. It comes after the Senate killed a proposed federal moratorium that would have banned states from regulating AI for the next 10 years.”
Fred Redmond Joins Tavis Smiley: “Fred Redmond, the highest-ranking African American labor official in history as secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO, says we’re in the middle of another Hot Labor Summer with a big Boeing strike, a beautiful bus tour, and bad Black unemployment numbers.”
AFL-CIO Bus Tour Stops at Chicago A. Philip Randolph Gathering: “Beginning on July 5, the AFL-CIO has been sending two buses to collect testimony from workers across the country who are concerned about the Trump administration’s policies, in a lead-up to rallies across the country on Labor Day and in preparation for the 2026 midterm elections. Prior to Friday’s address, AFL-CIO secretary-treasurer Fred Redmond and others attended rallies in support of striking workers in the Chicago area at QSL America, The Emily Hotel and The Chicago History Museum. ‘We want to make sure that people understand that organized labor is committed to stand up for working people and their concerns are our concern,’ Redmond said in an interview with People’s World. ‘We’re going to elevate their voices in Washington, D.C., and throughout the country.’”
Latino Labor Organization Pushes Unity Among All Workers: “The leadership of the nation’s largest labor federation, the AFL-CIO, was represented by top labor leaders including Secretary-Treasurer Fred Redmond who moved the attendees with his declaration that ‘the attack of the administration on everything we believe in has been tremendous, the attack on federal workers, immigrant workers, women, collective bargaining that built the middle class in this country. Cut funding for healthcare and education for tax breaks for the billionaires! Ten million will lose healthcare! They have further destroyed due process. They sold out the working class.’”
Fred Redmond: Trump Didn’t Just Fail to Protect Black Jobs. He’s Leading Us to Black Unemployment: “President Trump likes to say he is delivering for working people. He promised on the campaign trail that he would protect ‘Black jobs.’ But like so many of his promises, it is an empty one. In fact, we have been living with the effects of Trump’s policies since he took office in January and the only thing he has delivered for us is employment uncertainty and financial insecurity. The July jobs report that came out last week is starting to reflect that.”
MaryBe McMillan: 'Big Beautiful Bill' Will Deplete Medicaid Coverage, Close Rural Hospitals: “The so-called ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ that President Donald Trump signed into law on the Fourth of July will have devastating impacts on the health and food security of working people across North Carolina. The coming wave of drastic cuts to federal spending on essential social programs will ripple through every community.”
Kenneth Quinnell
Fri, 08/15/2025 - 11:31
08/18/2025 - 1:30pm
Get to Know AFL-CIO's Affiliates: OPEIU
This is the next post in our series that will take a deeper look at each of our affiliates. The series will run weekly until we've covered all 63 of our affiliates. Next up is the Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU).
Name of Union: Office and Professional Employees International Union
Mission: “To improve the lives of working families by bringing economic justice to the workplace and social justice to our communities. Acting as a strong and united voice in the workplace and in the communities in which we live, OPEIU seeks to bring the benefits of representation to all working people and their families.”
Current Leadership of Union: Tyler Turner serves as OPEIU president. Turner is the son of Becky Turner, OPEIU vice president emerita and former Local 277 president and business manager. Upon going to work in 2007 for Kaiser Permanente’s Consolidated Service Center in Fort Worth, Texas, Turner joined Local 277. Soon after becoming a member, he realized his passion for labor activism and went to work directly for the local as support staff. In 2011, Turner was promoted to business representative for Local 277 and began representing members working for American Income Life Insurance Company across the United States and New Zealand. That same year, he was elected to the Tarrant County Central Labor Council Executive Board as a member at large, where he served on various committees. Turner was later appointed to the Local 277 Executive Board as recording secretary. In 2013, he was promoted to senior business representative and elected as a District 8 vice president for the Texas AFL-CIO. He was elected president of Local 277 in 2017, and the following year was elected as a trustee for the Tarrant County Central Labor Council. He has served on the OPEIU Executive Board since 2019. He was named president of the international union in February 2025.
Mary Mahoney has served as secretary-treasurer since 2010. OPEIU has 17 vice presidents.
Number of Members: 94,000
Members Work As: Health care employees, including registered nurses and podiatrists, clerical workers, credit union employees, nonprofit employees, teachers, college and university employees, and helicopter pilots.
Industries Represented: OPEIU members work at credit unions, hospitals and medical clinics, insurance companies, higher education, nonprofits, transportation, shipping, utilities, hotels, administrative offices and more.
History: The American Federation of Labor granted the first clerical federal charter to Local 1 of the Stenographers, Typists, Bookkeepers and Assistants Union in Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1906. Membership grew slowly until the passage of the Wagner Act in 1935. The legislation granted collective bargaining rights to working people and propelled thousands of clerical employees to form dozens of unions. In 1936, Mollie Levitas called for a resolution recognizing an international union of office workers. Nine years later, the AFL granted a charter to the Office Employees International Union (OEIU), which had 22,000 members. In 1965, 10 years after the AFL merged with the Congress of Industrial Organizations, the OEIU rebranded as the Office and Professional Employees International Union. In the following decades, the union grew at a fast rate.
Current Campaigns/Community Efforts: The Rising Stars initiative seeks to create and network OPEIU youth programs across the country. The OPEIU Store sells merchandise branded with the union’s name and logo. OPEIU publishes OPEIU Connect magazine. OPEIU Justice for All provides resources to promote equality for all.
Learn More: Website, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, X, BlueSky, LinkedIn
Kenneth Quinnell
Mon, 08/18/2025 - 12:45
08/18/2025 - 1:30pm
Service & Solidarity Spotlight: Howard Community College Faculty Reach Tentative Agreement
Working people across the United States regularly step up to help out our friends, neighbors and communities during these trying times. In our Service & Solidarity Spotlight series, we’ll showcase one of these stories every day. Here’s today’s story.
Members of the United Academics of Maryland-Howard Community College (UAMD-HCC)—an affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), AFT-Maryland and the American Association of University Professors (AAUP)—have secured a tentative agreement for their first union contract.
The bargaining unit covers full-time faculty at HCC, who will vote on whether to ratify the deal later this month. In addition to a 4% cost-of-living adjustment and a $3,500 bonus for all full-time faculty, members also won a clear disciplinary process, greater job security, defined workload guardrails, increased shared governance with the college and more.
“This agreement is a testament to the hard work and commitment of our faculty,” said United Academics of Maryland-HCC Chair and Associate Professor Nadene Vevea. “After tough negotiations, we have secured vital advancements that not only recognize the contributions of our educators but also lay a foundation for a stronger academic environment at Howard Community College.”
“This tentative agreement is a monumental leap forward in improving faculty working conditions at Howard Community College and for the broader movement to strengthen higher education in Maryland,” said AFT-Maryland President Kenya Campbell. “Faculty at Howard Community College stood together to demand better, and this tentative agreement delivers not only for them but also builds momentum for the fight for all community college faculty statewide.”
Kenneth Quinnell
Mon, 08/18/2025 - 09:22
08/16/2025 - 12:00am
AFL-CIO Bus Tour Fights Back Against Medicaid and Social Security Cuts with Nurses in Bakersfield and AFGE in Wilkes-Barre
![Bakersfield rally attendees [left] and Wilkes-Barre rally attendees [right] pose in front of the bus.](https://aflcio.org/sites/default/files/2025-08/bus-tour.png)
On Thursday, the AFL-CIO’s “It’s Better In a Union” bus tour stopped by a California Nurses Association/National Nurses United (CNA/NNU) townhall in Bakersfield, California, as well as a rally with AFGE in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.
In Bakersfield, local elected officials, union allies and members of community organizations from around the Central Valley gathered to speak out against attacks on Medicaid. The CNA/NNU townhall was co-sponsored by 24 organizations, including the Fresno, Madera, Tulare and Kings Counties Central Labor Council as well as the Kern, Inyo and Mono Counties Central Labor Council. As many as 3.4 million people in California could lose their health insurance as a result of the Trump administration's budget bill.
“The federal budget bill is a cruel piece of legislation that will have disastrous consequences for the most vulnerable in our communities, including the patients I care for in Bakersfield,” said Sandy Reding, a registered nurse at Bakersfield Memorial and a president of California Nurses Association, an affiliate of NNU. “This bill will make the rich even richer, put jobs at risk, endanger the lives of hard-working people, and take away two basic human rights: health care and food.”
In Wilkes-Barre, AFGE National President Everett Kelley headlined the rally to fight back against Social Security Administration (SAA) staffing cuts. He spoke about how AFGE and the labor movement at-large has been mobilizing to protect Social Security.
“Across the country, we are using our voice—as workers, as parents, as people who care about our communities—to demand that this administration and Congress do whatever it takes to protect Social Security,” Kelley said. “The American people deserve nothing less.”
Kelley was also joined by Jessica Lapointe, president of AFGE Council 220, who explained the critical role that SSA workers play in the lives of millions of Americans.
"For 90 years, we've kept America's greatest anti-poverty success story alive. We serve widows, orphans, the elderly, disabled, every vulnerable soul in your families and your communities, and they deserve respect and dignity when they come for their earned benefits,” Lapointe said.
Kenneth Quinnell
Fri, 08/15/2025 - 16:21
08/15/2025 - 6:00pm
It's Better in a Union: The Bus Tour
The AFL-CIO is traveling around the country on the "It's Better in a Union" bus tour. Check back here for coverage of the stops on our trip.
Where we've been so far:
Kenneth Quinnell
Fri, 08/15/2025 - 14:22
Tags:
Better in a Union Bus Tour
