Welcome to our regular feature, a look at what the various AFL-CIO unions and other working family organizations are doing across the country and beyond. The labor movement is big and active—here's a look at the broad range of activities we're engaged in this week.

Actors' Equity:

Equity publishes member-written letters reflecting on the lives of their fellow members who have passed away. Fill out the member commemoration form in the member portal to share your letters of remembrance. https://members.actorsequity.org/member-commemoration

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— Actors' Equity Association (@actorsequity.bsky.social) April 29, 2026 at 9:30 AM

AFSCME:

Every worker deserves a job where they feel safe and protected.

This Workers Memorial Day and every day, AFSCME members are committed to building safer workplaces and a future where no job costs a life. pic.twitter.com/8RneAMUJrf

— AFSCME (@AFSCME) April 28, 2026

Air Line Pilots Association:

Today we honor the memory of pilots and all workers who have been injured or killed on the job, and renew our commitment to the fight for safer workplaces. #WorkersMemorialDay pic.twitter.com/iU9RVThIGw

— Air Line Pilots Association (@ALPAPilots) April 28, 2026

Alliance for Retired Americans:

Just imagine:

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.

Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) members who work at Vineyard Theatre in New York City have ratified their first union contract.

Backstage and overhire crew at the Off-Broadway theater company announced the news in a joint statement with management, noting that the bargaining process was thoughtful and collaborative. The agreement establishes a clear framework governing pay, benefits, workplace protections, scheduling and more.

“Behind the scenes workers are the backbone of live entertainment,” said Brian Munroe, IATSE international representative. “They deserve fair wages, benefits, and union representation. The Vineyard Theatre worked in good faith negotiations with the IATSE to achieve this. We are looking forward to a long and mutually beneficial relationship with the Vineyard.”

Tags: Organizing

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.

California Labor Federation, AFL-CIO:

On #MayDay2026, workers will take to the street all across California to demand a strong union in every workplace!

Make your voice heard! Visit https://t.co/cPcUJZ1YpZ to find a community action near you, and join us in a statewide #EconomicBlackout where we buy NOTHING all day… pic.twitter.com/C9RJ9skm2l

— California Federation of Labor Unions (@CaliforniaLabor) April 27, 2026

Connecticut AFL-CIO:

This ceremony marks the 39th anniversary of the L'Ambiance Plaza collapse.

Due to faulty lift slab construction, 28 workers were crushed to death and 22 were injured.

Join us on April 23 at 11:30am to remember and pay tribute to the workers who died and those who were injured. pic.twitter.com/0jPcSFxL0p

— Connecticut AFL-CIO (@ConnAFLCIO) April 22, 2026

Florida AFL-CIO:

This week marks both the arrival of #WorkersMemorialDay and #MayDay2026! Looking to find your nearest event in Florida? We have set up a state specific hub for as many as we could find! Visit https://t.co/0BRwA2JdZN to see how you can take action, and email us for additions! pic.twitter.com/tpCrSOSVYn

— Florida AFL-CIO (@FLAFLCIO) April 27, 2026

Illinois AFL-CIO:

April 28 marks 50+ years since the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) guaranteed every worker the right to a safe job. Yet workplace fatalities are rising. It’s time to fully fund OSHA and make safety a real priority. #WMD2026 pic.twitter.com/VuZQy6mDk9

— Illinois AFL-CIO (@ILAFLCIO) April 28, 2026

Massachusetts AFL-CIO:

We were honored to be at the @OPEIU National Education conference to talk about the impact of AI and the power of the tech industry on the working class @opeiulocal6BM pic.twitter.com/w9Bib4lihg

— Massachusetts AFL-CIO (@massaflcio) April 24, 2026

Michigan State AFL-CIO:

Calling all supporters of the labor movement

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.

Postal Service Union Launches Television Ads Promoting Mail-In Voting: “The integrity of Georgia elections has been questioned by President Donald Trump and others since 2020. Now the postal workers' union wants to restore voter confidence in voting by mail via the airwaves. The American Postal Workers Union will begin airing television ads starting this week to promote casting your ballot via mail. Georgia APWU President Charles Brouhgton said he wants to have an impact on voters.”

Effort to Dedicate Corner to Local 34 Founding Member Moves Forward: “New Haveners and Yale student leaders have collected about 320 signatures on a petition to name the corner of College and Elm streets in honor of a man who helped establish Yale’s first employee union. The petition required 250 signatures to qualify for review by the president of the Board of Alders, Tyisha Walker-Myers, who may assign it to one of the board’s committees, according to Ward 1 Alder Elias Theodore ’27. Theodore said he recently submitted the petition to City Hall for review.  Under the proposal, the corner would be dedicated to John Wilhelm ’67, who helped found Local 34, which represents the University’s clerical and technical workers. Last year, the union celebrated the 40-year anniversary of its first contract with Yale—a milestone that motivated locals Aldo Cupo and Cheryl Bergman to spearhead the renaming efforts, they said.”

Ford, UAW Volunteers Plant 200-Plus Trees and Shrubs in Detroit Industrial Sector: “An industrial stretch of Detroit is getting a green transformation this week as dozens of volunteers from Ford and the United Auto Workers give back to the community where they work. As part of National Volunteer Week, Ford employees spent Thursday planting trees and shrubs at Fort Street Bridge Interpretive Park, a developing green space along the Rouge River. UAW volunteers will join on Friday. The effort marks one of the final construction activities before the park officially opens in late May.”

IBEW Local 1 Members, Contractors Team Up with Rebuilding Together to Help Homeowners in Need of Electrical Repairs: “Retired Army veteran MC Thomas has lived in his home off Paducah Drive here for 25 years. He’s tried to keep up with repairs, but says it’s tough living on a fixed income. ‘You save and save, and then something else happens with the house,’ Thomas said. ‘It’s crazy.’ Fortunately, Thomas recently received a helping hand on some electrical work from volunteers with the Electrical Connection—a partnership between IBEW Local 1 and the St. Louis Chapter of the National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA)—and Rebuilding Together St. Louis.”

Senators Introduce Bill to Prevent Loss of Some Railroad Retirement Benefits: “Two senators have introduced legislation that would end reductions to railroad retirement benefits for some retirees or their spouses who continue working in non-railroad jobs after retirement. Unions supporting the bill include the Transportation Trades Department of the AFL-CIO, the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, and the Transportation Communications Union.”

Union Pacific Settles Dispute with Rail Supplier, Reaches 7-Year Agreement: “‘USW members have proudly produced steel rail for Union Pacific for generations, and as we look to the future, we’re pleased that our nation’s transportation infrastructure will continue to be U.S.- and union-made,’ USW International President Roxanne Brown said in a statement.”

NIPSCO, USW Reach Tentative Agreement: “The Northern Indiana Public Service Company (NIPSCO) and the United Steelworkers (USW) have reached a tentative agreement after failed negotiations forced a lockout. The two sides started negotiations in January, but couldn’t reach a new collective bargaining agreement by the expiration of their contract on March 31. That led to a weeks-long lockout that began on April 2, which kept over 1,600 people from work. The agreement is pending ratification by union members. It includes a requirement for union members to stop picketing, leading to the cancellation of scheduled rallies.”

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.

Campus dining workers at two of Virginia’s historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs)—Virginia State University (VSU) and Norfolk State University (NSU)—have officially been recognized as members of UNITE HERE Local 23.

These essential staff members are employed by Thompson Hospitality, a subcontracted food service provider.

“I’m proud of the hard work and resilience it took for me and my coworkers to show Thompson Hospitality that, just like workers at all the other union universities, we deserve better wages and excellent healthcare at VSU. I personally can’t wait until the contract so that I can be able to pay my bills and still have some funds left over to go see my family in Louisiana!” said Nikita “Miss Nikki” Whitten, a cook for four years with Thompson Hospitality at VSU.

Tags: Organizing

Workers are dying and being injured on the job as the Trump administration cuts essential funding and staffing and directs resources away from the agencies and policies that protect workers and hold employers accountable, according to a new report released today by the AFL-CIO. 

Ahead of Workers Memorial Day on April 28, the AFL-CIO released its 35th annual “Death on the Job: The Toll of Neglect” report, a comprehensive analysis of the state of workers’ health and safety at the national and state levels.

“Every worker should be able to go home safe and healthy at the end of their shift—but 55 years after the founding of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, that fundamental right is in danger,” said AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler. “From the dismantling of critical federal agencies and laws to the expansion of unregulated, untested AI technology, the protections that workers fought and died for are under serious threat. The labor movement refuses to go backward. More than 5 decades after a Republican signed the landmark Occupational Safety and Health Act into law, we urge all members of Congress—from both sides of the aisle—to join us in this fight.” 

“It is a disgrace that in 2026, being Black, Latino or an immigrant can still be a death sentence on the jobsite,” said AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Fred Redmond. “Our new report makes it terrifyingly clear that the Trump administration’s anti-DEI, mass deportation agenda will only make this crisis worse. When workers are afraid that reporting threats to their safety could result in their work permits being revoked and their families being ripped apart, and when employers fear that reporting workplace data will hurt their bottom line, we are all less safe: workers of color and white workers, immigrant workers and U.S.-born workers. We must fight the Trump administration’s attacks on communities of color like our fellow workers’ lives are on the line—because they are.”

Here are 24 things you need to know from the report:

1. In 2024, More than 380 workers died each day from hazardous working conditions.
2. 5,070 workers were killed  on the job in the United States.
3. An estimated 135,000 workers died from occupational diseases.
4. The overall job fatality rate decreased to 3.3 per 100,000 workers.
5. Workers of color die on the job at a higher rate: Black (3.4 per 100,000 workers) and Latino (4.3) worker job fatality rates are disproportionate compared with all other workers.
6. An estimated 530 workers died from heat on the job, but both fatal and nonfatal data are an undercount of the real problem.
7. Workplace homicides continue to be a significant problem, increasing by 3% since 2023; workplace suicides decreased 6.4% from 2023.
8. Separately, unintentional overdoses at work decreased 21% from 2023 to 2024, due to increased attention paid to and efforts to combat the opioid crisis. 
9. Employers reported nearly 3.1 million work-related injuries and illnesses, a decrease from the previous year.
10. The rate of serious workplace violence injuries has decreased to 2.6 per 10,000 workers.
11. Musculoskeletal disorders from repetitive motion injuries continue to be a major problem, accounting for approximately 32% of all serious work-related injuries and illnesses in private industry.
12. Underreporting of all workplace injuries and illnesses is widespread—the true toll of work-related injuries and illnesses is estimated to be 5.0 million to 7.5 million each year in private industry.
13. Chemical exposures continue to plague working people, leading to debilitating, life-threatening diseases that are preventable. 
14. The cost of job injuries and illnesses is enormous, estimated at $177 billion to $354 billion a year—an undercount of the real impact on society, families and communities.
15. States with the highest fatality rates in 2024 were: Wyoming (13.9 per 100,000 workers), Mississippi (8.0), Alaska (7.1), North Dakota (6.8) and Arkansas (6.2).
16. Industries with the highest fatality rates in 2024 were: Agriculture, forestry, and fishing and hunting (20.9 per 100,000 workers), mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction (13.8), transportation and warehousing (12.2), construction (9.2) and wholesale trade (4.6). 
17. The job fatality rate increased in the leisure and hospitality industry from 2.3 to 2.4 per 100,000 workers and in the government sector from 1.8 to 2.0 per 100,000 workers.
18. In 2024, more than one-third of workplace fatalities occurred among workers ages 55 and older.
19. Workers 65 and older have nearly three times the risk of dying on the job as other workers, with a job fatality rate of 9.1 per 100,000 workers.
20. The rate of young worker deaths increased from 1.3 in 2022 to 1.9 in 2023 and then to 2.7 in 2024—nearly doubling the rate from 2020.
21. Many children, mostly migrants, have become the focus of stark exploitation, working in dangerous conditions.
22. Federal OSHA has the lowest number of inspectors in the history of the agency—only enough to now inspect workplaces once every 191 years—and state OSHA plans have one fewer inspector compared with FY 2024. By comparison, it would have taken federal OSHA 84 years to inspect each workplaces once in 1991, as written in our first report published in 1992. There are 1,651 inspectors (618 federal and 1,033 state) to inspect the 12 million workplaces under the Occupational Safety and Health Act’s jurisdiction, covering 155 million workers—a workforce that keeps growing while OSHA staff numbers do not. In 1991, there were 1,953 federal and state inspectors to cover 6.5 million workplaces and 107 million workers under OSHA’s jurisdiction. There is one inspector for every 93,877 workers. By comparison, there was one inspector for every 54,952 workers in 1991. The current OSHA budget amounts to $3.85 available to protect each worker. In 1991, the OSHA budget amounted to $6.53 per worker after inflation adjustments.
23. Penalties in FY 2025 still are too weak: The average penalty for a serious violation was $4,678 for federal OSHA. The median penalty for killing a worker was $16,550 for federal OSHA.
24. Only 144 worker death cases have been criminally prosecuted under the Occupational Safety and Health Act since 1970.p

Read the full report.

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 65 of our affiliates. Next up is the United Steelworkers (USW).

Name of Union: United Steelworkers

Mission: Helping all workers achieve better wages, greater job security, more reasonable hours and safer working conditions.

Current Leadership of Union: Roxanne Brown serves as international president. Myles Sullivan serves as international secretary-treasurer. Emil Ramirez serves as international vice president (administration). Kevin Mapp serves as international vice president (human affairs). Marty Warren serves as the Canadian national director. Amber Miller serves as international vice president at large. Luis Mendoza serves as international vice president.

Current Number of Active and Retired Members: 850,000

Members Work as: Atomic energy workers; chemical workers; creative, service and technical workers; educators; energy and utilities workers; glassworkers; health care workers; manufacturing workers; metalworkers; mine workers; oil workers; paper and forestry workers; public sector workers; rubber and tire workers; transportation workers and more.

Industries Represented: Nearly every industry

History: The USW’s foundation dates back generations, born of a shared commitment to fighting for better conditions for workers everywhere. In times of war and peace and through economic recession and boom times, USW has remained driven by its core guiding principles: helping all workers achieve better wages, greater job security, more reasonable hours and safer working conditions. USW activism helped end child labor, institute workplace safety laws, champion civil and human rights, and so much more. 

In 1936, workers formed the Steel Workers Organizing Committee, the precursor to the United Steelworkers union. In 1937, workers launched the “Little Steel” strike to organize workers at Bethlehem, Jones & Laughlin, National and other companies. The strike resulted in police riots, attacks and other hardships for workers, yet led to the successful organization of those companies. Delegates met in Cleveland in 1942 and created the United Steel Workers of America (USWA), electing Philip Murray as their first president. 

Over the past eight decades, the USW has grown through both organizing and mergers, including the 2005 merger between the USWA and the Paper, Allied Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers (PACE). The union has established international alliances and other strategic partnerships, and founded the BlueGreen Alliance alongside the Sierra Club in 2006. The union has long been the leading voice calling for fair trade and manufacturing growth, including infrastructure investments. It has a growing contingent of members who work in nonprofit, technical and higher education fields. 

Current Campaigns/Community Efforts: The USW maintains a number of alliances and strategic partnerships, including the BlueGreen Alliance and the Alliance for American Manufacturing. 

The union publishes Roxanne Brown’s Stronger Together blog, a quarterly magazine called USW@Work and the monthly Solidarity Works podcast.

The USW maintains a growing number of activist opportunities for members to make a difference in their locals, workplaces and communities, including its Civil and Human Rights Department; Emergency Response Team; Rapid Response network; and Veterans of Steel, Next Generation, Steelworkers Organization of Active Retirees (SOAR) and Women of Steel programs.

The union also has ongoing efforts in organizing and union voter outreach, as well as education and membership development, and health, safety and environmental resources. 

The USW maintains a directory of products by members.

Learn More: Website, Facebook, X, Instagram, YouTube, Bluesky

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.

Flight nurses and flight paramedics in northern Nevada and California voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday to join the Transport Workers Union (TWU).

Employed by REMSA Health, these air ambulance crews regularly perform intense, high-risk rescues in remote areas. The newly minted TWU members cited inadequate compensation and exclusion from important decision-making processes as core motivators for organizing. Despite an aggressive anti-union campaign by management, medical workers are energized and ready to bargain for the fair wages, quality benefits and respect they deserve.

“These critical first responders no longer have to fight their callous and dismissive bean-counting bosses alone,” said TWU International President John Samuelsen.

“REMSA’s union-busting actions failed miserably during this campaign,” TWU International Organizing Director Angelo Cucuzza said. “I hope, for their sake, the consultants they hired were on a contingency basis. The rehashed garbage they put out brought more workers to the TWU’s side, proving once again the boss is usually the best union organizer.”

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.

The six nurses at Ford's Chicago Assembly plant withstood a vigorous anti-union campaign and voted to join UAW Local 551. The vote was 5-1.

The workers want more say in how their workplace operates, citing concerns about chronic understaffing and the company’s lack of training opportunities.

“We felt like management didn’t want to make any type of financial investment in us that would allow us to increase our skills and our knowledge,” said Mary Quasney, an associate nurse at the plant. “We felt like we were understaffed, and that can have negative effects on the work we do. We truly care about the workers in this plant, and we want to provide the best care possible for them when they come to us. The support from the workers was amazing. They truly had our backs the entire time. I think it made us want to be a part of the union even more.”

“I’ve been a member of this local for over 30 years, and during that entire time, the nurses here have never been unionized,” said Local 551 President Chris Pena. “So, to see them finally win a seat at the table, everyone at the local is incredibly proud of them for demanding a voice.”

Tags: Organizing

Welcome to our regular feature, a look at what the various AFL-CIO unions and other working family organizations are doing across the country and beyond. The labor movement is big and active—here's a look at the broad range of activities we're engaged in this week.

Actors' Equity:

On Monday, Equity honored Afra Hines with the Legacy Robe at the Broadway opening of SCHMIGADOON! This season marks the 75th anniversary of this historic tradition. Check out our profile for interviews with past recipients