May Day organizing surges toward nationwide day of disruption

With May 1 just days away, organizers across the country are preparing for what could be one of the largest May Day mobilizations in U.S. history. The May Day Strong coalition – bringing together unions, community organizations, and social movements – is projecting over 3,000 actions nationwide, from rallies and marches to walkouts and economic disruption.

The call is simple and ambitious: “no work, no school, no shopping.” Organizers are aiming to demonstrate the collective power of working people by disrupting business as usual across sectors and regions. Mobilizing under a broad coalition, organizers are fighting back against the billionaire agenda pushed by the Trump administration – from ICE terror to cuts to healthcare to attacks on public education to endless wars.

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With national unions like the National Education Association, American Federation of Teachers, Service Employees International Union, National Nurses United, United Auto Workers, and United Electrical Workers all tied into organizing efforts, May Day is becoming a step towards building the kind of national strike power organizers are saying will be needed to stop the Trump administration in their tracks.

• 🎥The Origins of May Day: Working class pride and power

Labor Secretary Chavez-DeRemer resigns amid scandal and anti-worker record

Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer resigned this week following a series of scandals, including allegations of mistreatment of staff and misconduct in office. While the resignation is being framed as a personal and ethical failure, it also brings renewed attention to her tenure and its impact on workers.

Chavez-DeRemer entered office with backing from some labor leaders who pointed to her previous support for pro-labor legislation while in Congress. Her time in the Trump administration quickly showed she would be no friend to workers. Under her leadership, the Department of Labor oversaw the rollback of key worker protections, including rules affecting wages and safety standards in sectors like domestic work and construction.

Her tenure reflected a broader pattern within the administration: using regulatory power to weaken labor standards while peddling lies that these same policies would benefit working people. The scandals that led to her resignation do not represent a break from that agenda, but rather the collapse of one figure within it.

The administration has consistently prioritized deregulation, corporate flexibility, and cost-cutting over worker protections. Her departure is unlikely to change that trajectory – only who carries it forward.

• 📰Trump’s Dept of Labor Attacks on Worker Rights

NYC transit workers move toward strike that could shut down the region

In New York City, a growing strike threat across the transit system is raising the stakes for one of the most critical pieces of infrastructure in the country. Contracts covering tens of thousands of workers are set to expire in mid-May, and negotiations are intensifying.

Transport Workers Union Local 100, representing more than 40,000 subway and bus workers, has begun bargaining with the MTA over wages, working conditions, and the rising cost of living in one of the most expensive cities in the world. At the same time, members of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen under the Teamsters are preparing for a possible strike on the Long Island Rail Road, one of the busiest commuter systems in the country.

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Union leaders have made it clear that without a contract that keeps pace with inflation and rising costs, they are prepared to shut the system down. That threat carries enormous weight. New York’s transit network is the most heavily used in the United States, with millions of riders depending on it every day to get to work.

A strike would not just disrupt commutes – it would ripple through the entire regional economy.

BONUS ROUND

• 🎥Salt of the Earth: The Film the Gov doesn’t want you to see

Bring it to the shop!

The Pickets & Power Bulletin covers the biggest stories impacting all working people today. Share these stories with your union siblings, coworkers, friends, and family. Read it together, discuss, and take lessons to strengthen your own fights. When we fight, we win – and when we fight, we learn. Tell us in the comments about campaigns you think we should include in our next bulletin!

Chicago schools join May Day shutdown

The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) has successfully pushed Chicago Public Schools after weeks of pressure to make May 1 a day of civic engagement for all Chicago public school students to allow over 300,000 students and over 40,000 educators to join the May Day national shutdown movement – calling for “no work, no school, no shopping.”

CPS will remain open, yet May 1 will be treated as a “day of civic action,” with students and educators allowed to participate in protests, and schools encouraged to facilitate attendance at rallies as part of the school day. This is motivated by the Trump administration’s attacks on public education and more broadly against the working class families who send their children to CPS. As a part of the agreement, CPS will even be providing buses to transport students and educators to the rally downtown.

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Under pressure from organized labor, one of the largest school districts in the country is now formally recognizing mass protest as part of civic education. In the birthplace of May Day and the center of the May Day Strong coalition, more workers, students, and families will now prepare to join mass protest actions in the streets.

• 🎥The Origins of May Day: Working class pride and power

70,000 LA educators win major contracts

In Los Angeles, over 70,000 educators won major contract gains and narrowly averted a massive strike across the second-largest school district in the country. Three unions – UTLA, SEIU Local 99, and AALA (IBT 2010) – were bargaining simultaneously with LAUSD, bringing negotiations down to the wire. As each union reached a tentative agreement, they maintained a united strike threat until the final deal, showing that no group would settle until every school worker secured a fair contract.

That leverage produced major gains. Teachers won raises averaging nearly 14%, with larger increases for early-career educators to help stabilize a workforce strained by the cost of living. School workers secured higher wages, additional hours, and protections against subcontracting and layoffs, while administrators won raises and more flexibility in workload. The agreements also included provisions on class size enforcement, special education support, and protections against unchecked AI implementation in schools.

This marks the high point of the California Teachers Association’s “We Can’t Wait” campaign, which has mobilized over 80,000 educators statewide. From Richmond to San Francisco to Sacramento and now Los Angeles, the strategy has been consistent – build coordinated campaigns, create credible strike threats, and raise standards across the sector.

Like other recent education fights, this was also about students’ learning conditions. Educators were organizing in response to housing instability, cuts to social programs, and the fear caused by ICE enforcement in immigrant communities. Schools are being asked to absorb these pressures while districts sit on billions in reserves.

The campaign shows how educators can link local fights into a broader movement for education justice. California is the fourth-largest economy in the world, yet public education remains underfunded. Now the focus is shifting from district-by-district fights to demanding that the state fully fund public education.

• 🎥LA Educators & School Staff: “Enough is enough!”

• 🎧Interview with Nathalie Hrizi on UESF strike victory

NYC building workers beat back real estate billionaires

In New York City, 34,000 building service workers with SEIU 32BJ forced a major contract settlement after preparing for a strike that would have hit the heart of the most valuable real estate market in the world for the first time since 1991.

Their employer counterpart, the Realty Advisory Board, represents many of the biggest real estate interests in the world. The RAB was formed in the 1930s explicitly to break the union just as building service workers were getting organized. These are the landlords and developers who control billions in property across Manhattan and beyond – an industry built on some of the highest rents and property values on the planet. Those same corporate landlords have been a major factor driving the out of control affordability crisis in New York City. Building service workers themselves have been feeling the rising costs push them out of the city along with their working class neighbors.

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And yet, even here, the employers came to the table demanding concessions from the union. They pushed to cut healthcare benefits and introduce a two-tier system that would permanently divide new workers from the rest of the workforce, ensuring everyone hired going forward would have to accept lower pay and benefits. The RAB claimed they could not afford to maintain or improve the pay and benefits of building service workers, citing the possibility of rent freezes as a coming crisis for corporate landlords.

Workers refused to sell out future generations or accept cuts themselves. After a massive strike vote and public mobilization this past week, they won a deal that not only defeated the RAB attempts to cut health benefits and introduce a two-tier contract, but actually won $4.50 per hour in raises by the end of the 4-year agreement and a 15% increase to their guaranteed pension.

Even in the most profitable industries, employers are trying to claw back standards by targeting the next generation of workers. Similar two-tier contracts were pushed on auto workers and UPS workers in decades past, undermining the unity of the workforce and the integrity of their contracts. Those two-tier systems in auto and UPS were ultimately defeated in recent years through powerful strikes and strike threats.

Nurses take the fight against ICE to Congress

This week in Washington, DC, members of National Nurses United – representing over 225,000 nurses nationwide – rallied with a clear message: ICE is not just an immigration issue, it is a healthcare issue. Nurses are on the front lines of what immigration enforcement does to communities. Patients avoid seeking care out of fear. Consequently, families delay treatment until conditions become emergencies. Entire communities are destabilized, and hospitals are forced to operate in the middle of that crisis.

After the murder of Alex Pretti – a VA nurse and AFGE union member, executed by federal agents in January as a consequence of the federal occupation of Minnesota – NNU sprung into action to condemn the murder and called to abolish ICE to curb their violent terror campaign. By taking up the call to abolish ICE, NNU is expanding what it means to defend their workplaces against new threats growing under the Trump administration. Healthcare workers are making the case that protecting patients requires confronting the broader systems that are harming them outside the hospital walls.

That includes speaking out against the massive public spending on war and deportation, while healthcare systems remain underfunded and overstretched. Massive cuts under Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” – including a trillion dollar cut to Medicaid – have been used to fund trillions in tax breaks for the billionaires, the deportation machine, and endless war.

• 🎥ABOLISH ICE: Union nurses to Congress

Layoffs spread as corporations double down on AI and cost-cutting

Another wave of layoffs hit major corporations this week, reinforcing a pattern that is becoming impossible to ignore. Disney cut around 1,000 jobs across its operations despite generating roughly $12 billion in profits last year. The cuts hit major divisions including Marvel and ESPN, with leadership framing the layoffs as part of becoming more “technologically enabled” – a familiar phrase that signals a deeper push toward automation and AI-driven restructuring.

At the same time, Snap announced layoffs of about 1,000 workers as well – roughly 16% of its global workforce – explicitly tying the cuts to its increasing reliance on AI tools. The company has told investors that 65% of new code is already being generated by AI systems, and that it intends to accelerate that shift even further. At the same time, Meta has announced they will layoff 10% of their workforce next month as part of the mass layoffs they announced last month to cut 20% total in the near future. This comes as Meta continues to aggressively integrate AI into every area possible.

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Markets have rewarded these moves. Companies cut workers, promise future gains through AI, and see their valuations rise. AI driven mass layoffs have become a regular feature of both tech and entertainment, and other sectors are likely to follow. The more major companies announce such layoffs, investors and corporate America will continue to feel the competitive pressure to do the same, accelerating the trend further.

• 🎥”AI won’t replace us!” ProPublica workers on strike

BONUS ROUND

• 🎥Sara Nelson, Bernie, and Zohran launch National Organizing and Strike Fund

• 🎥Priced out of NYC: Union hotel workers won’t back down!

Bring it to the shop!

The Pickets & Power Bulletin covers the biggest stories impacting all working people today. Share these stories with your union siblings, coworkers, friends, and family. Read it together, discuss, and take lessons to strengthen your own fights. When we fight, we win – and when we fight, we learn. Tell us in the comments about campaigns you think we should include in our next bulletin!

UTLA reaches TA; 68,000 LA education workers still prepare to strike

A potential strike of up to 68,000 workers across Los Angeles schools is rapidly approaching the April 14 deadline. United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA) reached a TA with the district early morning on Sunday, April 12 through the strength of their strike threat. School support staff and administrators with SEIU Local 99 and ALAA Teamsters Local 2010, respectively are still negotiating and planning to strike on April 14 if they don’t have a deal. UTLA has committed to join in a sympathy strike to support their colleagues. This would shut down the second-largest school district in the country, and could be the largest coordinated education strike in years.

At the center of the fight are familiar issues, but they are getting worse: Underfunded schools and staffing shortages, rising cost of living pushing educators out of the profession, overcrowded classrooms and lack of student support.

Beyond these longstanding underfunding of CA public education, educators are also fighting to defend their most vulnerable students from the impacts of the Trump administration on working class and immigrant communities. Educators are dealing with the growing impact of immigration enforcement, ICE raids, and the presence of law enforcement and the National Guard in communities, which are directly affecting students’ ability to learn. Schools are increasingly being asked to absorb the fallout of broader political crises and cuts to programs for working families, without the resources to respond.

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At the beginning of the school year, LAUSD had over $5 billion in reserves, and has been called out for committing $10 billion to private multiyear contracts during 2022-2025. This reinforces the core message of the statewide We Can’t Wait campaign: the money is there, it’s just not being spent on our students. After strike victories from Richmond to San Francisco to Sacramento, Los Angeles now represents the crest of a statewide wave – one that is linking contract fights to broader demands for fully funded schools and protections for immigrant communities.

• 🎥LA Educators & School Staff: “Enough is enough!”

ProPublica workers strike over AI impacts

Roughly 150 workers at ProPublica walked out on April 8, launching a one-day strike in their fight for a first contract with the usage and impacts of artificial intelligence (AI) at the center. Workers are demanding protections against layoffs driven by AI, “just cause” standards, and a say in how AI is implemented in their work, after management introduced new policies without bargaining.

Journalists at ProPublica and other outlets have been raising concerns about how the technology has undermined job security for the entire industry as outlets turn to AI for faster output. This transformation is felt acutely by journalists who see how these tools are being pushed not only as a supplement to their work, but already as a means of replacing them in research, data analysis, writing, and editing.

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Ultimately, ProPublica workers have stated they aren’t completely opposed to using new technology as a tool for their reporting, but believe that without proper protections these tools pose a threat to their job security and journalistic ethics and standards.

Add to these threats the decades-long decline of print media. With more outlets closing or downsizing and losses to advertising revenue, the industry has seen work become less and less secure. And more recently the second Trump administration has put a target on journalists critical of his policies and actions.

The attacks on free press have resulted in arrests and trials of journalists – like Don Lemon and Georgia Fort, who were arrested in Minnesota for reporting on anti-ICE protest actions – and Mario Guevara, who faced detention and deportation. All of these challenges feed into the need for these workers to have guarantees of job security in the face of an uncertain future.

• 🎥”AI won’t replace us!” ProPublica on strike

“Union Now” launch reflects growing demand for organized labor

A new national effort – Union Now, launched by Sara Nelson, President of the Association of Flight Attendants – is aiming to scale union organizing nationwide, with backing from Senator Bernie Sanders and NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani. The project is focused on supporting new organizing drives and strikes at a moment when more workers are looking to unions as a vehicle for change.

Public approval of unions has surged in recent years, reaching levels not seen in decades, while trust in traditional institutions – from government to corporations – continues to fall. Union Now is an attempt to meet that moment and to turn growing pro-union sentiment into actual organizing and workplace power.

It also reflects a broader recognition inside the labor movement that this is not a normal period we are in. The second Trump administration has carried out some of the biggest assaults on organized labor in years – attempting to eliminate collective bargaining rights for one million federal workers amid mass layoffs, stripping workers of many critical federal protections, and leaving federal labor law enforcement in shambles.

With mass protests, strike waves, and economic pressure building at the same time, there is an opportunity and urgency to expand labor’s reach.

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BONUS ROUND

• 🎥Amazon and ICE: Southern warehouse workers fight back!

Bring it to the shop!

The Pickets & Power Bulletin covers the biggest stories impacting all working people today. Share these stories with your union siblings, coworkers, friends, and family. Read it together, discuss, and take lessons to strengthen your own fights. When we fight, we win – and when we fight, we learn. Tell us in the comments about campaigns you think we should include in our next bulletin!

Teamsters win national contracts at DHL and First Student

Two major national Teamsters contracts were secured this week, covering over 23,000 workers across logistics and transportation, after strike threats against both companies forced them to move.

At DHL, roughly 6,000 Teamsters across 26 locals in 16 states won a new national agreement just ahead of a March 31 strike deadline, backed by a 96% strike authorization vote. Key issues included raises and improved benefits, protections against subcontracting, and a ban on self-driving trucks. The strike threat at DHL reflects the 2023 UPS national contract fight, when Teamsters organized the first major national strike threat at the company since the 1997 UPS strike.

At First Student, covering roughly 17,000 school bus drivers and support staff nationwide, Teamsters also secured a tentative agreement after an 88% strike authorization vote. They won improved retirement and healthcare benefits and a national economic framework to raise standards across hundreds of local agreements.

In sectors like logistics and transportation – where workers sit at key choke points in the economy – national credible strike threats like these carry immense leverage over the boss. National master contracts are rare, but remain an important battleground in sectors of the economy with high union membership, like transportation and logistics.

However, both face major threats from non-union competitors which put downward pressure on these same national union contracts. This is part of why the expansion of companies like Amazon – the massive non-union logistics giant – poses an existential threat to the Teamsters if they remain unorganized.

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May Day organizing expands after largest protest in U.S. history

Following the massive “No Kings” day of action on March 28, organizers are continuing to focus this new energy towards May 1. More than 8 million people took to the streets across over 3,300 protests nationwide, making it the largest single-day protest in U.S. history.

Organizers are calling for a nationwide May Day national shutdown – “no work, no school, no shopping” – effectively a general strike. The May Day Strong coalition, made up of hundreds of organizations, is organizing canvassing operations, mass outreach, and over 100 “Solidarity Schools” to prepare for coordinated action across the country. The coalition includes major national unions amplifying and supporting the call – including the National Education Association, American Federation of Teachers, National Nurses United, United Electrical Workers, and United Auto Workers – as well as city and state coalitions of union locals, labor councils, immigrant rights, and community organizations building local efforts.

Similar to the “No Kings” protest movement, May Day actions are calling broadly on working people to stand up to the endless attacks by the Trump administration and the billionaire agenda he has pushed. The scale of last week’s protests, combined with the speed of organizing since, suggests the struggle against Trump could be entering a new phase. There is no telling what could happen between now and May 1, but the country is turning more and more to a tinderbox ready to burst with the next match.

• 🎥Over 8 million join nationwide! No kings, no ICE, no war

• 🎥The next General Strike will be in the SOUTH!

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Oracle cuts jobs to fund AI expansion and reshape tech industry

Oracle is the latest major tech company to accelerate layoffs while doubling down on investments and big bets on artificial intelligence (AI). The company announced it is cutting potentially as much as 18% of its workforce, or up to 30,000 workers globally. Adding insult to injury, workers reported being notified they were fired by email at 6am with no warning. This comes as Oracle pivots resources into AI and cloud expansion. This includes a $16 billion data center project in Michigan the company is moving on as it conducts mass layoffs. At the center of this is Larry Ellison – co-founder, Chairman, and CTO at Oracle and one of the richest people on the planet, as well as a close political ally of Trump.

The layoffs come as part of a broader trend across the tech sector. More than 40,000 tech workers have already been laid off in 2026 at more than 70 tech companies, as companies restructure around AI systems and promise greater efficiency with smaller teams. Investors continue to reward these moves. Oracle’s stock rose following news of the cuts, even as its overall value has declined significantly over the past year.

Oracle’s strategy reflects a deeper shift in the industry. Oracle was for decades a dominant database company built through government contracts (initially from the CIA) and aggressively buying out the competition. Now it’s positioning itself as a core infrastructure provider for the AI era – competing with giants like Amazon Web Services to control the computing backbone other companies rely on. That means owning the hardware and real estate needed for what they see as the coming AI economy.

They are doing this by freeing up more capital by firing huge sections of the workforce. As AI systems spread into logistics, healthcare, education, and beyond, employers across industries are preparing to use them to reduce labor costs, increase productivity demands, and reshape workplaces how they see fit. Oracle is betting on this expansion and pivoting their own operations accordingly.

• 🎥Tech worker tells why she is worried about AI

Shutdown limbo passes 50 days

The longest Department of Homeland Security shutdown in U.S. history – now over 50 days since February 14 – is still yet to break as sections of Congressional Republicans move to fund core agencies like TSA and FEMA without additional ICE and CBP funding, punting that fight to a separate budget reconciliation bill in the near future. Trump is demanding Congressional Republicans deliver this reconciliation bill to fund ICE and CBP to his desk by June 1. However, House Speaker Mike Johnson has shifted back and forth on ending the shutdown or caving to the hardliner right-wing on the Republican party. Now the crisis remains unresolved at least until mid-April when Congress reconvenes.

This follows weeks of mounting pressure as the shutdown pushed the airline system toward collapse, holding travelers and TSA agents hostage. More than 450 TSA agents quit, absentee rates surged above 10% nationally, and airport wait times stretched out the door for hours in some cases. TSA agents – classified as “essential” – were forced to work without pay, while politicians used their livelihoods as leverage in a broader political fight. Without pay, many have had no choice but to stop coming in to feed their families. Due to public pressure and rising absentee rates for TSA, Trump signed executive orders to cut back pay checks for TSA.

At the center of that fight was Trump’s push to expand funding for ICE and CBP without any checks on their violence. As the crisis continued, Trump is making the passage of the SAVE Act a major priority, which would require a passport or birth certificate to vote and force states to share voter data with DHS. These measures would likely disenfranchise millions. Facing defeat in Congress, Trump signed an executive order on March 31 tightening rules on mail-in ballots to push the same agenda. With declining support, Republicans are desperately looking for ways to steal the midterm elections.

This comes just months after another shutdown earlier this year tied to cuts to healthcare subsidies, which are already hitting working families. In March, a West Health-Gallup survey showed one in three Americans have had to cut expenses, like food and gas, to pay for increased premiums.

• 🎥The real reason airports are so chaotic

• 🎥Atlanta’s hourslong TSA lines didn’t fall from the sky

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BONUS ROUND

• 🎥9to5: How secretaries beat their sexist bosses

• 🎥”No Iranian ever hurt me”

• 🎥What’s behind the STRIKE at America’s biggest beef plant?

• 🎥Waffle House serves poverty

• 👕MLK All Labor Has Dignity t-shirt release

Bring it to the shop!

The Pickets & Power Bulletin covers the biggest stories impacting all working people today. Share these stories with your union siblings, coworkers, friends, and family. Read it together, discuss, and take lessons to strengthen your own fights. When we fight, we win – and when we fight, we learn. Tell us in the comments about campaigns you think we should include in our next bulletin!

“No Kings” protests sweep the country, point to May Day escalation

Over 8 million people took to the streets on March 28 in over 3,000 protests across all 50 states – the third nationwide “No Kings” day of action. This follows the last “No Kings” protest on October 18, 2025, which saw over 7 million people in the streets for the single largest national protest in U.S. history. Since then the Trump administration has only deepened their attacks as the country spirals deeper into crisis.

From Los Angeles to Minneapolis – where the flagship protest followed months of resistance to ICE raids – crowds rallied against the Trump administration’s war on Iran, mass deportations, and cuts to social programs. Working people across the political spectrum are feeling their lives grow more difficult as prices for everything from gas to healthcare rise, and the Trump administration offers no solutions, only more problems.

Organizers are now turning up the heat on May 1 – May Day – calling to escalate from mass demonstrations to mass disruption: no work, no school, no shopping. In effect, a general strike.

A broad Los Angeles labor and community coalition is stepping forward to answer that call – committing to May Day as a day of disruption. The coalition includes the LA Labor Federation – representing over 800,000 workers across 300+ unions and labor organizations – along with immigrant rights organizations and community groups. As Trump’s attacks against working people continue to grow, so do the calls to action.

• 🎥Over 8 million join nationwide! No kings, no ICE, no war

• 🎥No kings, no ICE, no war! Tens of thousands protest in Boston

• 🎥The next General Strike will be in the SOUTH!

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Shutdown crisis deepens as ICE sent to airports

The partial federal government shutdown – now entering its sixth week after beginning February 14 – has pushed the air travel system toward collapse. Already hundreds of TSA workers have quit, absentee rates have surged into double digits, and wait times for travelers have stretched to hours-long delays.

In response, Trump has deployed ICE agents into major airports, even though they lack screening training and are largely limited to observing operations. Instead of funding TSA or easing the crisis, Trump has sent ICE agents into airports – agents who can’t even perform screening. At the center of the crisis: Trump is demanding funding for ICE, while TSA workers are forced to work without pay.

Recently, Trump suggested he would only consider resolving the crisis with any cuts to ICE funding if the Democrats guarantee they will pass the SAVE Act. The SAVE Act would require states to submit voter rolls to DHS and require passports or birth certificates to vote – a move that would likely disenfranchise millions if it were to pass. With the current crisis as leverage, Trump is pushing to supercharge ICE and undermine our basic democratic rights.

The impasse appears to be breaking as the Senate voted unanimously on Friday to fund TSA and end the shutdown, while not allocating more funding for ICE and CBP. This could mark a major defeat for Trump. However, House Republicans have put forward a competing DHS funding bill that still maintains expanded funding for ICE and CBP. While Trump has indicated he would sign a bill to fund TSA after political pressure has mounted, the crisis remains unresolved at this time.

• 🎥The real reason airports are so chaotic

• 🎥Atlanta’s hourslong TSA lines didn’t fall from the sky

Hotel workers assert right to walk out over ICE threats

UNITE HERE Local 11 announced that hospitality workers have the right to walk off the job if they feel unsafe due to ICE activity. They have said federal immigration agents at worksites create “unusually dangerous conditions” for workers, demanding that companies refuse to host ICE.

“Our members should not be forced into the middle of heavily armed enforcement operations,” said UNITE HERE Co-President Kurt Petersen. “Our contracts guarantee a safe workplace, and if hotels and stadiums choose to allow ICE onto their properties, our workers have the right to walk out.”

The union represents tens of thousands of hotel, airport, restaurant, and stadium workers across Southern California and Arizona, many of them immigrants or working in heavily surveilled workplaces. With immigration enforcement ramping up in major cities – including those preparing for the 2026 World Cup – the union’s stance signals a major escalation: ICE activity could now trigger workplace walkouts, just as the hospitality sector enters a vulnerable period.

This sets up a direct collision between immigration enforcement and labor power in some of the most visible sectors of the economy. UNITE HERE played a central role in the 2006 Day Without An Immigrant protests leading up to and including massive demonstrations to shut major cities down on May Day that year. This statement could be a sign of great involvement from Local 11 and UNITE HERE more broadly in today’s struggle for the rights of immigrant workers. If ICE shows up, workers may walk out.

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BONUS ROUND

• 🎥”Nobody wanted this war!”: Southern Workers to Trump

• 🎥Virginia State dining workers: “Union now! Don’t leave HBCUs behind!”

• 🎥Haitian and immigrant workers strike for dignity at JBS

Bring it to the shop!

The Pickets & Power Bulletin covers the biggest stories impacting all working people today. Share these stories with your union siblings, coworkers, friends, and family. Read it together, discuss, and take lessons to strengthen your own fights. When we fight, we win – and when we fight, we learn. Tell us in the comments about campaigns you think we should include in our next bulletin!

Shutdown chaos: TSA agents call out sick nationwide, Trump threatens to send in ICE

Major airports have become increasingly dysfunctional, with travelers in security lines for hours on end, snacking through airports and spilling into the streets. This is only made worse by skyrocketing fuel prices due to the U.S. war on Iran causing major shortages and disruptions to the supply chain.

The federal government shutdown, which began earlier this month after gridlock in Congress over the latest DHS funding bill, has led to this crisis in air travel. At the center of the conflict are demands from the Trump administration to give ICE and CBP nearly 30 billion additional dollars – insisting that the funding come with no meaningful restraints (e.g. judicial warrants, mask ban, and more) to the lawlessness with which they operate. At the same time Trump wants an additional $200 billion for military spending to fuel the war in Iran.

Now, TSA agents have begun missing paychecks while still being required to work as “essential” employees. Across major airports – including Atlanta, JFK, Chicago O’Hare, and LAX – workers have started calling out sick in growing numbers, leading to long lines, delays, and staffing shortages. Nationally over 10% of the 50,000 TSA agents have reportedly called out, with numbers as high as 35% in New Orleans and Atlanta and 40% in Houston calling out. Further delays and disruptions are expected as the shutdown drags on. Today, Trump and “border czar” Tom Homan announced that DHS would be sending ICE agents into the airports to help with security. A move that will undoubtedly inflame the situation.

• 🎥TSA union leader speaks out on government shutdown

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Southern service workers join May 1 national shutdown call

The call for May 1st as a national day of “no work, no school, no shopping” continues to grow, with the Union of Southern Service Workers (USSW) – a union of low-wage service workers across the South – stepping forward as a key organizing force spreading the call in the region. At their Southern Worker Power Summit in Atlanta this past weekend, USSW announced their plans to go all in on May Day and launched plans for upcoming “Solidarity Schools” to train organizers and build a coordinated outreach and canvassing operation across the South and beyond.

With major cities, unions, and grassroots worker groups joining, organizers are attempting to turn May 1 into a nationwide show of working-class power – and a step toward rebuilding a general strike movement.

• 🎥Southern service workers join the General Strike call for May Day 2026

• 🎥The future belongs to southern workers

• 🎥May 1st National Shutdown: No work, no school, no shopping

JBS workers launch historic meatpacking strike

More than 3,800 workers at the JBS beef plant in Greeley, Colorado walked out on Monday, launching the first major U.S. meatpacking strike in decades, the largest since the 1986 Hormel strike. Members of UFCW Local 7 are striking over unsafe working conditions, line speeds, low wages, and management’s illegal conduct during bargaining. Workers say injury rates remain high in one of the most dangerous industries in the country, while the company continues to push production targets, worrying more about the beef than the workers who process it.

JBS is the largest meat processing company in the world, controlling a major share of beef production in the U.S. and globally. A strike at this scale has the potential to disrupt a critical node in the food supply chain. Typically processing over 5,000 head of cattle a day at the plant – about 5% of the total US production – production rates have plummeted to next to nothing due to the strike.

The workforce is largely immigrant, including many workers facing uncertainty over immigration status as the federal government intensifies enforcement. Despite these pressures, workers are striking anyway – a powerful show of solidarity in an industry long built on fear and exploitation.

• 🎥Biggest meatpacking strike in decades: Workers got beef with JBS

• 📰Workers launch historic meatpacking strike

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AI layoffs expand as Meta signals major cuts

Meta may cut 20% of its workforce – about 15,000 workers of its 79,000 workers – the latest escalation in AI-driven layoffs. This would be the largest layoff in the company’s history, surpassing the mass layoffs in 2022-2023 which CEO Mark Zuckerberg euphemistically called the “Year of Efficiency.”

The move follows high-profile cuts at companies like Block, where CEO Jack Dorsey eliminated roughly 40% of the workforce, arguing AI would allow smaller teams to do more work. Across the tech sector, companies are cutting jobs while promising future gains from automation – and investors are rewarding them for it. What makes this moment distinct is that many of the workers being laid off are the same workers who helped build these technologies. Now, AI is being turned against them as a tool for cost-cutting.

Tech workers are now all feeling the heat with their job security disappearing due to these threats, putting the pressure on to meet higher performance standards or be the next ones to get fired. This trend is a warning sign for workers across industries. As AI systems mature and spread beyond tech into healthcare, logistics, education, and beyond, employers are already preparing to use them to reduce labor costs, restructure workplaces, and weaken worker leverage – all in the name of efficiency and shareholder returns.

• 🎥Tech worker tells why she is worried about AI

• 🎥Google workers speak out against Big Tech’s collaboration with ICE

LA educators set strike date as CA wave reaches turning point

California’s educator strike wave is reaching a new stage as United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) announced a strike date of April 14 after an overwhelming 96% strike authorization vote. This week, educators across UTLA, SEIU Local 99, and Teamsters Local 2010 rallied together, signaling unity across teachers, school staff, and school site administrators. At the center of the fight is a familiar issue: resources are there, but districts refuse to spend them.

LAUSD is sitting on billions in reserves, while classrooms remain overcrowded, staffing shortages persist, and educators struggle to meet student needs. At the beginning of the school year, LAUSD had over $5 billion in reserves, and has been called out for committing $10 billion to private multiyear contracts during 2022-2025. This has become a defining message of the statewide “We Can’t Wait” campaign, calling to invest today’s dollars in today’s students.

Meanwhile, Natomas and Twin Rivers educators have both secured contract victories after the historic first strikes for both school districts.

• 🎥LA educators and school staff: “Enough is enough”

• 🎧Interview with Nathalie Hrizi on UESF strike victory

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Trump policy threatens licenses of 200,000 immigrant truckers

The Trump administration is moving forward with policies that could strip up to 200,000 immigrant truck drivers of their ability to work by tightening eligibility requirements for commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs). The policy would restrict or revoke licenses for drivers who lack permanent legal status or whose work authorization is tied to temporary protections, including TPS programs that are now under threat. Many immigrant drivers who have legally obtained CDLs under existing rules could suddenly be disqualified.

Truckers are a backbone of the U.S. supply chain, and immigrant workers make up a significant share of the workforce. Labor groups warn the policy would destroy livelihoods overnight, deepen driver shortages, and further strain supply chains. Unions and worker advocates are beginning to mobilize in response, framing the move as both an attack on immigrant workers and a broader assault on labor stability in a critical industry.

This latest attack on another essential and legal group of immigrant workers demonstrates once again that the Trump administration’s immigration policy is not about criminality or benefiting American workers. It is about demonizing and scapegoating working class immigrants, no matter the cruelty or harm to the economy.

WNBA players win major contract after strike threat

Players with the Women’s National Basketball Players Association (WNBPA) secured a new contract this week after a credible strike threat forced league owners to move. After voting 98% to authorize a strike, players won gains including significant salary increases, improved revenue sharing tied to league growth, expanded charter travel, and stronger protections around workload and scheduling.

The deal marks a major shift from previous agreements, where players saw limited financial gains despite driving the league’s rapid growth in popularity and revenue. Now, players have secured a larger share of that success. The minimum salary has now been set to $300,000 with average salary range at $600,000, with average revenue sharing up to 20%. This is nearly double the previous share players received, though it still lags behind the 50% revenue share that NBA players receive.

The victory shows the impact of organizing and strike power in professional sports, and reinforces a broader lesson across industries: when workers are willing to strike, they can force even some of the most powerful employers to concede.

• 📰WNBA players are ready to strike after contract expires

• 🎥How the NBA All-Star Strike Changed Sports

Bring it to the shop!

The Pickets & Power Bulletin covers the biggest stories of the labor movement impacting working people today. Share these stories with your union siblings, coworkers, friends, and family. Read it together, discuss, and take lessons to strengthen your own fights. When we fight, we win – and when we fight, we learn. Tell us in the comments about campaigns you think we should include in our next bulletin!

Chicago Teachers vote to join May 1 national day of action

Delegates of the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) voted this week to join the growing call for May 1 to be a national day of protest under the banner of “no work, no school, no shopping”. In effect, a nationwide shut down. This is on the heels of the historic revival of the general strike movement centered in the fight against ICE terror in Minneapolis. This coming May Day, or International Workers’ Day, is part of a broader movement of labor, immigrant rights, and community organizations mobilizing against Trump and the billionaire agenda.

Reports of other unions and labor federations discussing how they too can join the call could forecast for one of the largest and most dynamic May Day mobilizations in recent history with general strike activity back at the heart of these actions.

• 🎥May 1st National Shutdown: No Work, No School, No Shopping

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Sacramento educator strike wave expands

The educator strike wave in California continued to spread this week as teachers in Natomas Unified School District joined neighboring Twin Rivers educators, who launched their first strike ever earlier this month and entered their second week on strike. More than 600 Natomas educators walked out this week, escalating pressure across the Sacramento region as educators demand greater investment in classrooms serving high-needs students and raises to retain educators in the district.

Meanwhile in the Bay Area, educators in Dublin Unified School District launched a strike beginning March 9, shutting down schools for four days before reaching a tentative agreement on March 12. The walkouts are part of the broader California Teachers Association “We Can’t Wait” campaign, which has aligned contract fights across districts to build statewide pressure for fully funded public schools.

As public education across the country – along with other public services – faces budget cuts and another austerity crisis, these educators are joining with parents and students to demand their districts and the state actually invest more in schools.

• 🎥”Our students aren’t a line item” Sacramento educators strike

• 🎧Interview with Nathalie Hrizi on UESF strike victory

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UC academic workers win tentative agreement after strike threat

Academic workers with UAW Local 4811 – the largest UAW local in the country – reached a tentative agreement with the University of California on Friday after weeks of escalating pressure, including coordinated “last chance” pickets across campuses statewide this past week with the threat to launch a ULP strike across the UC system. The wins include major raises across job classifications, eliminating pay disparities between campuses, support and protections for immigrant workers, and expanded childcare access.

The union of more than 48,000 academic workers carried out the largest academic strike in U.S. history during their last contract fight in 2022, changing the landscape for academic worker organizing. Union members say the credible threat of a strike across the UC system forced the administration to finally move at the table.

The Trump administration has made universities into a political target, leveraging lawsuits, funding cuts, and endowment taxes to force universities to implement and carry out his dictates. These attacks strip university workers of their civil liberties and academic freedom, putting a target especially on immigrant workers and progressive academics. UC workers have fought for and won protections to stand up against those same attacks.

• 🎥MIT students and workers reject Trump’s extortion

Amazon workers walk out in Inland Empire

Amazon workers walked off the job on Sunday, March 9, at the DJT6 delivery station in the Inland Empire of Southern California – one of the most critical shipping and logistics hub regions in the country. They organized the walkout to demand the reinstatement of their co-worker, Andy Aguayo, who was targeted as a union leader. Earlier this year, workers at DJT6 walked off the job and demanded union recognition from Amazon in one of the biggest organizing developments for the national campaign in 2025.

Amazon Teamsters at the warehouse wouldn’t stand for this clear act of retaliation. The walkout drew support from labor allies in the region and highlighted the ongoing fight to organize Amazon’s logistics network, one of the most powerful supply chains in the world. Workers say the message to Amazon is simple: firing organizers will only strengthen the push for a union.

• 🎥SoCal Amazon workers walkout at massive delivery station

BONUS ROUND

• 🎥”Bombs or buses?” – SF bus driver on war on Iran

• 🎥Why every worker should oppose war on Iran

Labor condemns war on Iran; California educator strike wave spreads; JBS meatpacking workers move closer to strike

Labor condemns war on Iran

Anti-war sentiment has been growing across the country as the U.S. escalates its war against Iran and President Trump threatens to send “boots on the ground.” Unions have issued statements condemning the war that’s costing over $1 billion a day. The ballooning military budget and expenses for endless war comes at the same time Trump and the billionaires push for historic cuts to healthcare and food assistance and tax breaks for billionaires and corporations. Gas prices are already spiking and hitting working class Americans the hardest.

Several unions have already spoken out. SEIU condemned the war as an “unconstitutional attack” that shows “reckless disregard for working people’s lives.” stated that war risks pulling resources away from domestic needs and placing additional burdens on working-class communities. In its statement, the union emphasized that workers need investment in healthcare, housing, and jobs rather than another military conflict abroad. National Nurses United condemned the war and warned that public resources should be spent on healthcare and social programs rather than military escalation. United Electrical Workers (UE) called the conflict a dangerous expansion of U.S. militarism, while ILWU Local 10 joined protests demanding an end to the war and respect for international law.

Across the labor movement, the message is growing louder: working people should not pay the price for another endless war. On the Line has issued an open letter for union members and organizations to sign, calling for an end to the war.

• 🎥How every bomb dropped on Iran costs Americans at home

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California educator strike wave spreads

California’s growing educator strike wave continues to spread as teachers across the state refuse to accept underfunded schools and worsening classroom conditions. In the Sacramento region, 1,500 educators in Twin Rivers Unified School District launched their first strike in district history this week after nearly a year of stalled negotiations over pay, healthcare, and resources for students. TRUSD is made up of 92% high needs students – meaning students in poverty, foster students, multilingual students, special education, and other challenges that require additional support. They are striving to invest today’s dollars in today’s students while their district sits on over $100 million in reserves.

Over 600 teachers in Natomas Unified announced they will strike March 10 if no agreement is reached, while educators in Dublin Unified in the Bay Area have also set a strike deadline beginning March 9. Other districts across the state continue to heat up as well. These fights are all part of the statewide California Teachers Association “We Can’t Wait” campaign, which has aligned contract fights across districts to build pressure for fully funded schools, smaller class sizes, and fair pay. After San Francisco educators won a historic contract earlier this year, teachers across the state are showing they are ready to strike to win the schools their students deserve.

• 🎥Underfunded, overloaded classrooms. Sacramento educators can’t wait!

JBS meatpacking workers move closer to strike

Members of UFCW Local 7 say a strike could begin as soon as March 16 if the company refuses to address unsafe conditions and illegal conduct during bargaining. The Greeley plant is one of the largest meatpacking facilities in the country, staffed largely by immigrant workers who say they have long faced dangerous conditions and intimidation on the job.

A walkout would be historic – the first major sanctioned strike in the U.S. meatpacking industry in decades – and would hit a critical link in the national food supply chain. Workers say they are ready to shut the plant down if that’s what it takes to win respect and safe working conditions.

BONUS ROUND

• 🎧Interview with Nathalie Hrizi on UESF strike victory

• 🎨Union posters for sale

Ex-Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey bets on AI, fires 40% of Block staff; California educator strike wave spreads toward Sacramento; JBS meatpacking workers in Greeley prepare to strike; Paramount wins bidding war for Warner Bros Discovery

Ex-Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey bets on AI, fires 40% of Block staff

Block, the payments company led by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, announced it will cut more than 4,000 jobs – nearly 40% of its workforce – arguing that rapid advances in AI mean companies can operate with far fewer workers. In a letter to employees, Dorsey wrote: “Intelligence tools have changed what it means to build and run a company… A significantly smaller team… can do more and do it better.” He also argued that most companies will soon reach the same conclusion, which could mean a wave of similar layoffs coming to tech.

Wall Street immediately rewarded the announcement. Block’s stock jumped more than 20% in after-hours trading, adding billions in market value within hours – a clear signal that investors are betting big on AI-driven cost cutting.

The move reflects a growing pattern across tech: layoffs justified by plans for expansive AI implementation to replace human labor. The cycle highlights how speculation around AI productivity is driving layoffs and instability across the industry, with workers absorbing the risk while investors chase future gains in a speculative bubble many believe is on the verge of bursting.

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California educator strike wave spreads toward Sacramento

California’s statewide “We Can’t Wait” campaign is entering a new stage as multiple school districts move closer to walkouts. In the Sacramento area, Twin Rivers educators announced they could begin the district’s first-ever strike as early as March 5 if bargaining fails after fact-finding concludes. Educators are demanding the district spend today’s dollars on today’s students. The district has the largest percentage of high needs students across the entire state, and yet the district leadership continues to withhold available funding provided to specifically support those students.

In Oakland, educators have reached a tentative agreement with the district following a strike authorization vote, making gains on their core issues including 11-13% raises over two years and improved staffing and services for students. Oakland educators have a strong history of successful strikes in recent years, including in 2023, 2019, and 1996. These past strikes and the credible threat pushed the district over the line to settle.

These fights follow San Francisco educators’ recent strike victory where educators struck for the first time since 1979, winning a historic contract. This has given educators across the state a confidence boost as they continue to fight for the schools students deserve, and has put school district leadership across the state a clear message to settle now or face their own strikes.

• 🎥CA educators strike wave spreads to Sacramento

• 🎥After decades of cuts, SF educators say “Enough is enough!”

JBS meatpacking workers in Greeley prepare to strike

Workers at the JBS beef plant in Greeley, Colorado – a largely immigrant workforce at one of the largest meatpacking facilities in the country – voted overwhelmingly to authorize an unfair labor practice strike. As negotiations drag on, the members are preparing to strike if no deal is reached. UFCW Local 7 members have called out the company’s unsafe factory conditions, abuses by management on the factory floor, and management’s disrespectful and illegal conduct at the bargaining table.

JBS is the largest meat processing company in the world after years of aggressive expansion and acquisition of other brands. A strike would be the first sanctioned walkout at a major U.S. meatpacking plant in decades. Meat processing plants commonly hire large immigrant workforces who they exploit and abuse with the implicit threat of using their immigration status against them. Many Haitian immigrant workers at the JBS plant worried they may lose their TPS visa status due to the Trump administration threats to strip visa status from hundreds of thousands of Haitian refugees.

Despite these tactics of fear and division, workers are preparing to shut down the plant. Over 10,000 Kroger grocery workers with UFCW Local 7 struck last year demanding a fair contract. The current strike threat puts pressure on one of the most strategic sectors in the food supply chain, taking on another corporate food giant.

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Paramount wins bidding war for Warner Bros Discovery

Netflix has withdrawn its bid to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), leaving Paramount as the leading bidder in what has become one of the largest media acquisition fights in industry history. Paramount’s offer, which exceeds $100 billion, highlights the scale of consolidation reshaping Hollywood as studios scramble to survive the streaming wars, rising production costs, and rapid technological change.

The deal would further concentrate ownership in an industry already dominated by a handful of corporations. At the same time, studios are restructuring around streaming models, expanding the use of AI in production workflows, and shifting more work overseas to chase tax incentives and lower labor costs – all trends that put pressure on union standards and stable employment.

Paramount’s bid is backed financially by billionaire Larry Ellison, with leadership tied to his son, David Ellison. The Ellison-backed expansion comes as media ownership and political influence increasingly overlap, raising concerns among workers and industry observers about how consolidation shapes both cultural power and labor conditions.

Regardless of which company prevails, workers have historically borne the cost of media megamergers. Consolidation typically brings layoffs as companies eliminate overlapping departments, cut development pipelines, and rely more heavily on existing content libraries rather than new productions. For Hollywood workers already facing instability after strikes, streaming disruptions, and shrinking production schedules, another merger could mean fewer jobs and greater leverage for studios at the bargaining table.

Read our interview with Rhianna Shaheen with IATSE in LA for more, linked below.

• 📰Paramount beat Netflix to buy Warner Bros. What about the workers?

BONUS ROUND

• 🎥Boston unionists demand: No war on Iran!

• 🎥May 1st National Shutdown: No work, no school, no shopping

• 🎥300,000 member national postal union launches contract campaign

• 🎨Union posters for sale

On the Line interviewed Rhianna Shaheen, a Los Angeles-based Assistant Production Coordinator in Film and TV and a member of IATSE Local 871 Board of Directors.

Jeff Rosenberg (JR): After months of this unfolding corporate drama, yesterday Paramount appears to have come out on top in a sort of twist, with Netflix pulling out their bid to acquire Warner Bros Discovery (WBD). In the conversation around this megamerger bidding war, we are hearing all about the schemes and power moves of Netflix vs Paramount – both giant corporations, and billionaires with big egos like Trump and Ellison. What is actually happening with this corporate bidding war and consolidation?

Rhianna Shaheen (RS): What’s happening with the WBD bidding war is the latest chapter in Hollywood’s oldest story: consolidation. We’ve seen battles like this before, but the players are different and the stakes are much higher.

For anyone who works in this industry, none of this is surprising. Hollywood more or less started with consolidation. In the 1920s, the original “Big Five” studios dominated the industry by squeezing out independent producers and theater chains. That pattern never disappeared, it just accelerated. In 1982, about 90% of U.S. media was owned by 50 companies. By 2012, that same 90% was controlled by just six. Streaming didn’t break that model, it intensified it. Amazon bought MGM. Disney absorbed Fox. Everyone has been racing to scale up fast enough to survive.

That’s how we ended up with Warner Bros Discovery. Warner merged with Time Inc., was later swallowed by AT&T, then spun off and merged with Discovery. By the way, in the course of all of these mergers, splits, and rebranding one of the biggest winners was McKinsey consultants who got over $150 million from WBD to advise them. That included $37 million to rebrand “HBO” to “HBO Max” to just “Max” and then back to “HBO Max” again. Hell of a lot of good that did them.

Now WBD is once again up for grabs, with Paramount Skydance coming out on top. We’re talking bids well over $100 billion, far eclipsing the $71.3 billion Disney paid for Fox. That kind of scale is unprecedented. And they’re not just buying a studio, they’re buying massive libraries of intellectual property and franchises that once lived across multiple companies.

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JR: Much has been said about the role of Larry Ellison in all of this as well. Who is Ellison and what is he trying to accomplish here?

Larry Ellison is the billionaire co-founder of Oracle, an early tech giant. Not only is he a billionaire – he is one of the 3 richest people in the world with over $200 billion net worth. Now he is aggressively moving into media and politics at the same time.

He’s already bought Paramount just last year, which he then maneuvered to put his son, David Ellison, in charge of as CEO. And then a few months later he bought TikTok’s American operations, facilitated by Trump and Congress essentially forcing the sale on ByteDance or risk being banned in the US. Now he’s coming for Warner Bros and CNN. He’s deeply embedded in defense tech and AI and is a key Trump ally. This isn’t just about making money off of content, it’s about consolidating economic, political, and cultural power under fewer hands.

This isn’t just speculation either. We can see how it is playing out with TikTok. The Council on American-Islamic Relations, the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights organization, has condemned TikTok’s recent “censorship spree” against content critical of Israel. They noted Ellison’s history as a major donor to the Israeli military and his close personal relationship with Benjamin Netanyahu.

We’ve seen this playbook before. Bezos with the Washington Post. Zuckerberg with Instagram. Musk with X. Weiss with CBS. Technically these companies aren’t run by one person, but they’re controlled by Wall Street and the corporate class. This merger is about power, and workers are nowhere in the conversation.

JR: We aren’t hearing about the impact on the workers who produce this media. What has been the historic impact of corporate consolidation of media on entertainment workers? What do you think this merger could mean today?

RS: It’s been brutal, especially for freelancers. Hollywood isn’t a factory. Everything is project-based. When an eight-month film or TV series ends, that’s it. There’s no fallback job, no place to transfer. And when work dries up, most of us don’t get laid off, our jobs just disappear.

Shows don’t get picked up. Seasons get shorter. Departments get smaller. Most people are hired through relationships built over years, and crews tend to move together from job to job. But when the people who normally hire you aren’t working either, there’s nowhere to go. Suddenly there are thousands of people competing for the same few gigs. Your options become taking whatever you can get, leaving the industry, or leaving Los Angeles altogether because you can’t afford to wait it out.

The financial strain has been devastating. Many workers have been forced to change careers just to avoid going into debt. And the emotional toll is just as real. People build their entire adult lives around this work, often moving across the country to be part of it. Being pushed out isn’t just losing a job, it’s losing your identity.

In the last three years alone, the industry lost roughly 41,000 film and TV jobs. Around 16,000 IATSE members reportedly lost their health insurance because they couldn’t bank enough hours. There’s often no clean paper trail because work disappears quietly, but there’s no question consolidation has played a major role.

You can see the writing on the wall by looking at studio staff. When Skydance merged with Paramount in 2024, about 10% of staff were laid off overnight. When Disney bought Fox in 2019, roughly 4,000 workers lost their jobs. Netflix was signaling it expected at least $2 billion in “cost savings” if it acquired WBD. Everyone in this industry knows what that means: thousands more layoffs. And with even more IP concentrated under one roof, production itself could slow dramatically. That’s the reality facing the people who built this industry.

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JR: Paramount’s presumed acquisition of WBD also represents some of the bigger economic trends in the entertainment industry that have been causing bigger changes in Hollywood for a while now. How are we seeing some of these changes come to a crisis moment in recent years?

RS: It’s all coming to a head. Streaming, AI, and runaway production aren’t separate problems, they’re interconnected and hitting workers all at once.

You hear it most clearly from people who’ve been around a long time. I recently heard from a veteran dolly grip who was on a high-end commercial and noticed something missing: no blue screens. Normally, that setup would require extra crew and days of work. When he asked why, the visual effects supervisor told him they’d just do it with AI. It’s a small example, but it says everything. Work that once supported entire crews is disappearing quietly, shot by shot.

At the same time, writers’ rooms are shrinking, actors are being scanned so studios can reuse their likeness indefinitely, and productions are shipped overseas to dodge union contracts. All of this is about cutting labor costs and breaking hard-won protections.

That’s why 2023 exploded. The strikes weren’t just about pay, they were about survival. Mergers like this pour gasoline on the fire. More consolidation means more power to automate, offshore, and squeeze workers even harder. No matter who wins this bidding war or the next one, Hollywood workers are the ones who will pay the price unless something fundamentally changes.

JR: What do you think ultimately needs to be done for workers to respond to megamergers like this and to generally deal with the corporate power of media giants that this represents?

RS: First, we can’t treat these mergers as abstract business deals anymore. They are labor issues, plain and simple. Consolidation is designed to create a corporate bloodbath, and workers always pay the price. We can’t wait for the government to step in and save us. The only real answer is building the power and solidarity to fight back.

Every contract cycle, studios claim there’s no money for fair wages, residuals, or humane working conditions. But then you see bids like $80 or $100 billion on the table. The money is there, it’s just not meant for workers.

That’s why the WGA’s early opposition to the merger was so important. They’ve consistently seen the horizon first, whether it was the 2007 strike over streaming or the 2023 strike over AI. With WGA and SAG-AFTRA contracts expiring in early 2026, the next round of negotiations won’t just be about bread-and-butter issues. It will be about the future of this industry and the people who make it run.

We also need to think bigger. As attacks on working people escalate across industries, there’s growing talk of mass action and even a general strike. That is the type of response to the billionaire agenda that we need. If we want to challenge that power, we have to scale up our own. It’s happened before. It can happen again.

SF Educators Win Contract After Historic Strike; MN Labor and Community Groups Organize for March 1st Rent Strike; NYSNA Nurses Win Contracts Across Hospital Systems

San Francisco educators end historic strike with major contract wins

Educators with the United Educators of San Francisco (UESF) ended their first strike since 1979 after reaching a tentative agreement with the district on a historic new contract that delivered major gains on fully funded family healthcare, wages, support for special education, and protections for sanctuary schools and housing programs for students and families. The strike, which shut down schools for four days, drew strong backing from parents and community organizations and forced the district back to the bargaining table after months of stalled negotiations.

The strike’s success is already reverberating across California, showing that coordinated escalation and strong community alignment can overcome claims of budget crisis from school districts and politicians. The win comes as contract campaigns continue heating up across the state as part of the California Teachers Association’s “We Can’t Wait” campaign, with educators in Oakland, the Sacramento region, and Los Angeles preparing to follow SF and, if needed, strike for the schools their students deserve.

The campaign links local contract fights into a statewide push for fully funded schools, smaller class sizes, and improved educator pay. Despite being the richest state in the country, CA ranks 33rd for per pupil spending on public education. Now educators, students, and families are demanding the billionaires and politicians fully fund public education, and protect public schools from the attacks of the Trump administration.

• 🎥After decades of cuts, SF educators say “Enough is enough!”

• 🎥SF students confront district: “Where is Superintendent Su?”

• 🎥SF educators: “STRIKE FOR OUR STUDENTS”

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Minnesota rent strike called for March 1st by community and labor groups

Tenant groups, community organizations, and labor unions in the Twin Cities are organizing toward a March 1, 2026 rent strike, calling on tenants to withhold rent unless the state moves to stop evictions and provide emergency relief for working-class families hit hardest by recent ICE terror under operation “Metro Surge.”

The rent strike has been endorsed by a range of unions, including SEIU Healthcare MN/IA, SEIU Local 26, Unite HERE Local 17, ATU 1005, and CWA 7250 – collectively representing nearly 26,000 workers. Organizers are demanding an eviction freeze, $50 million in emergency rent relief, and protections for immigrant and working-class tenants facing displacement.

The rent strike call follows the wave of mass actions in January, including the January 23 general strike day of action in Minnesota and the January 30 national shutdown protests, where workers, students, and community members walked out, shut down businesses, and filled the streets to oppose ICE terror after the killing of Renée Good and Alex Pretti. A rent strike of this scale could be the largest rent strike in the country in decades.

• 🎥The general strike is back! This is how we end ICE terror

NYSNA nurses strike ends with contract victory at NewYork-Presbyterian

After a month on strike, over 15,000 nurses with the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) secured tentative agreements and ratifications at Mount Sinai, Montefiore, and NewYork-Presbyterian hospital systems, winning gains on staffing, workplace violence protections, AI safeguards, and pay increases. This marks the end of one of the largest and longest nurses strikes in recent history.

Over 10,000 nurses at Mount Sinai and Montefiore hospital systems reached agreements last week, while 4,000 nurses at NewYork-Presbyterian held the line until Friday to reach their agreement after rejecting a proposed deal, keeping pressure on one of the city’s wealthiest hospital systems.

At the center of the fight are demands for safe staffing levels, to ensure adequate patient care and prevent burnout and violence against nurses. Just this week an arbitrator awarded nurses ay NewYork-Presbyterian over $400,000 in damages for over 600 violations of safe staffing rules. The fight for safe staffing levels has become the defining fight for union healthcare nurses across the country, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic retention and burnout crisis and recent federal cuts to Medicaid.

• 🎥Striking NYC Nurses Fight for Safe Staffing

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WNBA negotiations enter final stretch with strike threat growing

Negotiations between the league and the Women’s National Basketball Players Association (WNBPA) continued this week without a finalized agreement, leaving the possibility of a strike hanging over the start of the 2026 season. Players remain focused on revenue sharing, salary growth, charter travel protections, and workload standards, with a 98% strike authorization vote signaling overwhelming support for escalation if needed.

Reports indicate both sides have exchanged counterproposals, but key economic issues remain at the core. The league has been growing immensely in popularity in recent years, which has come with rapidly growing commercial success. Despite this growth, the owners have been refusing to give players their fair share of that success they’ve driven themselves on the court.

• 📰WNBA players are ready to strike after contract expires

• 🎥How the NBA All-Star Strike Changed Sports

Federal workers face new threats to collective bargaining

This week, the Office of Personnel Management reportedly directed federal agencies to move toward terminating existing union contracts covering federal workers. This shows the Trump administration continuing to undermine collective bargaining rights of federal workers to clear a path for more mass layoffs and dismantling of federal services even amid ongoing legal action.

At the same time, groups of federal workers are organizing to push back. The National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) is holding coordinated contract campaign actions this coming Sunday, ahead of the start of national bargaining for postal workers. At the core of the fight, members are calling to end the two tier system of non-career positions, demanding COLA raises, and protections from management abuses.

Additionally, workers are organizing to defend the postal service from threats of privatization. They say privatization will undermine the country’s oldest public good and turn service guarantees into critical service gaps and price hikes. Privatization would also be destabilizing to the postal workers themselves.

The fight highlights a broader reality for federal workers heading into 2026: workers are not only bargaining over wages and conditions, but increasingly defending the very structure of public services against austerity and privatization pressures.

BONUS ROUND

• 🎥Google workers speak out against Big Tech’s collaboration with ICE

• 🎥The worst union busting lawyers and how they work

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For 40 years, Southern workers have been paid less than workers anywhere else, called the “Southern discount.” Today, over one in five workers earns less than $15 an hour. Eight of the ten lowest-wage states are in the South. Southerners are least likely to have health insurance, pensions, or paid leave. States like Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, and Tennessee don’t even set a minimum wage, leaving workers stuck with $7.25 – or $2.13 for tipped workers.

With weak enforcement, wage theft is rampant. In Florida, one in four low-wage workers is paid below the legal minimum as a result. Nearly one in five in Louisiana and Mississippi lives below the poverty line. Child poverty across the South is 18%, but for Black children it’s 30%. This locks generations into poverty before they ever have a chance.

This is all by design. After emancipation, lawmakers carved agricultural and domestic workers – jobs held largely by Black workers – out of New Deal protections like the minimum wage and union rights. That legacy remains. Black and Brown Southerners’ work is still systematically devalued.

The result: a region held down as a pool of cheap labor – great for corporate America, devastating for working families. To make matters worse, tax dollars that could fund desperately needed social services and spending on working families instead go to corporate tax breaks to attract more business.

Between 2017 and 2023, South Carolina handed out $3.2 billion. In Texas, data center deals alone will strip $1 billion from the 2025 budget. That money comes out of schools, health care, disaster response, and public goods, straight into corporate profits.

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Southern workers have never just accepted their lot, but have organized and resisted. From the textile strikes of the 1930s, to Memphis sanitation workers in 1968, to today’s fights in Amazon warehouses, auto plants, and Waffle House kitchens,

As W.E.B. Du Bois said, “So goes the South, so goes the nation.” The Southern model doesn’t stay in the South – it drags down workers everywhere. Corporations threaten, “If you won’t take less here, we’ll move South.” That’s why building unions and fighting in the South lifts the entire working class.

The politicians and CEOs have had their say. They’ve sold off schools, blocked Medicaid, and let corporations pollute our air and water – while calling it all “good for business.”

The solution is clear: organize, unionize, and fight for an economy that works for us, not just the rich. The South is not impossible to organize. Even in the least unionized states, workers want unions! South Carolina may have the lowest union density, but 2 in 3 workers overall and over 8 in 10 Black workers support unions. History shows that when workers unite – overcoming fear, racism, and hopelessness – they win real gains and terrify the powers that be.

If we can win in the South, we can change everything.

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Software engineering jobs have been considered some of the most sought-after careers, with relatively high pay and job security. However, that has been changing in recent years as career stability and generous salaries have been replaced with mass layoffs and underpaid subcontractors. In the first half of 2025 alone, around 80,000 tech jobs were cut, nearly 500 every single day.

Just as many other sectors of the economy face a growing threat of AI-driven job cuts, tech workers see the threat of their own replacement right in front of them. Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai told shareholders that over 30% of Google’s codebase was written by AI. That number is only going up. The very engineers who are coding these tools see how their employer will aim to cut them out later.

Most employers are investing in using AI, feeling this is the only way to compete. This race to the bottom to replace their workers and cut costs is already threatening the jobs of tens of millions of workers across the country – from truck drivers to nurses. Workers will see cut hours and cut jobs. For the workers who stay, they will be expected to work harder, faster, and for less – potentially with AI performance monitoring to ensure it.

In the past, bosses relied on threats of offshoring and closures to force workers to drop their standards and be grateful to have a job. Now they will add the threat of replacement by advanced AI and robotics to demand the same discipline.

This technology does have immense potential to do great things and benefit society. However, as long as it’s controlled by Big Tech billionaires and Corporate America, it will be used to maximize profits for the few despite the massive crisis it will create for the rest of society. Instead, these tools and the infrastructure used to support them should be made into a public good to fix our country’s biggest problems, not create new ones.

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On the Line spoke to rideshare drivers organizing with the California Gig Workers Union about their experience as drivers, why they are fighting to form a union, and the impacts of self-driving cars on their work and future.

Watch the video above to hear what they had to say and subscribe to support our work.

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On the Line interviewed Chris Dols, the co-Executive Director of the Federal Unionists Network (FUN), a network of unionists across the federal workforce fighting against the attacks on federal workers and the programs they administer. You can also listen to the full conversation as a podcast.

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Jeff Rosenberg (JR): Elon Musk liked to talk about DOGE as a chainsaw to the federal government. Even with Musk out of the picture, the attacks haven’t stopped. Nearly 300,000 federal jobs have been cut, and they’re moving to dismantle or privatize key government services.

The Supreme Court recently sided again with the Trump administration, allowing them – for now – to continue slashing the federal workforce and restructuring the federal government. How does FUN understand these attacks? What’s really behind them?

Chris Dols (CD): We’ve said all along – these attacks aren’t about efficiency or national security. Those are just cover stories.

What’s really happening is a remaking of the civil service into a political arm of the administration. This is one part of a broader authoritarian strategy, driven by Trump and a Republican Party both working in full service to the billionaire agenda. It’s neoliberalism on steroids.

We’re watching a consolidation and acceleration of decades of privatization and deregulation. But this isn’t just about cutting government – it’s about transforming it. Yes, they’re slashing social services, but they’re also massively expanding violent coercive agencies like ICE and DHS. The goal is to politicize and weaponize the executive branch.

They’re creating a new kind of state, one that isn’t just corrupted by billionaires, but explicitly designed in their interests. It’s become a class war inside the government: public-minded civil servants on one side, billionaire appointees on the other.

JR: A lot of attention has gone to the spectacle of figures like Elon Musk, drawing constant media attention through outlandish stories. But people like Russell Vought, the chief architect of Project 2025, are often overlooked in all of this. Despite Trump's initial attempts to distance himself from Project 2025 during the elections, he's now fully embraced it as his blueprint for governance. Who is Vought and what role does he play?

CD: There’s definitely a spectacle layer to all this. You’ve got people like Musk, Oz, RFK grabbing headlines. But then you’ve got the real ideologues, the policy architects like Russell Vought, Stephen Miller, James Sherk. These are the guys quietly writing the rules.

Take Stephen Miller. Rumors are that he’s essentially running the show. The Chief of Staff runs the public-facing circus, and Miller runs the real agenda. That’s the division of labor we need to understand if we’re going to resist effectively.

Vought is key. He once said their goal was to make federal workers “wake up every day so traumatized they don’t want to go to work.” That’s their plan: to drive people out through deferred resignations, and now, thanks to the Supreme Court, through direct mass layoffs.

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They want to shrink or destroy agencies that serve people, like Social Security or the VA, while bulking up the violent arms of the state. And they want to fill those agencies with their loyalists to carry out their mission.

JR: It’s no coincidence that some of these architects also identify as Christian Nationalists, a nicer way of say “white supremacists.” How do you see that ideology shaping this agenda?

CD: Stephen Miller is the perfect example. In high school, he ran for student government on the platform that the janitors weren’t doing enough and that they shouldn’t have to pick up their own trash. That’s his worldview! He thinks workers are just there to make rich kids’ lives easier.

Now he’s running the deportation strategy. His biggest frustration with the first Trump term? That the ICE raids didn’t separate enough families. They wanted to terrorize immigrant communities, to traumatize people into leaving or never coming here at all.

These are deeply violent people. Their white supremacy, this obsession with racial purity and anti-immigrant hatred, is just one part of a broader contempt for working people. To them, workers exist only to maximize profits for the rich and make their lives comfortable.

The “Christian” part is just decoration. The white nationalism builds their base. But ultimately, these are people who will pursue extreme violence if it serves their class interests.

That’s why the labor movement needs to get crystal clear about ICE raids. We need unions that aren’t as directly impacted, like many in the federal sector, to still take a stand. In the Federal Unionist Network, we’ve been organizing around exactly that.

Civil servants are citizens by necessity, so our workplaces haven’t traditionally been targeted. But that changed when federal buildings became the sites of immigration raids. Immigrants were lured to court dates in these buildings, only to have their cases dismissed so ICE could grab them on the way out. Pure bait-and-switch.

These kidnappings are happening in our lobbies, in our elevators. And we’re bearing witness. That’s why we’re calling on the rest of the labor movement to see what’s happening, not just as a separate immigration issue, but as a labor issue.

Even if your union isn’t directly impacted, the people in your community are. We need a cross-sector labor coalition to stand up and stop this.

JR: Part of the way the administration justifies these attacks is how they caricature federal workers – this image of “lazy bureaucrats in D.C. living large”. Can you set the record straight on who federal workers actually are and why their work matters?

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CD: First, I want to say it’s not just Republicans. And when we talk about the Democrats undermining the federal government, the story goes deeper than just Clinton in the 90’s. Obama and Biden both contributed to the harm very directly too.

Obama froze federal pay for his first three years. That 27% wage gap between public and private sector workers? That’s mostly a result of his policies. Biden talked a good game on labor, but the federal workforce didn’t get a general counsel at FLRA, the agency that governs our labor rights, until year four. And now Trump’s already flipped it back.

The attack is bipartisan. The neglect is bipartisan.

As for who federal workers are? We’re park rangers keeping public lands safe. We’re EPA scientists testing water for lead. We’re VA nurses caring for veterans. We’re the ones who make sure this country functions.

And yet we’ve allowed the right wing to dominate the narrative. They claim the mantle of “government critic,” while Democrats have become the apparent defenders of government, again despite their actual actions. But real criticism of the government should come from us – federal workers who actually see the problems and know how to fix them. When public services fail, it’s not because they’re public. It’s because they’ve been deliberately undermined – through budget cuts, under-staffing, endless means-testing, or privatization.

But instead of empowering us to rebuild or speak out on these issues, we are told to be silent. And in that silence the political establishment hands that critique to the right, who use it to opportunistically and disingenuously justify dismantling everything. That’s why we need a different vision. We can’t just stop the attacks, but need to offer a new model for what the government can and should be.

JR: Part of that vision has to connect the workers with the programs they administer. These critical programs, like SNAP, Medicaid, and Social Security, came out of working-class struggle. These were victories of the Civil Rights movement, the Labor movement, and working people fighting back. But the right tries to pit workers against the very programs run for our benefit.

CD: Exactly. The attack on the workforce is the mechanism for dismantling the safety net. Take Social Security. The billionaire class wants that money in the stock market. It’s the largest and most successful public pension in our history. But they undermine it deliberately, then point and say, “See? It doesn’t work.”

A great example: the new bill eliminated the Social Security tax for tipped workers. Sounds good, right? It seems like a tax break for working people, but more analysis of it shows it really won’t help much at all and could leave people worse off. Beyond that, it’s a cynical move to further deplete the program’s funding, so later they can claim it’s insolvent and sell it off.

Every one of these moves comes wrapped in a “worker-friendly” lie. But the truth is obvious if you just scratch the surface. The problem is, too much of the media chases spectacle instead of substance. That’s why our unions, and projects like this one, have to break the silence.

JR: The same logic has gutted public education. First, underfund it. Then add impossible mandates. Then blame the system for failing. That justifies more charter schools, more testing, more cuts. This was practiced in New Orleans where after Hurricane Katrina, they have now privatized essentially all public education in the aftermath of that destruction. We have also seen real resistance to this agenda, with the Chicago Teachers Union offering a real path out of this crisis through their victories over the Charter movement there and the ongoing battle.

It’s the same playbook they are now using against federal workers, just a different sector. What lessons can we carry from those fights into the federal arena?

CD: You’re absolutely right. Education is the clearest example of this one-way right-wing ratchet attack. Decades of targeted privatization, starting in places like New Orleans after Katrina and Milwaukee even earlier, have devastated public education, especially for students of color.

But the fightback has grown alongside it. CTU’s victory was about reclaiming the idea that schools should serve communities, not profits and advancing the idea of bargaining for the common good. And the Red for Ed wave showed that resistance isn’t just for blue cities, but that it can catch fire in so-called red states too.

We can learn from both. First, that resistance is possible even under extreme right-wing governance. Second, that it requires unions to break out of their narrow lanes and take a stand on broader issues with the community. They fought these narratives head on and won over the community to organize with them by showing it was their fight too.

That’s the challenge for federal unions right now. For too long, many have sat out politics, or worse, become a passive wing of the Democratic Party. But we can’t afford that anymore. We need a labor movement that’s independent, militant, and honest about the failures of both parties. Our independence right now is going to be key to leading this fight and having credibility with working people.

Just look at New York. Labor is increasingly backing Zohran Mamdani against machine politicians like Andrew Cuomo, who couldn’t be a better representative of establishment Democratic politics. That’s a sign that people are ready to take on the establishment – left, right, or center.

The billionaire class always pushes its agenda through both parties. So we have to build a movement that doesn’t depend on either one to save us.

JR: One of the biggest attacks on the federal workforce has come with Trump’s attempts to strip nearly one million federal workers of their bargaining rights through an executive order. Why are they attempting to strip the federal workforce of their collective bargaining rights? And what do you make of the comparison to PATCO in 1981 when Reagan fired thousands of striking air traffic controllers?

CD: There were about a dozen departments or agencies who were covered, representing a majority of the union-represented federal workforce, and those attacks are all meant to make it easier to pursue mass layoffs that now the Supreme Court has green-lighted.

Ultimately, they see our unions as an obstacle to carrying out their agenda of restructuring the federal government. Our ability to protest and speak out against this in particular is very threatening to them. If they can ultimately rip up our collective bargaining rights, then they think we will have level power and protection to push back on any of this.

I think the PATCO comparison raises important questions for us about what we’ll do. PATCO became PATCO because of what followed, so we don’t know yet what this will become. I hope it can be the opposite. When Reagan broke the PATCO strike, it sent a signal to all employers and states that it was open season on unions. If they succeed in this attack, it could send a similar message.

But if we are able to successfully push back against this attack, then it can deal a critical defeat to Trump and show everyone that we can fight back.

We are also seeing them attempt to silence workers already who are speaking out against the ways in which they are dismantling these federal agencies and undermining our work. The workers at the Environmental Protection Agency who were recently put on administrative leave is a perfect example of this.

They signed a letter, speaking out against the current leadership of EPA directly undermining the mission. As a result, they were retaliated against. We are now drawing even more attention to this to highlight this fight to ensure they keep their jobs and can continue to speak out. It’s a clear illustration of our general strategy at FUN.

One of our initiatives we are launching soon is our oath renewal. The oath we take as civil servants to uphold the constitution had felt depoliticizing to be in the past, delivered alongside the pledge to not strike against the federal government. But right now when the administration is attempting to turn these institutions on their head it is a very political statement to renew our oath. We’ll be aiming to have hundreds of thousands of federal workers partake in this. In many ways, the EPA workers were in fact upholding their oath by signing on to the letter calling out the current EPA administration.

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JR: As you mentioned earlier, the billionaires are trying to create an environment of fear and intimidation for federal workers to silence them and force them to submit. This organizing requires workers to overcome a lot of fear. How do you all approach that challenge?

CD: Whether it's because you're organizing a union in your 10 person coffee shop or if you're organizing to resist the oligarchy in the 2.3 million person federal workforce, it's basically the same formula, which is you bring workers together, find their common grievances. You identify whatever the initial steps are that people are willing to take together to at least identify the next layer of workers who are willing to join you. You inoculate each other against the likely response from management to prepare them for what’s coming.

And generally we need to be organizing with a new intensity that we haven’t seen in generations. We have a lot of work to do, but we aren’t starting from scratch and there are more class-conscious unionists today than we’ve seen in years.

We also need to make sure we aren’t getting caught up in finger pointing or I-told-you-so’s. Many of us may have criticisms of our unions and how we have approached organizing or not in the past, but we need to let that be water under the bridge right now. Many of those same leaders are recognizing the need to organize now and we need to unite everyone who can be united.

JR: Crises can be very clarifying for everyone, including leaders and members. They force everyone to make a choice – stay on the sidelines, or step into the fight. So what’s next? What’s FUN focused on now?

CD: Mass participation is everything. We can’t predict what the next big tactic will be, but we know what kind of movement we need: one that’s escalating, political, and rooted in solidarity across all sections of our class.

For example, we’ve organized informational pickets that bring federal workers together with immigrant communities, especially as our workplaces have become the sites of ICE raids. That’s a major step forward. Things like our informational pickets may not look “militant” in the traditional sense, but for a lot of people, standing outside a federal building and speaking up is a huge leap. And it’s opening new doors.

These actions don’t just show solidarity with immigrant workers. They also push federal workers to see themselves as part of a broader class struggle. That’s how we build momentum, by taking small, brave steps that lead to bigger ones.

And we need to think ahead. Right now, they’re targeting immigrants. But next, it’ll be veterans, seniors, and everyone who relies on the public programs they’re trying to destroy. These people hate anyone who isn’t a billionaire. We need to unite all of their targets into a single movement.

JR: Before we wrap up, is there a final message of hope you want to leave us with?

CD: My hope comes from the people who are organizing right now, despite the fear, despite the risk. I’ve seen so many federal workers take bold action in the face of retaliation. That gives me hope.

And our unions, if we can get them to act together, across agencies, with a clear strategy to expose and oppose this administration’s agenda. We can shift public opinion. We can show people what’s at stake and what’s possible.

For anyone listening who’s a federal worker: get involved in your union. Help build it into the kind of fighting force we need. For everyone else: visit SafePublicServices.com. That will take you to our Action Network page where you can sign up to join rapid response efforts. Tens of thousands of people already have.

The most important thing is this: federal workers touch everything. We’re in a strategic position, not by accident, but because the administration made us a primary target. That means we have to be a primary line of defense.

If we build strong, participatory unions, and if we fight in open solidarity with everyone this government is attacking, then we can turn the tide. We have no choice but to fight.

Check out the full conversation in our latest podcast episode.

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This interview features three leaders from the Oakland Education Association (OEA) – Vilma Serrano, the Treasurer and Bargaining Chair of OEA, Michael Rodriguez, an ELD Middle School Teacher and member of the Bargaining Team, and Jessie Pappalia, an Elementary Newcomer Teacher Leader and Chair of the Newcomer Committee in OEA. The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.

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Jeff Rosenberg (JR): You all have been on the frontlines to defend immigrant communities against ICE, especially in our public schools. We want to speak today about how you took on this work, what it looks like, and how others can learn to do the same within their schools and workplaces.

We have seen ICE escalating their raids, breaking the law, all across the country – violently arresting our immigrant neighbors and coworkers. What’s been the situation in Oakland since the start of Trump’s second term and what has it meant for your students, families, and coworkers?

Jessie Papalia (JP): It’s been terrifying for everyone. Since day one, especially after the January 20th inauguration, things changed fast. ICE overturned their previous policies, so schools, churches, and hospitals were no longer “safe spaces.” That alone sent shockwaves through the community.

What’s scarier is the lawlessness. We lead “Know Your Rights” trainings, but ICE just ignores basic rights now. Every week brings a new tactic and unprecedented activity from ICE. Just showing up to a court date can suddenly be the most dangerous thing you do. It’s chaos. It’s fear. And it changes constantly.

Michael Rodriguez (MR): And that’s on top of the trauma and many obstacles families already live with. So many of my students came here after facing real horrors just to get to the U.S.. And now, they carry this new fear – “Will Dad make it out of his appointment?” “Will Mom be home when I get back from school?” These kids shouldn’t have to live like this on top of the challenges they already had before.

JP: My degree is in language and literacy, not immigration law. But families are coming to us with ICE documents, hearing notices, scam phone calls, or situations where one child is on a different legal case than the parent. I didn’t know how to help at first. That’s why we’ve worked to build a trained rapid response team in our union – people at each school site who can respond and connect families to resources. It’s now part of our job as educators.

JR: Some people out there still say immigration isn’t a labor issue, skeptical of taking on these kinds of fights. How do you respond to that within the union?

Vilma Serrano (VS): Everything we’ve done is rooted in organizing our members first. That’s where political work has to start. We built a culture where members trust that fighting beyond the contract matters, bringing in “common good” demands. It began in 2019 when we fought against school closures and for newcomer students, meaning immigrant students recently arrived to the states. We were the first union in California to bargain newcomer issues into our contract. These weren’t side projects, but central to our work. The thousands of conversations we had to build that fight all laid the groundwork for this.

Students come to school carrying trauma from all the issues they face in their lives – poverty, displacement, housing insecurity – and now immigration raids. We see that in the classroom every day. So yes, these are workplace issues. We look to history as a guide here too. We could see labor experience and support was critical for the Civil Rights movement too. We feel that same obligation today too.

And our members know it. Michael and Jessie were the ones who pushed us to do more back in February. The idea was to fundraise for legal defense, but once ICE escalated, it became clear we needed a full rapid response network to meet the moment. Now we are preparing for how things may continue to escalate in the Fall.

JP: This is absolutely a labor issue. LA raids were workplace raids. And even beyond that – our members live in communities under attack. If labor turns inward, we weaken ourselves. Trump wants us to think this isn’t our issue. That’s how we lose our power not just as a union, but how we lose power as a working class. That’s how he wins. We need solidarity. All of us need to be asking ourselves if we are ready to step in and get involved in this fight before it’s too late.

JR: Can you explain what it took to win the sanctuary language in your current contract?

MR: We won it by striking. Let’s be real. Power listens to unity, and we stood together. As a public sector union, we’re less vulnerable than nonprofits or private companies to retaliation. As a working class institution, we have an obligation to fight this. Trump can’t pull our funding – we fund ourselves through membership dues. So labor has a responsibility to lead this fight as working class organizations with some real independence.

That contract language matters. It’s our protection. We’ve added sanctuary policies into our contract, made schools safer, and pushed for policies that meet students’ actual needs, like creating newcomer educator roles that didn’t exist before. Beyond facing these immediate threats, we want to strive to make sure all of our students can thrive here.

VS: Before 2019, we didn’t even have Jessie’s role – an elementary newcomer teacher lead. Now we do. Then in 2022-23, we pushed for more, but instead got a joint district-union committee on newcomer supports, which Jessie chairs. That’s helped shape real policy – like revising ICE response protocols and pushing the district to fill gaps. We didn’t get everything, but it’s built a foundation to work from that we are continuing to fight on now.

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JR: This kind of network isn’t built overnight, but takes real work. How did the rapid response network come together in practice?

JP: It started after an ICE threat outside a family’s home. We had a long meeting with the district and realized how unprepared they were. Then we saw how overwhelmed local immigrant justice organizations were – many are under-resourced or even facing lawsuits. There was a real need for labor to step in to fill those gaps. As ICE continues to escalate, we needed to continue to evolve our tactics to the reality on the ground.

So we got to work. First I just talked to coworkers at my school. We had five people at the first meeting. Then we asked the union for support, got it approved by leadership, and kept growing. At first I thought we’d try to get 9 people involved. We now have over 55 members on the team, 30 of whom regularly attend meetings.

They have played roles and contributed in a wide variety of ways. That group worked hard and raised $50,000 for legal defense early on. We have subcommittees and trained responders across the area ready to deploy. And we meet everyone where they are – not everyone can be at a raid site, but they can organize, fundraise, translate, or support in other ways.

VS: As a union member, it can start with talking to union leadership. It really started with members asking, “Who else is worried about this?” Start there. Talk to friends. Build from that concern into collective action. Try to understand what needs there are in the community and what people are already doing on the ground.

Any union can start by demanding better policies from their employers. You might not have the capacity to build a full rapid response team, but you can demand workplace protections. You can make sure undocumented coworkers are supported. That’s a starting point for everyone.

JR: This kind of organizing takes deep connection and trust with the community. Community partnerships have also become a very critical piece of educator union campaigns centered around bargaining for the common good and bringing community support behind the union’s demands. What has it looked like to build trust and community partnerships in this work?

JP: We’ve learned a lot. We work closely with legal organizations who’ve done defense work for decades, but they don’t know each student or family the way a teacher does. And we’ve brought something new to this work through our deep and daily connection to families. Schools reach every corner of a city, and that’s powerful. Some organizations struggle to get the word out. We can help with that, and they’ve appreciated it.

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We see parents every day. We’re in constant contact. And because we’re in every neighborhood, schools are uniquely positioned to build that trust and spread information quickly. We are connected with every single child ages 3 to 18 in Oakland. The same is true for teachers in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, and on.

It hasn’t always been easy – working with the city, navigating politics and coalitions – it’s a learning curve. But these relationships make our union stronger. When we strike, families have our back. When they’re in crisis, we have to have theirs too.

MR: That trust is everything. We get phone calls – “Hey, this happened. What do I do?” They trust us more than they trust administrators or city officials. And we’ve had to teach some hard things. I’ve done “Know Your Rights” trainings for middle schoolers and helped families prepare in case a parent doesn’t come home.

They know that if they have a problem they can call me for help. It’s heartbreaking, but necessary. We could only build that trust by proactively showing them we care and will support them no matter what.

JR: Across California right now, we have seen escalations by ICE, especially with the recent events in LA where communities are fighting back. What do you make of these recent events?

VS: I was in LA when the raids happened in June. It was disgusting – broad daylight, massive shows of force, mass arrests of ordinary people. But the response from the people? Incredible and inspiring. Neighbors, workers, just every day people – everyone showed up and stopped it because it was just so grotesque. There was a disgusting narrative during Trump’s campaign, talking about how they would go after immigrants, but everyone can see these are just working people they are criminalizing and demonizing to protect their profits.

That’s the power we need to sharpen everywhere. And unions have a role to play. We can mobilize for mass actions, ensure safety, and help organize deeply. We can build broadly with the community to have the power we need to take this on.

MR: LA was targeted. It felt deliberate. They picked a city with strong organizing and tried to crush it. But people fought back. And the truth is, every raid impacts more than just one person. Take a father, sole provider, detained – his family is left with nothing. No food, no income. There’s room for everyone to support: rides, food delivery, legal referrals. That keeps us going.

JR: We’re also seeing new tactics and escalation – National Guard deployment, facial recognition, local police working with ICE. What do you think this all means for how we should be responding to keep up?

VS: The repression we’re seeing is real. This is a moment for resilience and unity. We need to use our union organizing skills – bargaining, planning, strategic conversation – and apply them here. Winning the policies and contract language we can use to protect our people. That means unions standing up, together, and not backing down. We need to protect our students, our coworkers, and our communities – not just in the classroom, but in the streets too.

MR: So many of the ICE agents are literally bounty hunters and bail bondsmen doing enforcement, so we shouldn’t be surprised by their abuses in the end. They don’t know people’s rights or really care. ICE uses them to stay clear of lawsuits. By the time you fight it, the person is already deported. It shows they will try whatever they can.

Even in the face of all of this, remember, don’t give up. We’ve weathered worse. We’ll weather this too. The kids need us. The community needs us. We’re all in this together. And together, we can win this.

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Warehouse and Shipping workers are standing up to the cruel and inhumane ICE raids and operations that Trump and the billionaires are waging against our immigrant communities. This is an effort led by workers coast to coast who make this country move – from Amazon and UPS to trucking, rail, and docks. We call on our brothers and sisters in the industry to join us by signing on to our petition and spreading it to those around you.

Now is a critical time to act and organize against the lawless attempts by ICE to tear apart our communities, and the bosses and politicians behind them that want to pit workers against each other.

Below is our petition and our launch video, as well as a poster and flyers to print. These are tools to help share at work, put up in your union hall, or anywhere you can reach your people. We can do this with you, but not without you!

We reject ICE raids in our warehouse, in our communities, and everywhere. The Trump administration is waging an all-out war on our immigrant communities and all working people. These operations are growing more violent and lawless, picking up hard-working immigrants off the job, far from their claims of only deporting “dangerous criminals.” Federal agents recently mounted military-style raids in Los Angeles – targeting day laborers, garment workers, farmers, and more. The Trump administration has promised to expand these operations across the U.S.

They are now even profiling people and have arrested several U.S. citizens for “walking while Brown”! After the people stood up to ICE raids, Trump illegally deployed 4,000 national guardsmen and 700 Marines to LA to suppress peaceful protesters. They want to rampage through our communities and want to crush any resistance to them. We won’t stand for that.

These are not just attacks on immigrants but attacks on all workers. The Trump administration has used the spectacle of raids to instill fear among immigrant workers and to distract us from who is really causing the problems in our country – the billionaires. While ICE is snatching up our immigrant coworkers and neighbors, the billionaires are pushing a federal budget that guts Medicaid and SNAP while feeding trillions of dollars to the rich, arms manufacturers, and ICE.

Our enemies aren’t our immigrant co-workers and neighbors – it’s corporate America robbing us blind. They want to divide us against each other, just like they do on the job, to keep us powerless. The only minority hurting America are the billionaires.

All across the country people are fighting back. We call on warehouse and shipping workers across the country to sign the pledge to stand up against the violent, racist attacks on immigrant workers and families!

Stop the raids! Stop the discrimination!

End the attacks on free speech and protest! ICE, National Guard, and Marines out of our communities!

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Outreach Materials

Download links:

• Color poster

• Black and white poster

• Informational half-sheet

Follow us on social media and DM any of our accounts to get in touch:

• Instagram: @workersagainstice

• Facebook: Warehouse and Shipping Workers Against ICE

• TikTok: @workersagainstice

• X: @wrkrsagainstice