While former President Biden’s claim to have been “the most pro-union President in history” is certainly debatable, President Trump is on track to become the most anti-union President in history in his second term.

In his first three months in office, Trump has signed executive orders which seek to cancel collective bargaining agreements covering over one million federal workers. Although justified with reference to “national security,” the executive orders target workers across the federal government, in agencies as disparate as Veterans Affairs, the Treasury and Energy Departments, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Department of Health and Human Services.

The executive orders seek to not only overturn existing union contracts, but strip workers’ right to be represented by a union at all. They also instruct government agencies to stop deducting union dues from members’ paychecks. Since Trump was inaugurated, the largest federal government workers’ union, the American Federation of Government Employees, has seen its membership surge by tens of thousands of members.

As veteran labor reporter Steven Greenhouse pointed out in a recent article in The Guardian, Trump’s “aggressive wave of anti-union actions is already spurring some [private-sector] US employers to take a more hostile stance toward unions.”

Private-sector employers who wish to take advantage of the current moment to attack or weaken their workers’ unions will find it easier to do so since Trump fired National Labor Relations Board member Gwynne Wilcox in January, leaving the Board unable to issue decisions. Following another executive order, the so-called “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) shut down the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service in March.

On April 3, an anti-union trade association asked Attorney General Pam Bondi to “invalidate fifteen NLRB cases that were decided during the Biden administration.” As analyst Matt Bruenig writes at NLRB Edge:

This sort of thing has never happened before. The NLRB is an independent agency and the AG has no statutory role in how it operates. Such a move by the AG would be illegal under prevailing understandings of administrative law, but of course Trump and the conservative legal movement are seeking to have the Supreme Court invalidate a large swath of administrative law on the theory that it unconstitutionally restricts the power of the president.

An even more disturbing and bizarre attack on the ability of the NLRB to protect workers’ rights was revealed earlier this week when a whistleblower from the NLRB’s information technology department revealed to Congress and NPR that operatives from DOGE likely removed around 10 gigabytes of sensitive information from the Board’s case management system.

In addition to obvious concerns about the breach of privacy (NLRB case data includes sensitive personal information such as social security numbers and home addresses, as well as proprietary corporate information), if employers got ahold of this data, it would make it easier for them to fire — and blacklist — active union members.

Of particular concern is that DOGE is headed by billionaire Elon Musk, whose company SpaceX has been the subject of NLRB complaints filed by its workers, and who has shown himself to be rabidly anti-union.

The post Trump Administration Goes on Union-Busting Spree appeared first on Labor Today.

The Labor Education Project On AFL-CIO International Operations (LEPAIO) opposes the efforts to liquidate the Unite All Workers For Democracy (UAWD) caucus in the United Auto Workers (UAW) union. This rank and file caucus was formed to support the fight for democracy in the UAW, scoring successes in winning “One Member One Vote” elections for national and regional officers, and winning election of a slate of reform candidates led by President Shawn Fain.

There are recent attempts by one faction of the UAWD to dissolve the caucus over political differences: this is a blatant reversal of the UAWD’s mission and its core principles, with which LEPAIO is aligned. We need more worker democracy in the labor movement where all working class issues can be debated, discussed and acted upon:  debate not dissolution.

The AFL-CIO, the labor center to which the United Auto Workers Union (UAW) is affiliated, has developed as a pro-capitalist and pro-imperialist trade union organization.  LEPAIO has been challenging the AFL-CIO’s acceptance of US government’s funding of the AFL-CIO’s Solidarity Center via the National Endowment for Democracy (created during the Reagan administration in 1983) as an ani-democratic operation within the labor movement. 

The recent DOGE-directed defunding of the NED and hence dismantling of the Solidarity Center, should be a matter for discussion and debate in the UAW and all AFL-CIO affiliated unions and other unions in the US. To date, the AFL-CIO leadership and the leadership of all AFL-CIO unions, including the UAW, have been silent about these unprecedented developments. The UAWD can play a critical role in promoting a revaluation of the US labor movement’s role internationally, and disentangling it from government control.

The US Empire is falling apart, giving rise to fascist Trump and the undermining of all democratic rights of working people. There is a corresponding political crisis in the labor movement:  we urgently need more democratic debate and a structure that will allow for  all workers to discuss and debate the  issues that we face.

The UAWD faction wanting to dismantle the caucus has the apparent backing of the leadership of Labor Notes, the DSA Bread and Roses Caucus, and the Social Justice & Solidarity Fund trustees.  We urge them to reassess that support, and to stand with the UAWD founders and members who see the urgent necessity of building an even stronger democratic caucus in these turbulent times. The reform of the UAW has taken big steps but the work is far from done, as elements of the entrenched bureaucracy are pushing back to mute the organized voice of the progressive rank and file. LEPAIO stands in solidarity with fighters for democracy in the UAWD.

For more information, contact

Frank Hammer 313-355-2401 (UAW 909)

Steve Zeltzer [email protected]

Kim Scipes 773/615-5019

LEPAIO

[email protected]

The post LEPAIO Opposes Dissolution of UAW Caucus, Supports Unite All Workers for Democracy (UAWD) appeared first on Labor Today.

Carey was an NLRB official from 2009-2018, after which she joined notorious union-busting law firm, Morgan Lewis where she made partner in 2024. Morgan Lewis has been a thorn in the side of labor for decades including during the 1981 PATCO strike, currently Morgan Lewis represents Amazon in their fight against the nationwide campaign to organize their sweatshop-like facilities.

We must ask who benefits from an appointment like this. It certainly is neither the labor movement nor the working class as a whole. Trump knows full well that the misleaders of labor have relied heavily on the administrative state to organize and maintain any semblance of power against the assaults for monopoly capital; this is an attempt to pull the rug out from under them.

The only path forward is a mass rank-and-file movement aimed at fighting back against monopoly capital’s new assault. We can only defeat the bosses with a class-oriented trade union movement built from below and ready to fight. We need a militant labor movement to take the lead in building an anti-monopoly coalition to fight the bosses and organize the unorganized.

The post Trump Continues Assault on Labor, Names Union-Busting Lawyer as new NLRB General Counsel appeared first on Labor Today.

A federal judge, supported by the U.S. Supreme Court, found no legal basis for his deportation, yet federal officials ignored court orders, made false public claims, denied him due process and violated Kilmar’s rights— setting a dangerous precedent for us all.

The SMART Union, Kilmar’s community, and his allies are demanding Kilmar’s safe return, an end to his and his family’s suffering, and a defense of due process — the foundation of fair treatment on and off the job. Railroad Workers United stands in solidarity with this call and urges all union members to defend the rights of workers born outside the U.S. who are now so unjustly targeted.

This fight is about more than one member—it’s about protecting the rights every worker depends on.

The full resolution can be read below:

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Twelve UE locals, representing over 30,000 graduate workers at both private and public universities, released a statement today urging colleges and universities to form a “Mutual Academic Defense Compact” to respond to the Trump administration’s ongoing attacks on higher education.

“As the Trump administration weaponizes public funds to force capitulation to his extreme, authoritarian agenda, we demand that universities and colleges band together to protect against the incessant attacks on higher education, immigrant rights, and the rights of LGBTQ+ individuals,” said Greyson Arnold, a graduate worker at the University of Minnesota and leader of UE Local 1105, the University of Minnesota Graduate Labor Union.

The locals also urge colleges and universities to establish a common fund to support international workers, who are particularly vulnerable to attacks by the Trump administration.

“At a moment when the rights of non-citizen students and workers are under attack nationwide, we need our universities to band together to provide meaningful protection and support for international students and workers,” said Ewa Nizalowska, a graduate worker at Cornell University and leader of UE Local 300, Cornell Graduate Students United.

The statement notes that the Trump administration’s attacks are an “attempt to dismantle this country’s higher education infrastructure. These attacks undermine our institutions’ teaching and research missions and threaten the safety and well-being of our members.”

The Universities need to remember that we and the work we do are the reasons they are getting the recognition and funding to grow as they do now,” said Hwa Huang, a graduate worker at North Carolina State University and a leader of The Workers Union at North Carolina State University/UE Local 150. “Our international colleagues are central to our communities, and we should come together to protect one another, not subjecting one of our own to the racist violence of detainment, deportation, or worse.”

The full statement can be found at ueunion.org/mutual-academic-defense-compact.

The UE locals who issued the statement represent graduate workers at the following institutions: Cornell University, Dartmouth College, John Hopkins University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, New Mexico State University, North Carolina State University, Northwestern University, Stanford University, University of Chicago, University of Iowa, University of Minnesota, and the University of New Mexico.

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The National Endowment for Democracy (NED), another CIA cutout that the AFL-CIO had ties with, worked within Poland helping to fund Solidarności (Solidarity). As noted in the book however, this stance did not just start post WWII but was rather a trait of the trade unions going all the way back to the AFL’s first president, Samuel Gompers. Many figures from history including Walter Reuther of the United Auto Workers (UAW), Jay Lovestone (National Secretary of the Communist Party USA from 1927-29), and Irving Brown (International Relations for the AFL-CIO) would be useful allies to the CIA during this time.

Before the AFL-CIO merger in 1955, the CIO was considered more radical and communist friendly than the AFL had traditionally been. Where the AFL was unwilling to organize industrially, was beholden to strictly craft unionism, and would not organize black workers—the CIO stepped in. After the merger, many unions started expelling their communist (and other militant) members amidst the deepening ties between the AFL-CIO and the CIA. The United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE) was one of those unions deemed “communist friendly” since they were not willing to expel Communists (or this they would be expelled by the CIO at its Eleventh Convention in 1949) and as such was subject to raids by the UAW (and CIO created IUE) resulting in losing the majority of their membership and almost being destroyed.

There is a consistent pattern that appears when studying US intervention in internal affairs of other countries. When militant unions were on the rise and were willing to work with the Soviet Union, organizations were deemed “Communist dominated” and work was done to create a split in these organizations which would lead to weakening the labor movement in a given country. In France, the General Confederation of Labor (CGT) was split, forming the Force Ouvrière (Workers Force) in 1947. In Italy, the Italian General Confederation of Labor (CGIL) was split and two groups, the Free General Confederation of Italian Labor (LGCIL) and Italian Federation of Labor would merge to become the Italian Confederation of Trade Unions (CISL). This story appears in countries from Europe, Africa, Latin America, and more. The story of Indonesia and the genocide that unfolded resulting in approximately 1 million people killed due to CIA and AFL-CIO involvement is a tragic backdrop and a testament to the ends that the US was (and is) willing to go in its anti-communist crusade.

In 1991, with the counter-revolution in the USSR and the United States “winning” the cold war and the AFL-CIO having rid itself of its most militant members for decades, would see a decline in union membership around the country as union density decreased. The fight for workers rights had taken a backseat during the cold war years in favor of anti-communism. But like the book concludes, to this day the fight still continues for militancy in and outside the AFL-CIO.

The post Book Review: Blue Collar Empire—The Untold Story of US Labor’s Global Anticommunist Crusade appeared first on Labor Today.

Railroad workers would go on to reject a tentative agreement that outright ignored the demands of the rank-and-file over these conditions. Using the anti-labor Railway Labor Act, a bipartisan Congress and then President Biden would go on to force that rejected agreement onto the rail workers in December 2022. With the warnings of the railroad workers ignored, disaster would soon strike on February 3, 2023, just two months after Congress ignored the safety concerns as a Norfolk Southern train derailed right outside East Palestine, OH leading to a massive environmental disaster.

This grim situation on the railroads was a catalyst for the cross-craft caucus of rank-and-file railroad workers, Railroad Workers United (RWU), passing a resolution in support of the nationalization of the railroads. This resolution would lead to the creation of the Public Rail Now campaign which is a grassroots coalition fighting for the nationalization of the railroads using the 1920s Plumb Plan as a model.

The Plumb Plan had a call for a tripartite leadership of the railroads consisting of labor, the public, and management. Though it was a step in the right direction, it kept the same abusive bosses in at least partial leadership of the railroads. Public Rail Now has improved on this concept now pushing a tripartite leadership consisting of labor, the public, and the planet. This concept is the embodiment of the labor-led anti-monopoly coalition LUEL has been organizing for, it unites the labor movement with community and climate mass organizations to fight the monopolist railroad cartels.

The Public Rail Now campaign has already brought a large variety of groups together like RWU, LUEL, Labor Network for Sustainability, national unions like the United Electrical Radio and Machine Workers Union (UE), the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), and others to organize a push to nationalize the railroads. LUEL calls on rank-and-file leaders to fight for their unions to endorse the campaign and to go to their local labor councils to push for endorsements. Look out for events throughout the country as the campaign heats up, get involved, and join the fight against the monopolists.

The post To Fight the Monopolist Railroad Cartels We Must Unite to Fight for Public Rail appeared first on Labor Today.

We urge you to read these resolutions in full (click on the links), join with activists across the U.S. this Saturday, April 5th, and on May Day, Thursday, May 1st to fight back and say Hands Off! our dignity, safety, and security. To find a local April 5th action near you, visit the Hand Off! national campaign website.

RWU Resolution on Solidarity with Unionized Federal Workers

RWU strongly opposes the federal government’s sweeping staffing cuts across agencies, causing harm to public services — especially for poor and working-class communities — and threats to the livelihoods of dedicated civil servants. We call on railroad unions, workers, and labor activists to unite in solidarity with federal workers and actively resist these attacks.

We strongly endorse April 5th and May 1st, “May Day,” as days of action and urge broader labor organizations, including the AFL-CIO, to organize and participate in national efforts defending unionized federal workers.

RWU Resolution in Support of the Railroad Retirement System 

RWU defends the Railroad Retirement System, opposing field office closures and funding restrictions despite the system being self-funded and essential for workers. We call for modernization and protection, urging the government to release internal funds for tech upgrades and to preserve the system’s infrastructure. We urge collective union action, and encourage all railroad workers and retirees to mobilize and advocate for the system’s preservation.

RWU Resolution in Support of Amtrak

RWU supports keeping Amtrak public, and we oppose any efforts to privatize it that would reduce service, compromise safety, and eliminate good union jobs. We call for expanded investment in Amtrak, including more routes, better stations, new trains, and a larger union workforce. We urge unions, communities, and allies to stand with us in protecting and growing Amtrak as a critical public transportation system.

The post HANDS OFF!!! RWU Proposes Action in Defense of Amtrak, Railroad Retirement, and all Federal Workers appeared first on Labor Today.

Like Social Security, the Railroad Retirement is funded by employees and employers through a payroll tax. Railroad Retirement costs non-railroad employees nothing. Yet, fears from railroad workers that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by the richest man on earth, Elon Musk, is looking to cut such benefits to pay for the tax cuts to billionaires. The quasi-government body has announced already to discontinue the lease of 7 buildings around the country for the RRBs to execute its mission to improve “efficiency.”

Railroaders are familiar with claims of improved “efficiency” through making cuts while increasing “throughput to customers.”  Precision Schedule Railroading, the corporate railroad method that has led to countless railroad disasters, exploitive work conditions, and less service to customers is vehemently unsupported by railroad workers unions. DOGE and Elon Musk are trying to disseminate government bodies like the Railroad Retirement Board much like what Precision Schedule Railroading (PSR) has done to the railroads in order to give the railroad workers less.

The Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen, in a statement posted on its website on March 7, 2025, listed three reasons how the underfunding would affect the department:

1. The RRB’s chronic underfunding has led to severe service delays, which directly impact the railroad workers and retirees who rely on the agency. If funding remains inadequate: The average wait time for occupational disability claim adjudication will remain at 450 days — meaning retirees and beneficiaries will wait well over a year for their claims to be processed.
2. The average phone hold times are already at 4 hours, leaving members struggling to get assistance.
3. With the current executive orders and government overreach, the RRB can only hire one employee for every four who leave, making it impossible to keep up with demand and worsening service backlogs.

The bottom line is that Railroad companies do not want to pay their employees the benefits they earned. Defunding railroaders’ benefits will lead to more exploitation of an already overly exerted industry of workers. Fighting for more public power for our railroads, freight, and passengers and not less is crucial to achieving a more secure Railroad Retirement. The goal of the railroad bosses is to underfund the services to make them unreliable and faulty to make it easier to dismantle them altogether.

Support the Public Rail Now campaign if you want to protect Railroad Retirement as stated on their website “There is reason to believe that public ownership of the railroads would bode well for the Railroad Retirement System because, as outlined, increased freight traffic, electrification, infrastructure expansion, a return of passenger service, shorter and safer trains, and an emphasis on service rather than profit and job cutbacks would necessarily translate into more railroad jobs and more payers into the Railroad Retirement System.”

Support for Public Rail Now will give railroaders more security for their retirement plans but it also helps protect Social Security due to the closely tied services of both programs for benefactors. An attack on either service, Social Security or Railroad Retirement hurts all Americans. LUEL calls on the American people to support and defend Railroad Retirement through support of the Public Rail Now Campaign.

The post DOGE Attacks Already Overburdened Railroad Retirement Board appeared first on Labor Today.

It was during the 2022 battle between railroad workers and the major railroad corporations that much of the U.S. public was first exposed to the reality of what it is like to be a railroad worker.

Since then, public interest in the railroads and railroad workers has apparently waned. This is unfortunate, as the problems highlighted by the mainstream media during the 2022 battle have, for the most part, not been resolved.

For this reason, Public Rail Now, a coalition of railroad workers, labor organizers, trackside community advocates, environmental justice activists, and others demanding public ownership and operation of the U.S. rail system, launched a questionnaire and interview project to elevate the voices of railroad workers and bring the railroad industry back into the light. Over the two-month period of November and December 2024, we received over 130 questionnaire responses from railroad workers across the U.S. which were as enlightening as they were alarming. The follow-up interviews only reinforced our view that the problems in the railroad industry require bold action on the part of the federal government.

Excessive working hours, draconian attendance policies, dangerous conditions, and hostile managers, among other features, constitute a harrowing industrial situation which has not much improved since the Biden administration forced a highly unpopular contract down the railroad workers’ throats.

All the Livelong Day

According to one CSX conductor, using personal leave today is “like buying concert tickets . . . nine times out of ten, I’m either sleeping or working, so I can’t call off when I need to.” The workers in his subdivision have to compete to use leave, and with about 100 workers to compete with, it is nearly impossible for many workers to get the time off when they need it. “You’re competing with 100 other guys for that personal day,” he said. “If it’s a summertime weekend, good luck.”

The long working hours demanded by the rail corporations, reinforced by oppressive attendance policies, make it difficult for railroad workers to spend time with their loved ones. “We used to be able to take off,” a BNSF conductor told us. “Not anymore. I am seeing my family less.” To compensate for the hours spent away from spouses and children, railroad workers often eschew a full night’s rest. An already fatigued workforce is further exhausted.

It is important to note that while railroad workers are unable to spend time with their families, even on holidays, this is not the case for management. According to an engineer at UP, “Every day now is a Monday. No holidays whatsoever. Management does not work on holidays . . . They don’t have limited time off. It’s demoralizing as hell having to put up with that mentality. You’re expected to be at work and they’re spending time with their families.”

Many railroad workers, particularly those with children, are the sole wage-earners in their homes, as the severity of their work schedules complicates employment for their spouses and makes childcare difficult. “It’s hard for a spouse to get a job when you’ve got this job,” a UP conductor explained. “You never know when you’ll need a babysitter, or if your wife gets sick . . . especially with the attendance policy, it’s difficult to have a spouse working and having young kids.”

This household dynamic is one of the reasons railroad workers oftentimes stay on the job though they would prefer not to. “I need the job, my wife doesn’t work, I’ve got four kids,” a BNSF conductor said. “I haven’t been home this entire week. I’m home 12-12.5 hours at a time. Fatigued all the time. You hope to get a few hours of sleep before you go back out.”

“Orwellian Nightmare”

With few exceptions, workers – regardless of collar color – deal at some point or other with employer surveillance. On the railroads, surveillance of the workforce reaches well beyond necessary safety measures to the point of incredulity. “I’ll be honest, I saw the survey and I was nervous to fill it out,” a conductor told us. “They’ve got the eye in the sky; they’re always watching you.”

According to an engineer at UP, managers “hide in bushes, on hillsides with binoculars. We had a manager who parked his rig a mile away and he’d walk in the dark in the middle of the night and sneak up on you.” Recalling an incident that could not help but elicit a chuckle, a CSX maintenance of way worker said one day on the job “something came walking up to us out of the woods – it was a manager in a ghillie suit. I’ll put my hand on a bible for that one.”

A CSX engineer told us one of his past managers “would climb a tree – he bought night vision goggles and a radio for watching crews … he’d sit in that tree and watch you for hours.”

In addition to guerilla-style stalking, railroad managers have embraced the use of drones – sometimes to disastrous results – in their surveillance of workers. “I’ve seen the drones,” a CN engineer said. “They’ve flown them right at the conductor’s window. These managers want to make a name for themselves. They don’t care who they [expletive].”

“I know a couple of instances where a manager crashed a drone,” a CSX conductor said. “I know they got in trouble flying the drones by airports and near a chemical plant.”

A UP switchman who was injured at work expressed his frustration with the fact that cameras are often used not for worker safety, but for discipline. There were seven cameras in the area where the injury took place, but “somehow there was no footage of when it happened. Any shred of evidence of the conditions we’re working in, even the GPS data, none of that is ever available to us. It’s used against us.”

“Two words,” he said, “Orwellian nightmare.”

“You’re just a Number”

A sentiment that emerged time and again throughout the interviews is that working on the railroads is not what it used to be. “I’m a third-generation railroader,” a UP engineer said. “It’s not the railroad I remember, when I would go to work with my dad as a kid.” He added, “I refused to help my nephews get rail jobs – they asked me and I said absolutely not.”

“It used to be the job to have,” a BNSF conductor explained. “Good benefits, a good blue-collar job, but now they can’t keep anybody. I got hired on because I knew somebody.”

The quality of railroad work has diminished since many of the “old heads” (longtime railroad workers) were hired, not just in terms of work-life balance, but also material conditions. Several railroad workers described the shoddy equipment and furnishings they encounter on the job which management often refuses to repair, leaving the workers to do it themselves. “I have zip-ties and duct tape,” a conductor said, “you’d be amazed how often I have to use them.”

Considering the critical importance of the railroad industry in the U.S. economy, these statements – only a fraction of what we gathered in our questionnaire and follow-up interviews – are all the more astonishing. The question presents itself: how can such a crucial and profitable industry care so little for its workforce? One would think that workers with such a tremendous responsibility – keeping the U.S. economy running – would enjoy at least a modicum of respect and appreciation from their employers. This, however, is not the case.

“You’re just a number – they don’t care if you die,” a UP engineer said, “they’ll get another dancing chicken out there to do the job.”

To learn more about the campaign for a public rail system, please visit publicrailnow.org

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