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

Federal Court Orders DOE and OPM to Stop Sharing Private Data with DOGE Affiliates: On Monday, the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland issued a temporary restraining order prohibiting the Department of Education (DOE) and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) from disclosing sensitive personal information to employees affiliated with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). The American Federation of Teachers (AFT)—which is the lead plaintiff in the case—argued that the DOE and OPM violated the Privacy Act by granting DOGE affiliates unauthorized access to systems containing sensitive personal information, including Social Security numbers, bank account information, health records and other private data. In a post shared to social media, AFT President Randi Weingarten said: “The Department of Education is prevented from sharing personal information of AFT members and members of the other plaintiffs with Elon Musk and DOGE. This is huge news in the fight against Elon Musk stealing our private information.” In addition to AFT, the lawsuit's plaintiffs include the Machinists (IAM), the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE), National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association and the National Federation of Federal Employees.

Oregon Nurses Vote to Approve Tentative Agreement After 46 Days on Strike: Members of the Oregon Nurses Association (ONA)—an affiliate of the AFT—approved a tentative agreement with Providence Health & Services on Monday night after over a month on the picket line. The agreement covers nurses at all eight striking facilities across the state who walked off the job earlier this year to secure a contract that ensures fair treatment and working conditions. Highlights include wage increases ranging from 20% to 42% over the life of the contract, guaranteed penalty pay for missed breaks and meals, improvements to nurse workloads, and more. “This milestone represents a significant achievement for ONA nurses, marking a powerful step forward in their ongoing commitment to fair wages, safe staffing, and high-quality patient care,” ONA said in a press statement. “These hard-won agreements reflect the dedication and determination of ONA nurses who stood strong in their fight for fair treatment, safe working conditions and better healthcare for their communities.”

Children’s Theatre Company Staff Ratify First Union Contract: Front-of-house workers at the Children’s Theatre Company (CTC), who are represented by Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) Local 13, have ratified their first collective bargaining agreement. This bargaining unit at the country’s largest theater for young audiences includes ushers, ticket takers, performance supervisors, concessions leads and other critical staff who work directly with customers. Organizing began in February 2023, and by April 80% of eligible staff had signed union authorization cards. IATSE then requested voluntary recognition in December, which Children’s Theatre Company acknowledged a month later. “While bargaining began slowly, we have appreciated the consistent attention to these negotiations from CTC throughout and since the company underwent a change in both the artistic and managing director roles last summer,” said a representative from the union. “We are pleased that our work together has produced meaningful gains for member employees and strengthened CTC’s workforce.”

UFCW Strike Secures Return-to-Work Agreement; Union Will Continue Bargaining with King Soopers: United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 7, which represents over 10,000 striking King Soopers workers in Colorado, announced Monday that the union secured a return-to-work settlement and will be back at the negotiating table with management. The strike-ending settlement includes provisions that ensure no workers will lose their health care during bargaining and prevent the Kroger-owned grocery chain from locking out staff so the union can resume talks over the new contract. UFCW members initially walked off the job earlier this month after management’s repeated bad-faith tactics—including intimidation, gutting retiree health benefits and illegal disciplinary threats—forced them into an unfair labor practice strike. “We have taken a big step forward and ensured that Kroger knows that staffing is a key concern to workers and customers alike,” said UFCW Local 7 President Kim Cordova in a press release. “We will go back to the bargaining table and continue our fight for a fair union contract for us, our customers and the communities we serve. This strike was about thousands of everyday grocery store workers, collectively standing together and facing one of the largest corporations in America and saying ENOUGH. Our strike was just the beginning of this effort and elevated staffing in grocery stores to a national level with more workers and allies joining together.”

Ski Patrol Union Reaches Tentative Agreement with Keystone Ski Resort: Members of the United Professional Ski Patrols of America (UPSPA), Communications Workers of America (CWA) Local 7781, who work at Keystone Resort have reached a tentative agreement (TA) on their first contract with Vail Resorts. Organized under the name Keystone Ski Patrol (KSP) Union, workers have been in negotiations with the largest resort operator in North America since September 2024. Over the course of bargaining, patrollers have staged a protest and filed unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board. “Keystone Resort and the Keystone Ski Patrol Union are pleased to announce that they have reached a new tentative agreement through May 31, 2027,” the union and management said in a joint statement. “Together, the resort and union are looking forward to a great rest of the season.”

Labor Defeats Right to Work Legislation in New Hampshire: In a win for working people, the latest version of “right to work” legislation introduced in the New Hampshire Legislature last week has been indefinitely postponed, effectively killing the bill. Different iterations of House Bill 238-FN have been introduced dozens of times since the 1980s, all seeking to undermine union negotiating power and make New Hampshire the region’s only right to work state. “For the fortieth consecutive time, so-called ‘Right-to-Work’ is dead,” said New Hampshire AFL-CIO President Glenn Brackett in a joint statement with other labor leaders. “Once again, today, a bipartisan coalition of legislators did their job, listened to their constituents, and voted to kill House Bill 238-FN, this year’s version of the fraudulently titled ‘Right-to-Work.’ Every new legislature for the last 40 years has seen this attack on workers’ rights and every legislature, regardless of which party is in the majority, has rejected it.”

IAM Becomes First Labor Union Recognized as VSO: Last month, the IAM became the first union to be recognized as a national Veterans Service Organization (VSO) for its work advocating for veteran members across the country through IAM’s Veterans Services Program. This designation from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) means IAM will get access to more vital resources, support securing benefits for members and the formal backing of the VA. It also signifies that the union is now able to increase its support of veteran members through assisting with claims, advocating for benefits, pushing for legislative changes and more. “We will now be able to grow our organization and set a new standard of care for all IAM Veterans,” said IAM Veterans Services Coordinator Richard Evans. “For the IAM itself, this recognition is a testament to our hard work, dedication, and tireless advocacy on behalf of those who have served in our military. It shows that this organization is equipped with the tools, knowledge, and resources to effectively help Veterans navigate the challenges they face after service. Whether it’s securing healthcare, disability benefits, or educational opportunities, this recognition strengthens our ability to fight for veterans’ rights and ensure they receive the care and support they deserve.”

Tags: Organizing

For Black History Month, we're taking a look at a group of leaders who are currently actively making Black history across the labor movement. Check back daily for a new profile and meet some of the people working to improve not only their community, but also to improve conditions for working people across the country. Today's profile is Bryant Preston of the Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE).

Bryant Preston currently serves as president of the Colorado AFL-CIO, bringing with him a wealth of experience from his longstanding involvement with IATSE. Since joining the union in 2004, he has held numerous leadership roles, including his election as business representative in 2017—a position he held until 2023. That year, he transitioned to president of IATSE Local 7 and also took on a position within IATSE International’s trade show department. In addition to these responsibilities, Preston serves as secretary for IATSE’s district that encompasses Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.

For Black History Month, we're taking a look at a group of leaders who are currently actively making Black history across the labor movement. Check back daily for a new profile and meet some of the people working to improve not only their community, but also to improve conditions for working people across the country. Today's profile is Kirby Boyce of the Machinists (IAM).

Kirby Boyce began his journey as a machinist in 1999 at Pratt & Whitney’s engine facility in Cheshire. In 2004, he was elected as an IAM union steward and later served as recording secretary. The Cheshire facility closed in 2011, and Boyce moved to the East Hartford branch of Pratt & Whitney, where he joined IAM Lodge 1746. His commitment to safety led to his role as health and safety representative. In 2017, Kirby was elected president of Lodge 1746 and became vice president of the Greater Hartford Central Labor Coalition. He also served as treasurer of the Connecticut State Council of Machinists for five years. Currently, Boyce is the president of the Eastern Connecticut Area Labor Federation.

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.

On Monday, the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) held a rally in Washington, D.C., to protest potential incoming efforts by the Trump administration to privatize the U.S. Postal Service (USPS).

NALC members, labor leaders and community allies gathered to defend this essential government agency after reports of a planned executive order that would fire the Postal Service Board of Governors and place the agency under the control of the Department of Commerce.

“The U.S. Post Office is a cornerstone of every community, in our largest cities and our smallest towns. It is cherished. It is trusted,” said AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Fred Redmond. “Letter carriers are the heart and soul of the U.S. Postal Service….We’re going to fight like hell for the Postal Service. We’re going to fight like hell for our unions.”

NALC President Brian Renfroe told the crowd: “Let’s be very clear about what this is: a dedicated attack on the 640,000 dedicated people who work at the Postal Service, on the service we provide and on the hundreds of millions of Americans who rely on the service we provide every single day.”

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.

California Labor Federation, AFL-CIO:

No matter who we voted for, we all know cutting Medicaid (Medi-cal) will be a disaster! Call your Congressperson today! #HandsOffMyMedicaid #handsoffourmedicaid pic.twitter.com/Y8rN2F4lQk

— California Federation of Labor Unions (@CaliforniaLabor) February 25, 2025

Colorado AFL-CIO:

We are strongly opposed to HB25-1206 Local Governments Tip Offsets for Tipped Employees. This misguided and inequitable bill would cut tipped workers wages— $4/hr in Denver, more than $8000/year. #coleg #copolitics pic.twitter.com/lbczJ6PZAi

— Colorado AFL-CIO (@AFLCIOCO) February 25, 2025

Connecticut AFL-CIO:

CT AFL-CIO President @EHawthorne3 notes the hypocrisy of a bill allowing the state to require staff to work in person: "Every member of the General Assembly has effectively participated in a hearing remotely"

*This public hearing allowed for in-person & remote participation* pic.twitter.com/sBCaxsL1XY

— Connecticut AFL-CIO (@ConnAFLCIO) February 20, 2025

Illinois AFL-CIO:

‼️ SAVE THE DATE‼️

The annual USA BBQ Bash Competition & Fundraiser is coming up in June!

June 14, 2025 | 12 - 5 pm
Torstenson Youth Conservation
Education Center
13735 Cook Rd., Pecatonica, IL 61063 pic.twitter.com/fKKMsnfMiB

— Illinois AFL-CIO (@ILAFLCIO) February 24, 2025

Kentucky State AFL-CIO:

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.

TWU Local 100’s New Union President Vows to ‘Take No Crap’ from MTA Management: “John Chiarello—the new president of Transport Workers Union (TWU) Local 100, which represents over 40,000 transit workers in NYC—bluntly warned the MTA that he wouldn’t be pushed around in fighting for his workers’ best interests.”

‘It’s an Attack on Public Service’ | Union Representing Postal Workers Fires Back After Trump Hints at Taking Control of USPS: “At Friday’s swearing in of Howard Lutnick, President Trump hinted at handing the United States Postal Service over to the new Secretary of Commerce. ‘He’s going to look at it,’ said President Trump of Lutnick. ‘He’s got a great business instinct which is what we need, and he’ll be looking at it and we think we can turn it around.’ Brian Renfroe is the president of the National Association of Letter Carriers, the largest postal union that represents more than 200,000 letter carriers. ‘It’s an attack on working people, it’s an attack on public service. It’s literally an attack on the Constitution.’”

271,500 Workers Went on Strike in 2024: “Hundreds of thousands of workers across the United States went on strike in 2024—from health care workers in California to public school teachers in Massachusetts to telecommunications workers in the South. The most recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) show that 271,500 workers were involved in ‘major work stoppages’ in 2024. The number of workers involved in these stoppages decreased by 41% compared with 2023 but remained elevated compared with strike activity in the early 2000s and 2010s.”

It’s (Past) Time for Oregon to Level the Playing Field: “When talk of the world’s first trillionaire takes center stage in our nation’s news cycles, you know there’s something wrong in our society. When the world’s five richest men have more than doubled their fortunes since 2020 while five billion people around the world have become poorer, it’s clear that there’s an imbalance in the economy. Even when workers use their most powerful—yet risky—tool to fight for fairness by withholding their labor in a strike, corporations often intentionally prolong the strike, starve them out, and cancel healthcare coverage to force them to accept an unfair contract settlement. Unfortunately, this can often perpetuate the ills of our society at large: corporate greed, unsafe jobs, and a culture where we are not respecting working people for their labor; the glue that makes our communities run.”

Federal Workers to Hold Public Actions in Multiple U.S. Cities on Wednesday: “Three weeks after a January 28 memo titled ‘Fork in the Road’ encouraged federal workers to accept ‘deferred resignation’ and leave their positions—and one week after a union-backed demonstration held at the Capitol—federal government union members are gearing up to hold demonstrations in cities across the country on Wednesday, February 19. Organizers are calling the coordinated events Save Our Services Day of Action.”

New DNC chair: Union Workers, Labor Leaders Will Be ‘Core to My Decision-Making’: “New Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chair Ken Martin said Tuesday that union workers and labor leaders will be ‘core to my decision-making.’ ‘As Trump wages his war on working families, Democrats will fiercely answer the call to my favorite old union song, "Which Side Are You On?" I’ll tell you what: Democrats are on the side of the worker,’ he said. ‘We will show Americans every day that workers in fact do have more power than any billionaire.’”

Want to Defeat Trump? Support Unions: “But there’s no need to despair. A powerful force in our society has the legitimacy, resources and leverage to turn things around: organized labor. Unions can beat back Donald Trump’s attacks, expose his sham populism, and—by uniting workers around their shared economic interests—help isolate his xenophobic scapegoating. Rather than hibernate for the next four years, or limit ourselves to posting online about the president’s latest outrages, each of us can lend support to workers organizing at federal agencies, schools, Starbucks, Amazon, auto plants and beyond. Just as importantly, we can expand the labor movement’s reach by unionizing our own workplaces. It won’t be easy to counter Trump’s shock-and-awe offensive, or to fill the void left by the Democrats’ disarray. But it’s both necessary and possible.”

Delaware State AFL-CIO Announces New President: “The Delaware State AFL-CIO recently announced Nelson Hill has been elected as its new president. A dedicated labor leader with 20 years of experience fighting for the rights of working families, Hill will now lead the state federation in its mission to protect and empower union members across Delaware. Hill also serves as vice president and executive assistant to the president of UFCW Local 27, one of the largest and most influential unions in the region. His extensive experience in organizing, collective bargaining and worker advocacy has made a profound impact on the labor movement, improving conditions and securing stronger protections for thousands of workers.”

For Black History Month, we're taking a look at a group of leaders who are currently actively making Black history across the labor movement. Check back daily for a new profile and meet some of the people working to improve not only their community, but also to improve conditions for working people across the country. Today's profile is Tryshanda Moton of the Goddard Engineers, Scientists and Technicians Association (GESTA/IFPTE Local 29).

Tryshanda Moton currently serves as president of GESTA. She is a senior aerospace systems engineer at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. She has 25 years of proven technical expertise in various systems. Moton attended college at the University of Alabama, where she became the first African American to graduate with a bachelor's degree in physics. She completed graduate research in nuclear thermal propulsion concepts for human spaceflight missions to Mars. In 2012, Tryshanda joined GESTA and later was elected to the executive council, where she served two terms as area vice president and two terms as executive vice president.

Here is a critical message from the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC), which represents hundreds of thousands of dedicated letter carriers who deliver our mail six days a week.

Please make a call now to protect U.S. Postal Service workers’ jobs: 202-224-3121

The jobs of 640,000 U.S. Postal Service (USPS) employees are under attack.  In a reported executive order, President Trump plans to fire the Postal Board of Governors and place the agency under the control of the Department of Commerce.

This is a direct attack on USPS employees, the unmatched universal service they provide and every citizen who relies on the Postal Service.

Please stand with letter carriers and all postal workers and make a call to House Speaker Mike Johnson. 

202-224-3121

Please tell Speaker Johnson to put a stop to this. HELL NO to dismantling the Postal Service!

For Black History Month, we're taking a look at a group of leaders who are currently actively making Black history across the labor movement. Check back daily for a new profile and meet some of the people working to improve not only their community, but also to improve conditions for working people across the country. Today's profile is Tamua Newton of the Office and Professional Employees (OPEIU).

OPEIU Local 30 member Tamua Newton has worked at City of Hope—a nonprofit cancer treatment and research center in Duarte, California—for more than 20 years. She serves as a steward and is a member of Local 30’s executive board.

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.

A coalition of labor unions representing workers across the aviation and aerospace industries signed on to a letter on Wednesday urging Congress to support efforts to modernize the United States air traffic control system in the wake of recent accidents.

The Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA), Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA-CWA), National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA), Professional Aviation Safety Specialists (PASS), Transport Workers Union (TWU) and Transportation Trades Department (TTD) all endorsed the message to lawmakers. They stressed the importance of emergency funding for air traffic control technology and staffing, directing the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to modernize its airspace technology, excepting the FAA from government shutdowns and other critical priorities to ensure the safety of everyone.

“The FAA’s primary mission has been, and should continue to be, ensuring the operational safety and efficiency of the National Airspace System (NAS),” the joint letter said. “Everything the FAA does must be directly tied to, and in support of, that mission. Our organizations are ready to work with you to ensure the FAA is more capable and prepared to deliver economic growth, foster American innovation, adapt to challenges, and continue to be the safest, largest, and most complex air traffic control system in the world.”