New Jersey Temps Fight Agency Efforts to Block Their Rights By Reynalda Cruz and Liana Katz
August 21, 2025
Introduction:
(Labor Notes) It’s 5:30 in the morning and the warehouse is already buzzing. Workers are unloading trucks, breaking down pallets, folding boxes, and packing orders to be shipped to local stores.
Most of the workers at this New Jersey warehouse are immigrants from Latin America and the Caribbean, and most are temps, hired by one of the 200 temp agency branches that advertise warehouse and light manufacturing jobs in the state. These agencies take a cut of workers’ wages while companies save on recruitment, benefits, and payroll costs. Companies use the temp agencies to shirk their responsibilities, since temps are officially agency rather than company employees.
For many immigrants in New Jersey, particularly those without legal status, temp work is one of few employment options, but they face low pay and perilous working conditions. In a forthcoming survey of 400 temps conducted by the workers center New Labor, 94 percent reported that they had experienced some form of harm at work, such as wage theft or favoritism.
A high percentage of New Jersey’s temp workforce is undocumented, say organizers. The Trump administration’s ongoing attacks on immigrants are putting even more pressure on temp workers to stay silent about workplace abuses. In recent months, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has begun targeting New Jersey warehouses, putting temp workers at increased risk of incarceration and deportation.
But New Jersey’s temp workers, who have long fought for their rights on the job, are continuing to organize—including through a new strategy of workplace-based action committees
President Trump’s Views on Immigrant Farmworkers Reflect a Long History of How Farming has Been Idealized and Practiced in America By Doug Sackman
August 21, 2025
Introduction:
(The Conversation) The Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign has not spared the U.S. agricultural industry, with agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement frequently raiding farms across the country in search of undocumented workers.
Now, farmers are facing a crisis the administration has helped create: not enough people to pick crops.
On a recent call to CNBC, President Donald Trump said, “We can’t let our farmers not have anybody.” To assure farmers that he had their back despite the immigration raids, he sought to distinguish immigrants he called “criminals” and “murderers” from nonthreatening farm laborers who have been picking crops for years.
To do so, Trump used an old stereotype for farmworkers: “These people do it naturally, naturally.” Trump recounted asking a farmer: “What happens if they get a bad back? He said, ‘They don’t get a bad back, sir, because if they get a bad back, they die.’”
“In many ways, they’re very, very special people,” said Trump, referring to undocumented farmworkers.
Employers Want to Trap You In Dead End Jobs. Will the Federal Trade Commission Help Them? By Elizabeth Wilkins
August 27, 2025
Introduction:
(Other Words) Should your employer be allowed to ban you from taking another job? Most Americans would say that’s ridiculous — but it’s more common than you think.
When I was head of the policy office at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), I read thousands of public comments about how employers used “noncompete clauses” to trap workers into jobs. Many people shared deeply personal stories of being stuck in abusive workplaces, enduring punishing commutes, or working for years and years without a raise.
Noncompete clauses force workers to agree not to take a job with a competitor after they leave their position. They’re often framed as tools to prevent senior executives from taking trade secrets with them. But the evidence tells a different story.
Today, one in every five workers in the United States is bound by a noncompete. That’s about 30 million Americans, most of whom are not senior executives. A 2022 study from the Treasury Department found that noncompetes drag down wages across entire industries, even for workers not formally bound by them.
Noncompetes also choke off entrepreneurship and innovation by preventing former employees from launching their own businesses, often in the very fields where they have the most experience.
House Democrats Blast Labor Department for Abandoning Disabled Workers By Julia Metraux
August, 2025
Introduction:
(Mother Jones) On Wednesday, a group of six Democratic members of Congress, led by Rep. Lateefah Simon (D-Calif.), raised concerns that the federal government is “failing to protect federal contractor workers with disabilities” in a letter sent to Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer.
“The Trump administration is waging a war on disabled people and working to undo the hard-won rights our elders secured,” Simon said in a statement. “They want to roll back protections, weaken enforcement, and make our communities invisible again.”
Under Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act, landmark disability rights legislation which has been in effect since 1973, the federal government is supposed to take proactive steps to hire contractors with disabilities, provide accommodations, and not discriminate against them. As I reported in July, Chavez-DeRemer’s Labor Department is in the process of rulemaking to end goals for companies with federal contracts to have at least seven percent of their employees have a disability.
“When you strip those…provisions away, what is left of [Section] 503, and what are they actually enforcing?” Anupa Iyer Geevarghese, a former deputy director of policy in the Labor Department’s Office of Federal Contractor Compliance Programs, asked in July. “Anything that gives you a strong basis for enforcement is sort of whittled away.
According to the letter, “undue delays in investigating complaints of discrimination, abandonment of compliance reviews and stalled affirmative action plan monitoring call into question the agency’s commitment to enforcing protections for federal contract workers with disabilities.”
Unions, Community Groups Join Forces for Labor Day Protests Against Trump and Billionaires By Sarah D. Wire, N'dea Yancey-Bragg, and Dinah Voyles Pulver
Updated September 1, 2025
Introduction:
(UAS Today) Labor unions and community activists gathered for mass protests on Labor Day, the latest in a series of demonstrations against the Trump administration.
On a holiday set aside to recognize and honor the contributions of American workers, hundreds and sometimes thousands turned out in rallies and political protests across the country on Sept. 1, aiming to demonstrate the power of the working class.
Large crowds turned out at rallies and marches in major cities including Boston, Chicago, Detroit and New York. More than a thousand "Workers Over Billionaires” themed events were planned nationwide.
The protests drew mostly modest crowds in smaller cities around the country, from Scottsdale, Arizona, to Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Several of the involved organizations also helped set up the other large-scale protests of the summer, including No Kings Day in June and Good Trouble Lives On in July.
Employers Have Exploited and Abused H-2A Farmworkers for Years. It Doesn’t Have to Be That Way. By Max Blau
September 16, 2025
Introduction:
(ProPublica) The H-2A visa program has long been touted as a way to ensure that farmers can access enough workers without hiring people who are undocumented. But for some migrant farmworkers seeking better-paying jobs in America, their seasonal gigs have morphed into a nightmare.
As a recent ProPublica story revealed, the promises of the H-2A visa program can be undermined by extreme abuses the workers suffer, mostly by labor contractors. Some workers have had their wages stolen and been threatened with deportation if they complain about unsafe work conditions, a federal investigation found. In the worst instances, others have been assaulted or raped or have even died. It’s gotten so bad that, in one of the largest H-2A criminal cases ever, a federal judge described the abuse of these workers as a form of modern-day slavery. And without further changes to the H-2A program, experts told ProPublica, foreign farmworkers may continue to be harmed.
With the U.S. facing a drastic shortage of domestic farmworkers and as the Trump administration deports more undocumented immigrants, experts told ProPublica that H-2A visas are certain to remain in high demand. One agricultural economist forecasts that, by 2030, there could be a need for up to 500,000 H-2A workers — roughly triple the number requested in 2016, the year that President Donald Trump was first elected.
Experts, lawyers and advocates told ProPublica that, unless more is done to protect workers, the instances of abuse and exploitation are likely to increase as well. They suggested a variety of ways to make the H-2A program safer and more humane.
1. Enforce the current rules better
The H-2A program is supposed to provide fair wages, safe working conditions and free housing and transportation to workers. But experts said insufficient oversight has undermined the protections promised to visa holders.
New Caucus Powers Up Electrical Workers By Keith Brower Brown
September 17, 2025
Introduction:
(Labor Notes) On paper, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers has power like few other unions in the country. The “sparkies” have over 700,000 members. Most of them have held onto pensions, family health plans, and some of the best pay in construction.
IBEW ranks have grown steadily for nearly a decade on building sites and power lines. A longtime union staffer took the presidency of the AFL-CIO four years ago. While millions of other workers face threats of layoff by automation, Electrical Workers are booking overtime building data centers.
Yet a growing movement of members feel the union leaves too much power on paper when it comes to challenging their bosses. During the last four years, during a building boom, most contracts have not matched the spiraling cost of living, and only one local dared a strike.
Like many in the building trades, IBEW members have a patchy culture of jobsite direct action over break times, safety, and disrespect from foremen. But instead of building campaigns with militant direct action, leaders, local union officers, and shop stewards—all appointed—are generally quick to tamp down those flames.
To build an IBEW that lives up to its potential, a new member caucus was publicly launched in September. With two years of patient organizing under its belt, the Caucus of Rank-and-File Electrical Workers (CREW) already has 300 members across 40 IBEW locals, in every corner of the country.
Farmworkers Already Face Harsh Conditions. Now They May Have to Deal with a Pay Cut. By Frida Garza
September 17, 2025
Introduction:
(Grist) When President Donald Trump campaigned for his second term on the promise of deporting millions of undocumented workers from the United States, farm groups were quick to voice their discontent. An immigration policy focused solely on removing those without legal status “would cripple agricultural production in America,” according to the American Farm Bureau Federation, a powerful agricultural lobbying group.
Economists, labor organizers, and immigrant rights advocates agreed. About 40 percent of farmworkers in the country are foreign-born, unauthorized workers, the U.S. Department of Agriculture recently found. Some farmers already complain that it’s hard enough to fill agricultural jobs domestically; without foreign labor, they argue, the nation’s food system would grind to a halt.
Now, the Trump administration appears to be making moves aimed at alleviating some of the economic burden felt by farm employers. Late last month, the Department of Agriculture announced the agency would end the survey used to set minimum wages for migrant farmworkers on temporary visas. Some farm groups welcome cheaper labor costs, but experts say falling wages — coupled with the administration’s mass deportation agenda — will ultimately scramble the business of hiring farmworkers.
The H-2A visa program allows farmers to hire seasonal workers from abroad, the vast majority of whom come from Mexico. These workers are paid according to something called the Adverse Effect Wage Rate, or AEWR. Every year, the AEWR is determined using the previous year’s Agricultural Labor Survey — more commonly referred to as the Farm Labor Survey, or FLS, which asks farm employers about their workers’ hours and wages. In a sense, the AEWR sets a wage floor for all farm laborers: U.S.-born workers must earn at least as much as H-2A workers when performing the same job.
Trash strike over: Teamsters, Republic Services agree to contract
Source: NBC Boston
Details on the five-year agreement were not immediately available.
By Marc Fortier • Published September 19, 2025 • Updated on September 19, 2025 at 7:14 pm
Teamsters Local 25 and Republic Services have agreed to a new contract, ending a strike that began back in July and impacted garbage and recycling pickup in numerous Massachusetts communities.
Republic Services confirmed the five-year collective bargaining agreement in an email Friday morning. They thanked the community for their patience during the service interruption and apologized for the inconvenience it caused.
“We look forward to our employees returning to work on Monday and quickly resuming normal operations,” said Kurt Lavery, market vice president for Republic Services. “We will work tirelessly to restore our customers’ trust.”
“I’ve never been prouder of a group of Teamsters in my life," said Tom Mari, president of Teamsters Local 25. "These workers stood strong for 82 days to send a message across the country. Never once did they waiver in their commitment to remain on strike until they got what they deserved. This is an extremely strong contract, and our members are looking forward to going back to work Monday, and back into the communities they service."
Trump’s Immigration Raids Will Likely Increase Foreign Workers Who Come to the U.S. on Temporary Visas By Sky Chadde,
September 19, 2025
Introduction:
(Investigate Midwest) The Trump administration’s goal to expel millions of immigrants laboring in the food system will likely increase the foreign workforce in the U.S., experts said Thursday.
The administration has said it wants U.S.-born workers to replace the immigrants who harvest fruits and vegetables and cut and package protein. But the more likely outcome is that the agriculture industry, with the administration’s help, will turn to foreign workers who come to the U.S. on temporary visas.
“Basically, they’re saying, ‘We want workers, but we don’t want people,’” said Daniel Costa, a lead immigration researcher at the Economic Policy Institute, a nonpartisan thinktank focused on working people, during a panel on Thursday.
The panel, titled “Raids, Reform and the Future of Farm Labor,” was hosted by Investigate Midwest as part of a reporting project on immigration in the food system. The reporting project is funded by the Chicago Region Food System Fund.
In the leadup to the election, Stephen Miller, widely seen as the force behind Trump’s immigration crackdown, told The New York Times, “Mass deportation will be a labor-market disruption celebrated by American workers, who will now be offered higher wages with better benefits to fill these jobs.”
Teamsters Win University of Minnesota Strike, With Help from Farm Aid By Randy Furst
September 18, 2025
Introduction:
(Labor Notes) Some 1,400 Teamster service workers at the University of Minnesota won a resounding victory in a five-day walkout that showcased their militancy and underscored the power of solidarity.
“This is what happens when people stick together,” said Steve Tesfagiorgis, a shop steward and strike captain for Teamsters Local 320 and a senior custodian on the Minneapolis campus. “Our members are from different places and speak many different languages, and we all worked together and won.”
The union includes more than 400 East African workers. At rallies, on flyers, and during Zoom meetings, members communicated in five languages.
The five-day strike, September 8 to 12, by custodial, food service, maintenance, and sanitation workers, featured around-the-clock picketing and a massive rally and march at the Minneapolis campus by 1,000 workers and supporters. They got broad support from professors, students, and other unions.
Additional Extract:
A key to the strike victory was Farm Aid's refusal to cross Teamster picket lines. Its 40th anniversary concert was scheduled to be held at the University of Minnesota’s Huntington Bank Stadium, where the Gopher football team plays.
Trump Imposes $100K fee on H-1B Visas in New Immigration Action By Alejandra Jaramillo, Adam Cancryn
September 19 , 2025
Introduction:
(CNN) President Donald Trump signed an executive action on Friday to impose a $100,000 application fee for H-1B visas — in an effort to curb what his administration says is overuse of the program.
“We need great workers, and this pretty much ensures that that’s what’s going to happen,” Trump said from the Oval Office, where officials detailed how the measure would incentivize companies to employ American workers while still providing a pathway to hire highly skilled foreign workers in specialized fields.
The proclamation will restrict entry under the program unless accompanied by the payment.
In a separate order, Trump also directed the creation of a “gold card” immigration pathway that he said would fast-track visas for certain immigrants in exchange for a hefty fee. The policy will expedite visas for foreigners who pay the US $1 million, while allowing a company to pay $2 million to speed up the process for a foreign worker that it sponsors.
The moves mark the latest in a series of efforts from the administration to crack down on immigration and place sharp new limits on the types of foreigners allowed into the country. They threaten to significantly impact industries that depend heavily on H-1B workers.
Wells Fargo Workers Push to Bring A Union to the Banking Industry By Dan DiMaggio
September 23, 2025
Introduction:
(Labor Notes) Workers at Wells Fargo are organizing the first union at a major U.S. bank—in one of the least-organized industries in the country.
The first branch where workers won a union vote, in 2023, was in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Since then, workers have have voted to join the Communications Workers (CWA) at 29 more branches from Apopka, Florida, to Casper, Wyoming. So have 35 workers who review customer and employee complaints at the bank.
These workers, a total of 200, are a small fraction of Wells Fargo’s 217,000 employees. But their organizing represents the first formal union effort since the company’s founding in 1852. And their success is even more notable in an almost entirely non-union industry.
Over 3 million bank workers are union members globally. But in the U.S., home to the world’s largest financial sector, fewer than 1 percent of the nation’s 4.5 million financial industry workers belong to a union.
CWA launched the Committee for Better Banks a decade ago, with the goals of organizing bank workers and empowering them to assist regulators’ efforts to monitor the finance industry.
