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.

AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler issued the following statement on the budget reconciliation bill passed overnight in the House of Representatives:

“House Republican leaders passed this shameful bill in the middle of the night for one reason: They didn’t want the American people to see the deep and harmful cuts they’re imposing in the light of day. This budget gave Congress a choice: stand with the working people, seniors and kids, or deliver another massive giveaway to billionaires and big corporations. Every single member of Congress who voted for this bill chose to write the richest 10% a fat check on the backs of working-class families already struggling to pay their bills.

“They voted to throw millions off their health care, put millions of American jobs on the chopping block, gut investments in energy jobs, raid federal workers’ pensions, and reverse years of progress to protect workers’ privacy, health, and safety. Even policies that should help keep money in workers’ pockets, like no tax on tips or overtime, are temporary—and will only help people pay the much higher costs of health care and energy bills resulting from this deal if they are fortunate to keep their coverage and jobs at all. The fight to beat this is now in the Senate, but working people won’t give up on tough fights. Our jobs, our health care and our families are on the line.”

Read the full press statement here. 

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 opposes Governor Newsom's surprise proposal to make massive cut to California Arts funding. Read our full statement - https://t.co/TSe7Q7DoOG pic.twitter.com/P41xdBUcHh

— Actors' Equity (@ActorsEquity) May 19, 2025

AFGE:

7 reasons why America’s workers need the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health ⬇https://t.co/dzC7JBMMif

— AFGE (@AFGENational) May 20, 2025

AFSCME:

Our latest roundup of worker wins includes numerous examples of working people organizing, bargaining and mobilizing for a better life.

Northwestern University Food Service Workers Ratify New Contract: After a 12-day strike this year, members of UNITE HERE Local 1 who staff dining facilities at Northwestern University have ratified a new collective bargaining agreement. Cooks, cashiers, dishwashers and catering staff on campus are employed by food service contractor Compass Group. Highlights of the new agreement include wage increases of $8 per hour over the lifetime of the contract, a 250% increase in employer pension contributions and more. “Thank you to all the students and community leaders for their support throughout the fight,” the union said in a social media post. “Congratulations, Compass Northwestern workers—when we fight, we win.”

VFX Workers Ratify First Three Contracts with Major U.S. Studios: Visual effects (VFX) workers for Marvel Studios, Walt Disney Pictures and movie franchise Avatar voted overwhelmingly to ratify their first contracts as Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) members. The agreements are a major step forward for the VFX industry, establishing important standard union protections such as overtime pay, a pension and health plan, enforceable rest periods and more. Marvel workers voted unanimously to join IATSE in 2023, and their counterparts at Disney secured a similar election victory one month later. Avatar VFX workers joined the union in January of last year. “I am so proud of my fellow union members for all their hard work through which we have achieved this contract,” said Patrick DeVaney, a postvis coordinator, in a press release. “While we are used to pouring our blood and sweat into our work, unionizing requires something more: our courage. It takes an incredible amount of courage to stand up to management who will always seek to devalue labor in the pursuit of profit margins and your own coworkers who have labored for so long as a part of a non-unionized workforce that they were convinced unionizing would be impossible.”

UAW Members Reach TA with General Dynamics Electric Boat: UAW Local 571 reached a tentative agreement (TA) with submarine manufacturer General Dynamics Electric Boat on Sunday ahead of the union’s midnight strike deadline. More than 2,400 members who build nuclear submarines at the Groton, Connecticut, shipyard would be covered by the new five-year contract. The deal includes major wins such as a 30% wage increase over the lifetime of the agreement and improved wage progression provisions. UAW credits last month’s unified strike authorization vote and strong member mobilization as a major determining factor in securing this TA. “This contract is going to change the lives of our members,” said Bill Louis, president of Local 571. “After years of sky-high housing costs and record inflation, our members are finally seeing the recognition they deserve for their hard work.” 

U Is for Union: Sesame Workshop Staff Win Union Election: Workers at Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit behind the beloved children’s educational program “Sesame Street,” voted 55–19 to join the Office and Professional Employees (OPEIU) Local 153. Despite management attempting to cancel the National Labor Relations Board election twice and trying to turn away eligible staff on the day of the vote, members of Sesame Workers Union (SWU) stood strong and secured a powerful victory. “With a history of unions at Sesame Workshop like WGA and SAG-AFTRA, SWU was founded on the basis of inclusion of the most Sesame workers as possible. The union is the people in your neighborhood, friends, colleagues, coworkers,” said member Kristen Sandmeier. “Our union shows how we can come together in community and collectively negotiate working conditions that are truly responsive to the needs of all of our workers. We are so excited to certify the union and to begin working in harmony with Sesame leadership to ensure a timely first contract.”

Divers at Orlando’s Discovery Cove Theme Park Vote to Join IUOE: Divers at SeaWorld’s Discovery Cove theme park unanimously voted to join the Operating Engineers (IUOE) Local 30 last week, forming the first union at the Orlando, Florida, resort. With a 100% turnout rate for the election, divers and dive technicians are celebrating this milestone victory. These workers perform essential underwater maintenance duties at the aquatic-themed resort, and cite concerns around wages and lack of a voice on the job as core motivators for joining IUOE. During the organizing drive, parent company United Parks & Resorts retained union-busting legal counsel and tried to exclude some workers from union eligibility. But workers persisted through these delay tactics, and the National Labor Relations Board ultimately dismissed the eligibility complaint, ordering an election. “Workers, once they find out they have rights and they can get their fair piece to get a fair wage for their skill, they want that,” said Jonathan Ellingwood, an organizer with IUOE Local 30. “They were just tired of not getting raises, constantly being underpaid [compared] to what the other parks are paying.…The second you get together with the union and file, your voice is immediately heard.”

Norse Atlantic Airways Flight Attendants Ratify New Contract: U.S.-based Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA-CWA) members who work for Norse Atlantic Airways voted overwhelmingly in support of ratifying a new contract. The Norwegian low-cost, long-haul airline was founded in 2021 and has a flight attendant base in John F. Kennedy International Airport. Highlights of the deal include provisions that ensure job security, raise total compensation with the highest per diem in the industry, increase the number of sick days and more. “This contract provides Norse Flight Attendants with certainty and guaranteed economic and work rule improvements. The contract provides much-needed quality of life as Norse charts the path forward,” said Norse AFA President Katarzyna Mroczek.

Washington State Governor Signs Striking Worker UI Benefits Bill into Law: Washington State Gov. Bob Ferguson signed a bill into law Monday that will extend unemployment insurance (UI) benefits to striking workers. Senate Bill 504, which goes into effect Jan. 1, provides up to six weeks of benefits to workers starting 15 to 21 days after a strike or lockout begins. Having access to this financial resource levels the playing field for union members walking the picket line, giving them more time to settle the fair contract they are owed. “Workers joining together in union and collectively bargaining to improve working conditions is as American as apple pie,” said April Sims, president of the Washington State Labor Council. “But with stagnant wages and a rising cost of living, many workers don’t have a safety net if they are pushed to strike. Providing UI for striking workers will level the playing field by encouraging employers to bargain in good faith and making it harder for bad bosses to starve workers out. UI benefits will help striking workers survive while they fight for the union contract that will help them thrive. We’re grateful to Sen. Riccelli for his leadership on this bill, and to all the legislators who listened to working people and supported its passage.”

Tags: Organizing

For Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month this year, the AFL-CIO is spotlighting various Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders who have worked and continue to work at the intersection of civil and labor rights in the United States. Today's profile is Greta Ladrillono of PASS.

A near 20-year member of the Professional Aviation Safety Specialists (PASS), Greta Ladrillono was born in the Philippines, raised in California and now lives in Florida, where she has worked in different positions for the Federal Aviation Administration. She’s active in her local chapter and is not only a proud union member, but joined PASS as soon as she was eligible.

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.

Washington State Gov. Bob Ferguson signed a bill into law Monday that will extend unemployment insurance (UI) benefits to striking workers.

Senate Bill 504, which goes into effect Jan. 1, provides up to six weeks of benefits to workers starting 15 to 21 days after a strike or lockout begins. Having access to this financial resource levels the playing field for union members walking the picket line, giving them more time to settle the fair contract they are owed.

“Workers joining together in union and collectively bargaining to improve working conditions is as American as apple pie,” said April Sims, president of the Washington State Labor Council. “But with stagnant wages and a rising cost of living, many workers don’t have a safety net if they are pushed to strike. Providing UI for striking workers will level the playing field by encouraging employers to bargain in good faith and making it harder for bad bosses to starve workers out. UI benefits will help striking workers survive while they fight for the union contract that will help them thrive. We’re grateful to Sen. Riccelli for his leadership on this bill, and to all the legislators who listened to working people and supported its passage.”

For Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month this year, the AFL-CIO is spotlighting various Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders who have worked and continue to work at the intersection of civil and labor rights in the United States. Today's profile is Lenny Guerrero of the Bricklayers.

“My father was a supervisor for a masonry company, and he used to take me with him on weekends when I was growing up. I fell in love with the trade and became fascinated by the idea of building structures that stand the test of time. Masonry has shaped who I am today. Training is my way of giving back to the trade and community that have given so much to me,” Guerrero said.
 

This week, we delivered an AFL-CIO Department of People Who Work for a Living report to lawmakers on Capitol Hill, detailing in workers’ own voices how Elon Musk’s DOGE is gutting essential services, putting lives at risk and triggering mass firings that threaten local economies. 

DOGE is Project 2025 on steroids. From delayed veterans’ care to missing Social Security checks, the consequences of DOGE’s illegal mass firings go far beyond Washington. 

Read the Report. 

After holding field hearings across the country, here’s just a few of the things we heard from working people: 

• Since January, thousands of federal workers who we rely on for key services—such as processing Social Security checks, ensuring food gets inspected and providing veterans’ health care—have been illegally fired or pushed out.
• They’ve attacked workers’ rights to stand up to big corporations and organize and collectively bargain, shutting down the National Labor Relations Board and destroying its independence, and crushing the federal mediation agency.
• DOGE has attacked workers' health and safety, including gutting the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, closing worker safety offices and gutting regulations that protect workers.
• DOGE has attacked health care, eliminating jobs at the VA, repealing programs to lower drug prices, directing Congress to gut Medicaid and ending health coverage for millions of people to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy.
• They’ve dismantled the Department of Education, tearing down public education and attacking our universities.
• DOGE has undermined investment and jobs in the next generation of American energy innovation and manufacturing, and undermined workers’ rights across the world.

With budget negotiations ongoing in Congress, this report puts a spotlight on what’s really at stake: the people who make government work and the communities that depend on them. Read it now. 

The people who work for a living want an agenda that works for them—not big corporations and billionaires. We are calling on lawmakers to fully restore the programs that make our country run. Make a call to say, “no cuts that hurt working families.”

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.

Visual effects (VFX) workers for Marvel Studios, Walt Disney Pictures and movie franchise Avatar voted overwhelmingly to ratify their first contracts as Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) members.

The agreements are a major step forward for the VFX industry, establishing important standard union protections such as overtime pay, a pension and health plan, enforceable rest periods and more. Marvel workers voted unanimously to join IATSE in 2023, and their counterparts at Disney secured a similar election victory one month later. Avatar VFX workers joined the union in January of last year.

“I am so proud of my fellow union members for all their hard work through which we have achieved this contract,” said Patrick DeVaney, a postvis coordinator, in a press release. “While we are used to pouring our blood and sweat into our work, unionizing requires something more: our courage. It takes an incredible amount of courage to stand up to management who will always seek to devalue labor in the pursuit of profit margins and your own coworkers who have labored for so long as a part of a non-unionized workforce that they were convinced unionizing would be impossible.”

Right now, House leadership is pushing through a budget that would have the largest cuts in history to Medicaid and to SNAP food assistance, as well as more cuts to retirement benefits for federal workers.

Make a Call.

Health care, food assistance, dignity in retirement—these programs are a cornerstone of a secure existence for working people. Here’s why:

No Cuts to Medicaid

• Medicaid is the single largest source of health care coverage in the United States.
• It is the primary payer for 63% of nursing home residents.
• It pays for 42% of births in the United States each year and provides health care for nearly half of all children in our country.
• Medicaid funding cuts would cause hospitals, clinics, nursing homes and home health agencies to close or downsize, especially in rural and lower-income communities. One analysis shows that cuts could cause 477,000 health care jobs to be lost in 2026 alone.
• Medicaid cuts would cause millions of people to lose their health care, including kids and our most vulnerable Americans, and cuts would raise health care and insurance costs for everyone else. 

No Cuts to Food Assistance

• 42 million people use SNAP food assistance per month, or almost 13% total of U.S. residents. Working families depend on SNAP to get by and to provide nutritious, healthy food for their children to grow and thrive.
• Cuts to food assistance jeopardize thousands of jobs in food processing, school cafeterias, retail and agriculture.
• Pushing the costs of food assistance to states with already strained budgets threatens many other services and jobs that our families and communities rely on. 

No Cuts to Workers’ Retirement Benefits or Union Rights

• Like all workers, federal employees deserve a fair and dignified retirement after a lifetime of hard work. But earlier versions of the budget deal have contained cuts to federal workers’ retirement benefits and cuts to their current take-home pay.
• Other provisions in versions of the budget deal have required new federal workers to choose between at-will status and lower employee pension contributions, or to be charged a fee to file a claim with the Merit Systems Protection Board to protect their rights.
• Federal workers who run the programs and services we all depend on—and who are already facing job losses and historic union-busting—should not have to pay for tax breaks for billionaires.

No Weakening of Artificial Intelligence (AI) Protections for Workers

• Lawmakers snuck a provision into the House budget deal that blocks the enforcement of all existing or future state and local AI regulations for the next 10 years.
• State lawmakers across the country have come together to pass legislation that regulates dangerous and irresponsible artificial intelligence (AI)—creating guardrails that protect workers’ jobs, safety and civil liberties, and prevent discrimination or the theft of artists' work. This provision would stop that good work.
• This provision is so broad it would even prevent states from enforcing safety regulations related to automated systems, like public transit systems.
• This provision is an irresponsible gift to Big Tech companies and employers to maximize their profits and control. Especially since Congress has not acted to protect workers, states must be allowed to pass regulations to stop the unsafe, unethical, antidemocratic and antiworker use of AI in the workplace. 

Gutting essential services like Medicaid, SNAP food assistance and federal worker benefits won’t help working families—especially to pay for more tax breaks for billionaires and giant corporations. And the domino effects of cutting these huge and vital programs would be severe and wide-reaching. 

We need you to speak out today. Tell Congress this budget would be a disaster for working families and for our nation. 

Call your representative at 231-400-0602 to tell them, “No cuts that hurt working families!” 

For Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month this year, the AFL-CIO is spotlighting various Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders who have worked and continue to work at the intersection of civil and labor rights in the United States. Today's profile is Amy Chin-Lai of IFPTE.

Amy Chin-Lai is the president of the Nonprofit Professional Employees Union, IFPTE Local 70, which represents thousands of nonprofit workers at more than 50 organizations in Washington, D.C., and nationwide. A fourth-generation Chinese-American, she carries forward her family's resilience through her work empowering other member leaders and advocating for dignity, equity and fair pay. Chin-Lai was recently honored by the Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO,– winning their inaugural emerging leader award. She is proud to be part of a movement and union that amplifies the voices of marginalized people in the workplace.