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.
AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler on How Labor Is Uniting in Response to Trump: “In an exclusive interview with Fast Company editor-in-chief Brendan Vaughan, the U.S. labor leader also discusses DOGE, Musk, and AI.”
Jimmy Wlliams Jr.—The Senate Must Reject Job-Killing Cuts. Union Jobs Are on the Line: “As the general president of the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT), I represent 140,000 proud workers across the finishing trades. Our vital work includes our country's industrial, commercial, and decorative painters. Because we spend our careers ensuring that our vital infrastructure works well and looks good, we know a thing or two about making things beautiful. President Donald Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill is anything but.”
Social Security Defenders Say Trustees Report Shows Expansion—Not GOP Cuts—Is Path Forward: “Richard Fiesta, the executive director of the Alliance for Retired Americans, also called out DOGE's work at the Social Security Administration, and referenced efforts to raise the Social Security retirement age beyond 67.”
Liz Shuler—An Injury to One Is an Injury to All: “Last week, countless union members across our affiliated unions and around the nation truly embodied the word ‘solidarity.’ When SEIU California President David Huerta was unlawfully arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents for exercising his constitutional rights, the Labor Movement mobilized, took to the streets and made clear that we wouldn’t stop until he was free. The Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda has been terrorizing our immigrant brothers, sisters and siblings. Since Inauguration Day, multiple union members who were legally residing in this country have been abducted by ICE. Our hardworking neighbors who are simply trying to provide for their families have been robbed of their due process while their loved ones are left fearing for their safety. The stories of workers like Kilmar Abrego Garcia, Maximo Londonio, Lewelyn ‘Auntie Lynn’ Dixon and Rümeysa Öztürk are absolutely harrowing.”
AI Rules Freeze: “The AFL-CIO is leading more than 25 unions in opposing a provision in the Republican reconciliation bill that would withhold broadband funds from states unless they agree not to regulate artificial intelligence.”
‘No Kings’ Seeded a Mass Movement Against Trump, Backed by Labor: “Millions of demonstrators across the country came out into the streets on June 14 at more than 2,000 protests in all 50 states and Puerto Rico. Organizers estimated that the mobilization, called ‘No Kings Day of Defiance,’ drew at least five million people nationwide, which would make it the largest single-day protest in U.S. history.”
AFL-CIO, Unions Seek Early Win to Block Slash of FMCS: “A group of unions and the AFL-CIO urged a New York federal judge to find the Trump administration's staffing cuts and shuttering of field offices at the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service are unlawful, arguing the government did not have an explanation for slashing the agency's services. The Trump administration went too far with a March 14 executive order reducing services and staff at the FMCS, said the AFL-CIO and a coalition of unions in a motion for summary judgment Friday, looking to restore the agency's operations before many mediators are put on administrative leave. The FMCS provides mediation services for labor disputes. The unions and AFL-CIO accused the FMCS and the U.S. Office of Management and Budget of violating the Administrative Procedure Act by carrying out President Donald Trump's executive order titled ‘Continuing the Reduction of the Federal Bureaucracy.’ On March 14, the president's directive said the FMCS must eliminate its ‘non-statutory components and functions’ and slash statutory functions and staff ‘to the minimum presence and function required by law.’”
ICE Tried to Make an Example Out of Labor Leader David Huerta. Now Is the Time for Unions to Speak Up on Behalf of Immigrant Workers: “David Huerta, president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU)–United Service Workers West (USWW), was detained earlier this month for doing what every labor leader should be doing right now: showing up. Huerta was arrested this month in Los Angeles while protesting citywide raids carried out by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), exercising his right to speak out—something the labor movement has done for centuries. But because this was an immigration protest, and because Huerta is a bold, unapologetic advocate for immigrant workers, he was targeted and thrown to the ground in broad daylight.”
Hundreds Protest in Boston in Solidarity with Los Angeles and Demand Detained Union Leader Be Freed: “Chrissy Lynch, President of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO: ‘On behalf of organized labor here in Massachusetts, we stand in strong solidarity with SEIU leader David Huerta and every single working person being illegally and inhumanely targeted by this administration. On Friday, David Huerta was peacefully exercising his constitutional rights, lawfully observing immigration activity in his community when ICE violently arrested him. He was doing what unions always do, what it is our job to do, and what this country was founded on: Speaking out against injustice.’”