New EEOC guidance axes diversity provision in NPR union contract
https://current.org/2025/03/new-eeoc-guidance-axes-diversity-provision-in-npr-union-contract/?utm_source=Current%20Newsletter&wallit_nosession=1
By Tyler Falk.jpeg Tyler Falk, Reporter | March 25, 2025

NPR …headquarters in Washington, DC at night..jpeg
Ted Eytan/via Creative Commons
New guidance from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has neutralized a diversity provision in NPR’s collective bargaining agreement with the Screen Actors Guild–American Federation of Television and Radio Artists union.

The agreement had required that at least 30% of external candidates interviewed for open bargaining unit positions be from underrepresented groups “who would advance NPR’s diversity, equity, and inclusion priorities, including but not limited to persons of color, women, members of the LGBTQ+ community, people with disabilities, and military veterans.”

In an email to union leaders Friday that was obtained by Current, NPR attorney Stuart Harding said the provision conflicted with EEOC guidance about DEI in the workplace that was updated Wednesday. The commission listed DEI practices and policies that it deems unlawful, including “Selection for interviews, including placement or exclusion from a candidate ‘slate’ or pool.”

The bargaining agreement “included language saying that NPR’s efforts in this area would be ‘consistent with applicable law,’” wrote Harding, the network’s associate general counsel for labor and employment. “With this new guidance from the EEOC, the CBA provision described above is now no longer considered lawful. Therefore, effective immediately, the provision regarding the composition of the candidate pools no longer has any force or effect.”

“NPR’s Talent and Acquisition group will work diligently to recruit from a wide range of sources and bring in the best possible candidates for any open position across the company,” Harding wrote. “As we have always been, NPR remains committed to finding the best journalists that make up who we are as NPR.”

New York Times reporter Benjamin Mullin first shared news of Harding’s email on social media.

Neither an NPR spokesperson nor Pat O’Donnell, executive director for SAG-AFTRA Washington-Mid Atlantic Local, responded to a request for comment.

Earlier this month, the SAG-AFTRA National Board passed a resolution that reaffirmed the union’s “unwavering commitment to equal employment opportunity, diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility as fundamental to the mission of our union and the future of our industry.” The resolution added that SAG-AFTRA “remains steadfast in its commitment to holding the industry accountable for meeting its contractual obligations.”

New EEOC guidance axes diversity provision in NPR union contract

The agreement had required that at least 30% of external candidates for open bargaining unit positions be from underrepresented groups.

current.org

California international students on alert as Trump ramps up arrests of pro-Palestine activists

USC students at a pro-Palestinian encampment on campus last spring.

…www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-03-28/california-pro-palestinian-student-activists-trump-visa-cancelations-immigration-arrests

(Michael Blackshire / Los Angeles Times)

By Jaweed Kaleem

Staff Writer

March 28, 2025 3 AM PT

Ali, a UCLA student who joined pro-Palestinian protests last year, avoided arrest when riot police dismantled the school’s encampment last May. An international student who took part in a surge of campus activism around Israel’s war in Gaza, he was wary of having a record that could affect his visa. But he did not otherwise hide his activism.

Now, as federal authorities act on President Trump’s directive to deport international student activists he accuses of being antisemitic “pro-Hamas” terrorism supporters, Ali has taken new precautions. He’s moved out of his apartment — the address listed with the government — and is staying with a friend. He attends classes but avoids social events. He carries a piece of paper with the number for a 24-hour hotline faculty set up for students detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

As more arrests unfold, fears among California international students are growing — and frustrations mounting — as they accuse campus administrators of not doing enough to protect them in the state with the largest foreign student population in the nation and universities at the forefront of national activism.

“It’s a matter of time before it gets here,” said Ali, who did not want his full name, nationality, area of study or age published because he is worried about being tracked. “This is free speech. Isn’t this what this country is supposed to be known for?”

Speaking at a press conference Thursday during a visit to Guyana, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the government had initiated a widespread review of student activists’ visas and revoked at least 300.

“We do it every day. Every time I find one of these lunatics, I take away their visa,” Rubio said. He added: “I hope at some point we run out because we have gotten rid of all of them, but we’re looking every day for these lunatics that are tearing things up.”

He later clarified that it has been “primarily student visas, some visitors visas” and that “some are unrelated to any protests.”

At UCLA, members of Faculty for Justice in Palestine recently circulated advice to international students: “Don’t say anything to ICE. Don’t sign anything. Tell them to speak to your attorney,” it said alongside a hotline number. “… Please have a stamped, pre-addressed envelope to someone you trust with you in the event of an ICE arrest, you can send the mail to alert them you have been detained.”

International students have been told to “not go out unless you need to and make sure someone knows where you are going if you do go out,” said Randall Kuhn, a UCLA professor of public health who last year joined protesters.

Since government agents on March 8 arrested Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia graduate and protest leader last spring, the Trump administration has attempted to arrest or deport at least six additional pro-Palestinian foreign students at four campuses: three more at Columbia and one each at Tufts, Cornell and Georgetown universities. On Thursday, officials at the University of Alabama confirmed that immigration authorities this week detained an Iranian graduate student. The Trump administration has not said if he was targeted for pro-Palestinian activism.

Pro-Palestinain activist Mahmoud Khalil is pictured at Columbia University on April 29, 2024.

(Ted Shaffrey / Associated Press)

It’s unclear how many international students were part of pro-Palestinian protests on California campuses since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel and its war in Gaza. UCLA and USC together have more than 27,000 international students — the biggest groups are from China and India — though few of those students have been involved in protests.

Citing privacy, a spokesperson for the University of California declined to state whether student visas at UCLA or other UC campuses have been revoked or if there have been immigration arrests of pro-Palestinian students. USC spokesperson Lauren Bartlett said she was “unaware of anyone with a USC affiliation being impacted.”

A State Department spokesperson would not state whether students in California have lost their visa status. Activists at UCLA, USC and other Southern California schools swept by last spring’s encampments said they did not know if there have been visa cancellations and were not aware of student detentions.

Many of the known cases nationwide are being fought in court, with the Trump administration either blocked from making arrests or from initiating deportations or transfers for those detained.

In one instance, an Indian graduate student at Columbia, Ranjani Srinivasan, fled to Canada this month after learning government agents sought her. Srinivasan was taken into police custody as part of protests last year, but maintains she was not an activist and was merely swept up in mass arrests. Charges were later dropped. Also at Columbia, Yunseo Chung, a 21-year-old student, won a temporary reprieve in court this week after the Trump administration tried to revoke her green card and deport her. Chung, who participated in pro-Palestinian protests, was not a prominent protest figure like Khalil.

One of the latest cases was caught on video. Plainclothes agents arrested Rumeysa Ozturk, a Tufts University graduate student from Turkey, on a sidewalk Tuesday as she walked to see friends for the traditional fast-breaking during the Islamic month of Ramadan.

Tufts University doctoral student Rumeysa Ozturk is detained by Department of Homeland Security agents in Sommerville, Mass.

(Associated Press)

Last year, after Ozturk authored an op-ed critical of Israel, her profile appeared on Canary Mission, a website that blacklists people and groups it accuses of antisemitism. The group, along with another called Betar US, have claimed credit for promoting names of individuals the Trump administration has detained. The White House has not confirmed the organizations as sources.

A Department of Homeland Security listing said Ozturk is being held in Louisiana.

Increased tensions

The potential for immigration enforcement against international student activists in California has amplified tensions on campuses already grappling with growing pressure from Trump.

An onslaught of federal orders, funding cut threats and investigations are tied to Trump’s political agenda that eschews diversity, equity and inclusion practices he says illegally favor racial minorities. The Trump administration has also focused acutely on allegations of antisemitism tied to pro-Palestinian college protests, threatening to pull federal money from schools that don’t meet its unspecified standards for combating antisemitism.

The Department of Justice is investigating the UC system over alleged antisemitism and a federal task force on antisemitism said it will visit UCLA, UC Berkeley, USC and seven other U.S. campuses. Campus and Justice Department spokespeople declined to say when those visits will take place.

The Trump administration canceled $400 million in federal grants to Columbia University in New York this month in response to its handling of protests. In an attempt to get the money back, Columbia has given in to federal demands by adopting a formal definition of antisemitism, hiring new security officers, changing protest and discipline policies and putting its Middle Eastern studies department under “academic receivership.”

“It is absurd,” said Erwin Chemerinsky, the UC Berkeley School of Law dean and 1st Amendment scholar who has been critical of some pro-Palestinian protests, including one that took place in his backyard during a law school event last year.

“The idea of government wanting to stifle speech is not new. But some of what is being done now is,” he said. “And it does not matter if you are a citizen or a visitor, you have free speech, even if people view that free speech as offensive or in favor of Hamas.”

At UCLA, undergraduate student Ruksana Ali, who is not related to the person quoted earlier, joined a rally this month in support of Khalil and foreign student activists. Ruksana Ali said her university, which recently launched a new initiative on combating antisemitism, had “misplaced” priorities at a time when speech is stifled.

“Campuses are bending over backwards to appease Trump as he comes after students. We don’t believe it will be any different at UCLA, which stood back last year and watched violence against us,” said Ruksana Ali, who is a U.S. citizen. She referred to an hours-long failure by police to stop a mob attack on an encampment last April 30 and May 1.

Demonstrators sued the university this month alleging, among other complaints, that they were unlawfully arrested and left unprotected while exercising free speech. A group of Jewish students and faculty has also sued UCLA over the encampment, alleging that the university enabled antisemitic discrimination.

UCLA and USC have not issued public guidance on how to deal with immigration-related actions against student protesters, though both campuses have policies around immigration enforcement in general.

UCLA follows UC-wide rules saying campus police will “not undertake joint efforts with federal immigration enforcement authorities to investigate, detain or arrest individuals for violation of federal immigration law.” Campus areas that are open to the general public are also open to federal immigration enforcement officers.

At USC, community members are instructed to contact the Department of Public Safety or Office of the General Counsel if immigration agents show up. The university has designated a professor from its immigration law clinic as a resource for those facing arrest.

Jewish faculty at both campuses also wrote letters to administrators this month voicing concerns over deportation threats, citing a Jan. 29 antisemitism executive order Trump signed that calls on colleges to “monitor for and report activities by alien students.”

“It weaponizes antisemitism to attack intellectual and academic freedom as well as the university writ large,” said a letter signed by 77 Jewish professors at USC. “Moreover, it does not clearly distinguish between antisemitism and anti-Zionism, which will have a chilling effect on free speech.”

At UCLA, 66 Jewish faculty members signed a similar plea sent to their chancellor.

“We resist all calls to assist in compiling lists of those targeted for arrest, deportation, or discipline, and reject without equivocation any attempt to invoke our name to harass, expel, arrest, or deport members of our campus communities. These actions do not protect Jewish people but instead are a direct attack on democracy and freedom of speech,” that letter said.

Professors at the campuses said they did not hear back from administrators.

Kuhn, the professor of public health who signed the UCLA letter, said he knows several foreign student activists and is concerned that faculty and staff are not aware of student protections.

“We feel there will be efforts to arrest people, including people who did not protest,” Kuhn said. He, alongside other faculty and students, have shared “know your rights” cards with students.

Kuhn, who had visited the UCLA encampment in the spring and supported its goals — to push the university to cancel its investments in weapons companies and ties to Israel — said he didn’t see student protesters as a danger. Instead, he said, the Trump administration had initiated a “witch hunt.”

California international students on alert as Trump ramps up arrests of pro-Palestine activists

The U.S. has revoked at least 300 visas of international students, many who have supported campus pro-Palestinian encampments and protests. At major…

www.latimes.com

Chief Union Buster

Trump administration moves to end union rights for many federal workers
BY REBECCA BEITSCH – 03/27/25 9:43 PM ET
google-news.png

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) said Thursday that President Trump signed an executive order limiting numerous …agency employees from unionizing and instructing the government to stop engaging in any collective bargaining.
The OPM memo references an order from Trump, but it is an accompanying fact sheet from the White House that lays out the rationale for the movie, claiming that the Civil Service Reform Act allowing government workers to unionize “enables hostile Federal unions to obstruct agency management.”
“President Trump is taking action to ensure that agencies vital to national security can execute their missions without delay and protect the American people,” the fact sheet states.
The order targets agencies it says have a national security mission but many of the departments don’t have a strict national security connection.
In addition to all agencies with the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Defense (DOD), the Department of State, and the Department of Veterans Affairs, the order also covers the Treasury Department, all agencies with Health and Human Services (HHS), the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Science Foundation, the General Services Administration, and many more.
In total the OPM memo references 18 departments while also including numerous component agencies.
The OPM memo instructs agencies to terminate their collective bargaining agreement.
“Consequently, those agencies and subdivisions are no longer required to collectively bargain with Federal unions,” OPM states in its memo.
“Because the statutory authority underlying the original recognition of the relevant unions no longer applies, unions lose their status as the ‘exclusive[ly] recogni[zed]’ labor organizations for employees of the agencies.”
The OPM memo also says “agencies should cease participating in grievance procedures after terminating their CBA,” an abbreviation for collective bargaining agreements.
The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), condemned the action in an email to its members, saying the Trump administration was “illegally strip[ping] collective bargaining rights from hundreds of thousands of federal workers.
“Let’s be clear. National security is not the reason for this action. This is retaliation because our union is standing up for AFGE members—and a warning to every union: fall in line, or else.
“AFGE is not going anywhere. We are fighting back. We are preparing legal action.”
The move to restrict unions comes after DHS stripped the bargaining rights of Transportation Safety Administration employees.
AFGE has sued over that matter, arguing Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has no power to end an already authorized seven-year contract.
“The 2024 CBA has a term of seven years and allows limited midterm bargaining. This collective bargaining agreement, like any other, is a binding contract,” the union wrote in the suit.
The Civil Service Reform Act, while allowing for collective bargaining, does have exemptions for national security.
The OPM memo, however, makes some surprising choices in determining which agencies have a national security mission.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which includes Border Patrol, is not included in the memo. It’s union endorsed Trump during the 2024 election, and Trump recently nominated its former leader to serve as ambassador to Chile.
Also not included are any agencies that comprise the intelligence community beyond those within the DOD.
But the now-dismantled U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is, indicating the administration classifies it as playing a role in national security.
And the inclusion of HHS comes as the agency announced Thursday that it plans to cut 10,000 jobs in a major restructuring.
The OPM memo gives insight into the Trump administration’s next steps for employees after it terminates the agreements.
OPM directs agencies to shorten the timeline for performance improvement plans (PIP) for federal workers, saying after union agreements are terminated, agencies should not allow more than 30 days for a PIP.
It also says without collective bargaining agreements in place, agencies should also return to in person work as quickly as possible.
“Upon termination of these CBAs, covered agencies and subdivisions should swiftly implement the President’s directives in Return to In-Person Work,” it states.
It also says the government will no longer collect union dues.
“Agency employees may make other arrangements for dues payments if they wish to do so,” it states.
Updated at 10:25 p.m. EDT.

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5218975-trump-administration-moves-to-end-union-rights-for-many-federal-workers/

Trump administration moves to end union rights for many federal workers
BY REBECCA BEITSCH – 03/27/25 9:43 PM ET
google-news.png

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) said Thursday that President Trump signed an executive order limiting numerous agency employees from unionizing and instructing the government to stop engaging in any collective bargaining.
The OPM memo references an order from Trump, but it is an accompanying fact sheet from the White House that lays out the rationale for the movie, claiming that the Civil Service Reform Act allowing government workers to unionize “enables hostile Federal unions to obstruct agency management.”
“President Trump is taking action to ensure that agencies vital to national security can execute their missions without delay and protect the American people,” the fact sheet states.
The order targets agencies it says have a national security mission but many of the departments don’t have a strict national security connection.
In addition to all agencies with the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Defense (DOD), the Department of State, and the Department of Veterans Affairs, the order also covers the Treasury Department, all agencies with Health and Human Services (HHS), the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Science Foundation, the General Services Administration, and many more.
In total the OPM memo references 18 departments while also including numerous component agencies.
The OPM memo instructs agencies to terminate their collective bargaining agreement.
“Consequently, those agencies and subdivisions are no longer required to collectively bargain with Federal unions,” OPM states in its memo.
“Because the statutory authority underlying the original recognition of the relevant unions no longer applies, unions lose their status as the ‘exclusive[ly] recogni[zed]’ labor organizations for employees of the agencies.”
The OPM memo also says “agencies should cease participating in grievance procedures after terminating their CBA,” an abbreviation for collective bargaining agreements.
The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), condemned the action in an email to its members, saying the Trump administration was “illegally strip[ping] collective bargaining rights from hundreds of thousands of federal workers.
“Let’s be clear. National security is not the reason for this action. This is retaliation because our union is standing up for AFGE members—and a warning to every union: fall in line, or else.
“AFGE is not going anywhere. We are fighting back. We are preparing legal action.”
The move to restrict unions comes after DHS stripped the bargaining rights of Transportation Safety Administration employees.
AFGE has sued over that matter, arguing Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has no power to end an already authorized seven-year contract.
“The 2024 CBA has a term of seven years and allows limited midterm bargaining. This collective bargaining agreement, like any other, is a binding contract,” the union wrote in the suit.
The Civil Service Reform Act, while allowing for collective bargaining, does have exemptions for national security.
The OPM memo, however, makes some surprising choices in determining which agencies have a national security mission.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which includes Border Patrol, is not included in the memo. It’s union endorsed Trump during the 2024 election, and Trump recently nominated its former leader to serve as ambassador to Chile.
Also not included are any agencies that comprise the intelligence community beyond those within the DOD.
But the now-dismantled U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is, indicating the administration classifies it as playing a role in national security.
And the inclusion of HHS comes as the agency announced Thursday that it plans to cut 10,000 jobs in a major restructuring.
The OPM memo gives insight into the Trump administration’s next steps for employees after it terminates the agreements.
OPM directs agencies to shorten the timeline for performance improvement plans (PIP) for federal workers, saying after union agreements are terminated, agencies should not allow more than 30 days for a PIP.
It also says without collective bargaining agreements in place, agencies should also return to in person work as quickly as possible.
“Upon termination of these CBAs, covered agencies and subdivisions should swiftly implement the President’s directives in Return to In-Person Work,” it states.
It also says the government will no longer collect union dues.
“Agency employees may make other arrangements for dues payments if they wish to do so,” it states.
Updated at 10:25 p.m. EDT.

Trump administration moves to end union rights for many federal workers

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) said Thursday that President Trump signed an executive order limiting numerous agency employees from…

thehill.com

Judge orders ATU265 VTA employees back to work, service to resume Friday
https://www.mercurynews.com/2025/03/26/vta-strike-court-arguments-workers/
Strike has lasted more than two weeks; union president says ‘the workers lost today’ after ruling
A person walks by a rally of ATU …members walking on the sidewalk along East Santa Clara Street in downtown San Jose, Calif., on Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (Shae Hammond/Bay Area News Group)
A person walks by a rally of ATU members walking on the sidewalk along East Santa Clara Street in downtown San Jose, Calif., on Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (Shae Hammond/Bay Area News Group)
Caelyn Pender is a Bay Area News Group reporter
By CAELYN PENDER | cpender@bayareanewsgroup.com| Bay Area News Group
UPDATED: March 26, 2025 at 9:44 PM PDT

SAN JOSE — A Santa Clara County judge ordered striking Valley Transportation Authority employees to return to work at a hearing Wednesday — bringing the strike to an end in its third week but leaving the issue of a new contract without an immediate resolution.

Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Daniel T. Nishigaya ordered the striking union to return to work, issuing an injunction on the grounds that the VTA met its initial burden to show it had probable success in its arguments but did not rule on resolving the claims in the case.

“I know both sides have a strong desire to serve the public, and I thank both sides for that desire,” he said.

Bus service is slated to resume Friday and light rail service will follow after system inspections, the VTA said in a social media post late Wednesday.

“There are tens of thousands of people who have suffered because of this strike, and we are appreciative of this ruling so that our employees can get back to work,” VTA spokesperson Stacey Hendler Ross said.

Ross added that she hopes the union will return to the negotiation table to come to an agreement on a new contract.

Raj Singh, the president of the ATU, expressed disappointment in the ruling.

“We believe that the justice systems and the court has failed us,” Singh said. “At the end of the day, the workers lost today.”

Amalgamated Transit Union Local 265 workers walked off the job March 10 after negotiations with the VTA for a new contract fell apart over the inability of the two sides to compromise on arbitration language and the amount of a pay raise, leaving the riders who use the buses and trains each day without their normal transportation routes.

The VTA filed a lawsuit against the union on the first day of the strike, seeking an injunction to stop the strike on the grounds that the union violated a “no strike” clause in its contract. The union has maintained that the previous agreement expired and the clause no longer applies.

Nishigaya initially denied the VTA’s request for a temporary restraining order last week but granted its request for an order to show cause, summoning union representatives to appear in court to argue why the injunction should not be granted.

At the court hearing Wednesday, attorneys representing the union and transit agency sparred over whether the union breached the “no strike” clause in the contract, whether the court has jurisdiction over a transit labor dispute and whether the strike has caused irreparable harm.

Benjamin Lunch, an attorney for the union, argued that the contract had expired — which he said the VTA has acknowledged to both employees and the public — and that provisions such as the “no strike” clause do not roll over even though some provisions such as employee wages and working conditions do, based on precedents of labor law. He added that the contract’s extension into an extra year only applies if neither side wants to renegotiate the contract.

“Otherwise, this would create an indefinite contract,” he said, which would be terminable at will by either party.

Jenica Maldonado, an attorney for the VTA, maintained that the union would have had to issue written intent to terminate the contract in order for it to no longer apply.

Judge orders VTA employees back to work, service to resume Friday

A Santa Clara County judge ordered striking Valley Transportation Authority employees to return to work at a hearing Wednesday.

www.mercurynews.com

https://www.newsbreak.com/abc-10-news-kgtv-563645/3869440917266-cal-state-san-marcos-students-faculty-walk-out-in-protest-of-csu-system?fbclid=IwY2xjawJP4bpleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHWE1hmiAIG6BGbEvTjjFA7B73Jh_vl2Kv7JRxevrLMmKAw_aZrs_6l7Tyg_aem_kV3mRPJSfotg4wPNytIj-w

Cal State San Marcos students, faculty walk out in protest of CSU system – NewsBreak

Students and faculty at Cal State San Marcos walked out of classes Monday morning to protest the management of the California State University system.

www.newsbreak.com

Trump Targets Columbian Student Yunseo Chung
Moustafa Bayoumi's Post
https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10236446545528968&id=1391475894&mibextid=wwXIfr&rdid=okQWuHKLfB3gZz2J
Moustafa Bayoumi
13 hours ago ·
The Trump administration is now targeting… Yunseo Chung, a lawful permanent resident of the USA and a 21-year-old student at Columbia University, for her constitutionally protected speech. You could be next.
Chung is a junior at Columbia University. She was the valedictorian at her high school, has lived in the United States since she was 7 years old, and is an academically gifted student. She was one of hundreds of Columbia students who protested Israel's brutality in Gaza, considered a genocide by many scholars of genocide, international human right organizations, and ordinary people everywhere.
Chung was not a leader of the Columbia protests nor was she an identifiable face of the protests. She was a student, like hundreds of others (including those leading the protests), who was expressing a political opinion. For that reason, the Trump administration has informed her that, with no due process, her lawful permanent resident status was being "revoked." Now, they're attempting to deport this 21-year-old student who, even according to the government, has committed no crime. She's basically gone into hiding from the government thugs who are looking for her in unmarked vans. What kind of country have we become?
Lawyers at CLEAR, a legal clinic at the City University of New York, are suing the government to stop her deportation. The Feds searched her Columbia University dorm, looking for Chung, and were ready to charge anyone who helped her evade this blatantly political arrest by ICE agents with the crime of "harboring."
The Trump administration wants all these cases to get as much publicity as possible. The administration seems to believe that a message is being sent. They're going after a gifted 21-year-old student who had the audacity to participate in political protest. By targeting her, the administration must believe they're looking tough (though it's only in the way that punching down could ever be considered "tough"). Moreover, they appear to be trying to intimidate others into censoring their own speech. The Trump administration wants to scare people into silence.
But we should take away at least two lessons from this latest outrage. One: they are targeting people like Mahmoud Khalil, Badar Khan Suri, Ranjani Srinivasan, Momodou Taal, Rasha Alawieh, and now Yunseo Chung. Notice anything? The targeting of people of color by this white supremacist administration has never been clearer.
Two: the idea that these actions will scare people into their silence will, I'm certain, backfire. The American people are seeing more than ever the lawless nature of this government. Such actions by the Trump administration should and will bring more people to the realization that governments lie to them and that this government must be opposed, if only out of direct self-interest of being able to have a political opinion in this country. That's what's now at stake.

Columbia Student Hunted by ICE Sues to Prevent Deportation
Yunseo Chung, a legal permanent resident who has lived in the U.S. since she was 7, participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations. Immigration agents visited residences looking for her.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/24/nyregion/columbia-student-ice-suit-yunseo-chung.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
Yunseo Chung, wearing a red sweater and gold necklace and earbuds, smiles.
Yunseo Chung moved to the United States with her family from South Korea when she was 7 years old and was valedictorian of her high school. Credit…CLEAR
Jonah E. Bromwich.pngHamed Aleaziz.png
By Jonah E. Bromwich and Hamed Aleaziz
Published March 24, 2025
Updated March 25, 2025, 8:01 a.m. ET
A 21-year-old Columbia University student who has lived in the United States since she was a child sued President Trump and other high-ranking administration officials on Monday after immigration officials tried to arrest and deport her.

The student, Yunseo Chung, is a legal permanent resident and junior who has participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations at the school. The Trump administration is arguing that her presence in the United States hinders the administration’s foreign policy agenda of halting the spread of antisemitism.

Administration officials, including the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, cited the same rationale in explaining the arrest this month of Mahmoud Khalil, a graduate of the university and permanent resident who is being held in Louisiana.
Thumbnail of page 1.png
Read the lawsuit accusing the Trump administration of illegally targeting a second Columbia student for deportation.

Unlike Mr. Khalil, Ms. Chung does not appear to have been a prominent figure in the demonstrations that shook the school last year. But she was one of several students arrested this year in connection with a protest at Barnard College.

Ms. Chung, a high school valedictorian who moved to the United States with her family from South Korea when she was 7, has not been detained by ICE. She remains in the country, but her lawyers would not comment on her whereabouts.

Her lawsuit in federal court in Manhattan shows the extensive, if so far unsuccessful, efforts by U.S. immigration officials to arrest her. Agents historically prefer to pick up immigrants in jail or prisons. Other types of arrests are more difficult, often requiring hours of research, surveillance and other investigative resources.

But federal agents believed that those efforts were merited in the case of Ms. Chung, according to her lawyers at CLEAR, a legal clinic at the City University of New York.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials visited several residences, called for help from federal prosecutors and searched Ms. Chung’s university housing on March 13.
Editors’ Picks

The involvement of federal prosecutors was particularly notable. According to Ms. Chung’s lawsuit, agents apparently seeking her searched two residences on the Columbia campus with warrants that cited a criminal law known as the harboring statute, aimed at those who give shelter to noncitizens present in the United States illegally.

That signaled that the searches were related to a broader criminal investigation by federal prosecutors into Columbia University. Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general, has said that the school is under investigation “for harboring and concealing illegal aliens on its campus.”

Operating under the aegis of a federal investigation could signal a new tactic. ICE officers and agents often are unable to arrest their targets because they don’t answer the door, and an administrative warrant does not provide agents access to a home.

The Trump administration has prioritized the detention of pro-Palestinian demonstrators, particularly those who are not legal residents. They have sought the arrest of Momodou Taal, a doctoral student in Africana studies at Cornell University, and Ranjani Srinivasan, another Columbia University student who left the country for Canada after learning that her student visa had been revoked.

But the attempted arrest of Ms. Chung, like the detention of Mr. Khalil, appears to be part of a new front in the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown — targeting immigrants who are farther along in their paths to citizenship.
In their lawsuit, Ms. Chung’s lawyers asked that a judge bar the government from taking enforcement action against Ms. Chung or from detaining her, transferring her to another location or removing her from the United States. They also asked the judge to bar the government from targeting any noncitizen for deportation based on constitutionally protected speech and pro-Palestinian advocacy.

One of Ms. Chung’s lawyers, Naz Ahmad, said that the administration’s “efforts to punish and suppress speech it disagrees with smack of McCarthyism.”

“Like many thousands of students nationwide, Yunseo raised her voice against what is happening in Gaza and in support of fellow students facing unfair discipline,” said Ms. Ahmad, a co-director of CLEAR. “It can’t be the case that a straight-A student who has lived here most of her life can be whisked away and potentially deported, all because she dares to speak up.”

A senior press representative for the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that Ms. Chung had “engaged in concerning conduct, including when she was arrested by N.Y.P.D. during a pro-Hamas protest at Barnard College. She is being sought for removal proceedings under the immigration laws.”

The statement added that Ms. Chung would have an opportunity to present her case before an immigration judge and said that ICE would “investigate individuals engaged in activities in support of Hamas, a foreign terrorist organization.”

Press representatives for the secretary of state and the Justice Department did not respond to requests for comment.

Ms. Chung, who majors in English and gender studies, has participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations since last year. Her lawyers say that she did not speak to reporters, negotiate on behalf of student demonstrators, or in any other way take a leadership position.

She was, however, accused by the university of joining other students in posting fliers that pictured members of the board of trustees with the phrase “wanted for complicity in genocide.” According to the lawsuit, the school did not find that Ms. Chung had violated any of its “applicable policies.”

The dizzying sequence of events that appears to have prompted ICE agents to show up at her house appears to have begun this month.

On March 5, Ms. Chung protested outside a Barnard College building where pro-Palestinian student demonstrators were holding a sit-in. She was arrested by police officers, given a desk appearance ticket on the misdemeanor charge of obstructing governmental administration and released.
Image
Uniformed police gather outside a protest site at Barnard College..webp
Ms. Chung was arrested in a protest at Barnard College. The Trump administration has prioritized the detention of students who participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations.Credit…Marco Postigo Storel for The New York Times
Four days later — and the day after Mr. Khalil was arrested — immigration officials appeared at the home of Ms. Chung’s parents.

Around that time, according to the lawsuit, someone identifying herself as “Audrey with the police” texted Ms. Chung. When a lawyer for Ms. Chung called the number, the woman said that she was an agent with ICE, that the State Department was free to revoke Ms. Chung’s residency status and that there was an administrative warrant for her arrest.

At the same time, Columbia University’s public safety office emailed Ms. Chung to inform her that the federal prosecutor’s office in Manhattan had been in touch, repeating that ICE officials were seeking Ms. Chung’s arrest.

On March 10, Perry Carbone, a high-ranking lawyer in the federal prosecutor’s office, told Ms. Ahmad, Ms. Chung’s attorney, that the secretary of state, Mr. Rubio, had revoked Ms. Chung’s visa. Ms. Ahmad responded that Ms. Chung was not in the country on a visa and was a permanent resident. According to the lawsuit, Mr. Carbone responded that Mr. Rubio had “revoked that” as well.

The conversation echoed an exchange between Mr. Khalil’s lawyers and the immigration agents who arrested him and who did not initially appear to be aware of his residency status.

After his arrest, Mr. Khalil was swiftly transferred, first to New Jersey and ultimately to Louisiana, where he has been detained since. The statute that the Trump administration used to justify his detention and Ms. Chung’s potential deportation says that the secretary of state can move against noncitizens whose presence he has reasonable grounds to believe threatens the country’s foreign policy agenda. Homeland security officials have since added other allegations against Mr. Khalil.

Mr. Rubio’s memo targeting Mr. Khalil also included Ms. Chung’s name, according to a person with knowledge of its contents.

In Ms. Chung’s lawsuit, her lawyers accused the government of obtaining warrants “under false pretenses,” suggesting that the search under the harboring statute was merely a pretext for an attempt to detain Ms. Chung and another student whom the suit did not name. A spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan declined to comment on the claims involving the office and Mr. Carbone.
Jonah E. Bromwich covers criminal justice in the New York region, with a focus on political influence and its effect on the rule of law in the area's federal and state courts.More about Jonah E. Bromwich

Hamed Aleaziz covers the Department of Homeland Security and immigration policy.More about Hamed Aleaziz

Columbia Student Hunted by ICE Sues to Prevent Deportation

Yunseo Chung, a legal permanent resident who has lived in the U.S. since she was 7, participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations. Immigration …

www.nytimes.com

Columbia Student Hunted by ICE Sues to Prevent Deportation
Yunseo Chung, a legal permanent resident who has lived in the U.S. since she was 7, participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations. Immigration agents visited residences looking for her.
…https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/24/nyregion/columbia-student-ice-suit-yunseo-chung.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
Yunseo Chung, wearing a red sweater and gold necklace and earbuds, smiles.
Yunseo Chung moved to the United States with her family from South Korea when she was 7 years old and was valedictorian of her high school. Credit…CLEAR
Jonah E. Bromwich.pngHamed Aleaziz.png
By Jonah E. Bromwich and Hamed Aleaziz
Published March 24, 2025
Updated March 25, 2025, 8:01 a.m. ET
A 21-year-old Columbia University student who has lived in the United States since she was a child sued President Trump and other high-ranking administration officials on Monday after immigration officials tried to arrest and deport her.

The student, Yunseo Chung, is a legal permanent resident and junior who has participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations at the school. The Trump administration is arguing that her presence in the United States hinders the administration’s foreign policy agenda of halting the spread of antisemitism.

Administration officials, including the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, cited the same rationale in explaining the arrest this month of Mahmoud Khalil, a graduate of the university and permanent resident who is being held in Louisiana.
Thumbnail of page 1.png
Read the lawsuit accusing the Trump administration of illegally targeting a second Columbia student for deportation.

Unlike Mr. Khalil, Ms. Chung does not appear to have been a prominent figure in the demonstrations that shook the school last year. But she was one of several students arrested this year in connection with a protest at Barnard College.

Ms. Chung, a high school valedictorian who moved to the United States with her family from South Korea when she was 7, has not been detained by ICE. She remains in the country, but her lawyers would not comment on her whereabouts.

Her lawsuit in federal court in Manhattan shows the extensive, if so far unsuccessful, efforts by U.S. immigration officials to arrest her. Agents historically prefer to pick up immigrants in jail or prisons. Other types of arrests are more difficult, often requiring hours of research, surveillance and other investigative resources.

But federal agents believed that those efforts were merited in the case of Ms. Chung, according to her lawyers at CLEAR, a legal clinic at the City University of New York.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials visited several residences, called for help from federal prosecutors and searched Ms. Chung’s university housing on March 13.
Editors’ Picks

The involvement of federal prosecutors was particularly notable. According to Ms. Chung’s lawsuit, agents apparently seeking her searched two residences on the Columbia campus with warrants that cited a criminal law known as the harboring statute, aimed at those who give shelter to noncitizens present in the United States illegally.

That signaled that the searches were related to a broader criminal investigation by federal prosecutors into Columbia University. Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general, has said that the school is under investigation “for harboring and concealing illegal aliens on its campus.”

Operating under the aegis of a federal investigation could signal a new tactic. ICE officers and agents often are unable to arrest their targets because they don’t answer the door, and an administrative warrant does not provide agents access to a home.

The Trump administration has prioritized the detention of pro-Palestinian demonstrators, particularly those who are not legal residents. They have sought the arrest of Momodou Taal, a doctoral student in Africana studies at Cornell University, and Ranjani Srinivasan, another Columbia University student who left the country for Canada after learning that her student visa had been revoked.

But the attempted arrest of Ms. Chung, like the detention of Mr. Khalil, appears to be part of a new front in the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown — targeting immigrants who are farther along in their paths to citizenship.
In their lawsuit, Ms. Chung’s lawyers asked that a judge bar the government from taking enforcement action against Ms. Chung or from detaining her, transferring her to another location or removing her from the United States. They also asked the judge to bar the government from targeting any noncitizen for deportation based on constitutionally protected speech and pro-Palestinian advocacy.

One of Ms. Chung’s lawyers, Naz Ahmad, said that the administration’s “efforts to punish and suppress speech it disagrees with smack of McCarthyism.”

“Like many thousands of students nationwide, Yunseo raised her voice against what is happening in Gaza and in support of fellow students facing unfair discipline,” said Ms. Ahmad, a co-director of CLEAR. “It can’t be the case that a straight-A student who has lived here most of her life can be whisked away and potentially deported, all because she dares to speak up.”

A senior press representative for the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that Ms. Chung had “engaged in concerning conduct, including when she was arrested by N.Y.P.D. during a pro-Hamas protest at Barnard College. She is being sought for removal proceedings under the immigration laws.”

The statement added that Ms. Chung would have an opportunity to present her case before an immigration judge and said that ICE would “investigate individuals engaged in activities in support of Hamas, a foreign terrorist organization.”

Press representatives for the secretary of state and the Justice Department did not respond to requests for comment.

Ms. Chung, who majors in English and gender studies, has participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations since last year. Her lawyers say that she did not speak to reporters, negotiate on behalf of student demonstrators, or in any other way take a leadership position.

She was, however, accused by the university of joining other students in posting fliers that pictured members of the board of trustees with the phrase “wanted for complicity in genocide.” According to the lawsuit, the school did not find that Ms. Chung had violated any of its “applicable policies.”

The dizzying sequence of events that appears to have prompted ICE agents to show up at her house appears to have begun this month.

On March 5, Ms. Chung protested outside a Barnard College building where pro-Palestinian student demonstrators were holding a sit-in. She was arrested by police officers, given a desk appearance ticket on the misdemeanor charge of obstructing governmental administration and released.
Image
Uniformed police gather outside a protest site at Barnard College..webp
Ms. Chung was arrested in a protest at Barnard College. The Trump administration has prioritized the detention of students who participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations.Credit…Marco Postigo Storel for The New York Times
Four days later — and the day after Mr. Khalil was arrested — immigration officials appeared at the home of Ms. Chung’s parents.

Around that time, according to the lawsuit, someone identifying herself as “Audrey with the police” texted Ms. Chung. When a lawyer for Ms. Chung called the number, the woman said that she was an agent with ICE, that the State Department was free to revoke Ms. Chung’s residency status and that there was an administrative warrant for her arrest.

At the same time, Columbia University’s public safety office emailed Ms. Chung to inform her that the federal prosecutor’s office in Manhattan had been in touch, repeating that ICE officials were seeking Ms. Chung’s arrest.

On March 10, Perry Carbone, a high-ranking lawyer in the federal prosecutor’s office, told Ms. Ahmad, Ms. Chung’s attorney, that the secretary of state, Mr. Rubio, had revoked Ms. Chung’s visa. Ms. Ahmad responded that Ms. Chung was not in the country on a visa and was a permanent resident. According to the lawsuit, Mr. Carbone responded that Mr. Rubio had “revoked that” as well.

The conversation echoed an exchange between Mr. Khalil’s lawyers and the immigration agents who arrested him and who did not initially appear to be aware of his residency status.

After his arrest, Mr. Khalil was swiftly transferred, first to New Jersey and ultimately to Louisiana, where he has been detained since. The statute that the Trump administration used to justify his detention and Ms. Chung’s potential deportation says that the secretary of state can move against noncitizens whose presence he has reasonable grounds to believe threatens the country’s foreign policy agenda. Homeland security officials have since added other allegations against Mr. Khalil.

Mr. Rubio’s memo targeting Mr. Khalil also included Ms. Chung’s name, according to a person with knowledge of its contents.

In Ms. Chung’s lawsuit, her lawyers accused the government of obtaining warrants “under false pretenses,” suggesting that the search under the harboring statute was merely a pretext for an attempt to detain Ms. Chung and another student whom the suit did not name. A spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan declined to comment on the claims involving the office and Mr. Carbone.
Jonah E. Bromwich covers criminal justice in the New York region, with a focus on political influence and its effect on the rule of law in the area's federal and state courts.More about Jonah E. Bromwich

Hamed Aleaziz covers the Department of Homeland Security and immigration policy.More about Hamed Aleaziz

Columbia Student Hunted by ICE Sues to Prevent Deportation

Yunseo Chung, a legal permanent resident who has lived in the U.S. since she was 7, participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations. Immigration …

www.nytimes.com

The purges and silencing of our most courageous and accomplished intellectuals, writers, artists and journalists ­ begun before Trump’s return to the White House ­ is being expedited.

https://scheerpost.com/2025/03/24/chris-hedges-surrendering-to-authoritarianism/
Surrendering to …Authoritarianism


By Chris Hedges / Original to ScheerPost
Chris Hedges is a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist who was a foreign correspondent for fifteen years for The New York Times, where he served as the Middle East Bureau Chief and Balkan Bureau Chief for the paper.

I was not surprised when Columbia University’s interim president Katrina Armstrong caved to the demands of the Trump administration. She agreed to ban face masks or face coverings, prohibit protests in academic buildings and create an internal security force of 36 New York City Police officers empowered to “remove individuals from campus and/or arrest them when appropriate.” She has also surrendered the autonomy of academic departments, as demanded by the Trump administration, by appointing a new senior vice provost to “review” the university’s department of Middle East, South Asian and African Studies and the Center for Palestine Studies.

Elite universities such as Harvard, Princeton, Columbia or Yale, were created to train and perpetuate the plutocracy. They are not and never have been centers of cutting-edge intellectual thought or hospitable to dissidents and radicals. They cloak themselves in the veneer of moral probity and intellectualism but cravenly serve political and economic power. This is their nature. Don’t expect it to change, even as we fall headlong into authoritarianism.

Armstrong, like most of the heads of our universities, is fruitlessly humiliating herself. She would, I expect, happily make space on her office wall to hang an oversized portrait of the president. But what she does not know, and what history has taught us, is that no appeasement is sufficient with autocrats. She, and the rest of the liberal elites, groveling abjectly in an attempt to accommodate their new masters, will be steadily replaced or dominated by buffoonish goons such as those seeded throughout the Trump administration.

The Department of Education has warned 60 colleges and universities that they could face “potential enforcement actions,” if they do not comply with federal civil rights law that protects students from discrimination based on race or nationality, which includes antisemitism. Columbia, stripped of $400 million in federal grants, is desperately trying to restore the funding. I doubt it will work. Those mounting these assaults against universities intend to turn them into indoctrination machines. The so-called campaign against antisemitism is simply a cynical tool being used to achieve that end.

The warning follows an open letter signed by 200 faculty members on Feb. 3 urging Columbia University implement measures to “protect Jewish students.” Amongst their demands are the removal of Professor Joseph Massad who teaches Modern Arab Politics and Intellectual History at the university and beginning a Title VI investigation against him, that the university adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism, which conflates criticism of Israel with racism against Jews, and the university hire tenured pro-Israel faculty.

These institutions of privilege ­ I attended Harvard and have taught at Columbia and Princeton ­ have always been complicit in the crimes of their times. They did not, until the world around them changed, speak out against the slaughter of Native Americans, the enslavement of Africans, the crushing of labor and socialist organizations at the turn of the twentieth century and the purging of institutions, including the academy, during the Red Scare in the 1920s and 1930s, and later the witch hunts under McCarthyism. They turned on their students protesting the war in Vietnam in the 1960s as viciously as they are turning on them now.

Many of the dregs of the Trump administration are products of these elite academic institutions. I can assure you their children will also attend these schools despite their public denunciations. Rep. Elise Stefanik, who humiliated in congressional hearings the presidents of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania, graduated from Harvard. Vice President JD Vance graduated from Yale Law School. Trump graduated from the University of Pennsylvania. Defense Secretary Peter Hegseth went to Princeton University and Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ­ who has ordered a review of grants to universities from his agency over allegations of antisemitism ­ graduated from Harvard.

Professor Katherine Franke, who taught at Columbia Law School for 25 years, recently lost her position at the university for defending Columbia students’ right to protest in favor of a ceasefire of the Israeli slaughter in Gaza and for Columbia University to divest from Israel. She also condemned the spraying of pro-Palestinian protesters on the campus with a toxic chemical that left students hospitalized.

“Part of why I think Colombia was such an easy target ­ and it’s not just Columbia, I think this is true for Harvard, for Yale, for the elite universities ­ is that the boards of trustees are no longer made up of people who are involved in education ­ committed to the educational mission, in some way professionally or otherwise ­ see themselves as custodians of the special role that the academy plays in a democracy,” she told me.

“Instead, they are hedge fund managers, venture capitalists, corporate lawyers and in our case, arms manufacturers as well.” She went on:

"And they see that responsibility is to protect only the endowment. I often describe Columbia ­ which is the largest residential landlord in New York City ­ as a real estate holding operation that has a side hustle of teaching classes. It has evolved over time into just a business that enjoys nonprofit status. And so when the pressure started here, there were no voices on the boards of trustees to say, ‘Hey, wait a minute, we have to be the front line of resistance.’ Or at a minimum, we have to defend our academic mission.’ When I was sitting in my living room watching [former] president Minouche Shafik testify before that House committee…I was upset because they mentioned me, but more importantly, the fact that president Shafik did not even begin to defend Columbia, its faculty, its students, our project, our history of being one of the premier universities in the world. Instead, she groveled before a bully. And we all know that when you grovel before a bully, it encourages the bully. And that’s exactly what’s happened here up until today, where they’re still negotiating with the Trump administration on terms that the administration has set. And this university, I think, will never be the same if it survives at all."

You can see my interview with Professor Franke here.

Universities and colleges across the country have shut down free speech and squandered their academic integrity. They have brutalized, arrested, suspended and expelled faculty, administrators and students that decry the genocide. They have called police to their campuses ­ in the case of Columbia three times ­ to arrest students, often charging them with trespassing. Following the lead of their authoritarian masters they subjected students to internal surveillance. Columbia University, out front on the repression of its students, banned Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace a month after Israel’s genocide in Gaza had begun in November 2023, when both organizations called for a ceasefire, long before the protests and encampments began.

Columbia’s violent suppression of protests and decision to lock down its campus, which is now surrounded by security checkpoints, paved the way for the abduction of Mahmoud Khalil, who was a graduate student at the School of International Public Affairs. He is a legal permanent resident. He did not commit a crime. But the university administration had already demonized and criminalized Khalil and the other students, many of whom are Jewish, who dared to protest the mass slaughter in Gaza.

The video ­ shot by his wife on March 8 ­ of Khalil being taken away by plainclothes federal agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) who did not identify themselves, is a chilling reminder of the secret police abductions I witnessed on the streets of Santiago during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.

The law in authoritarian states protects the criminality of the powerful. It revokes due process, basic freedoms and the rights of citizenship. It is an instrument of repression. It is a very small step from the stripping of rights from a legal resident holding a green card to the stripping of rights of any citizen. This is what is coming.

Khalil was ostensibly arrested under the Immigration Nationality Act of 1952, also known as the McCarran-Walter Act. It gives the Secretary of State the power to deport foreign nationals if he has “reasonable ground[s] to believe” their presence or activities in the U.S. “would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences.” It was used to deny entry to the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, the Colombian writer Gabriel Garcia Márquez and the British author Doris Lessing. It was also used to deport the poet and essayist Margaret Randall and civil rights activist and journalist Claudia Jones. Senator Patrick McCarran, an open admirer of the Spanish dictator Francisco Franco and a rabid antisemite, formulated the act to target not only dissidents and communists, but also Jews. When the law was enacted, it was used to ban Eastern European Jewish Holocaust survivors from entering the U.S. due to their alleged sympathies with the Soviet Union.

“The irony of that is not lost on any of us, that these are laws that are at their core, deeply antisemitic, that are now being deployed in the name of protecting Jewish citizens or our foreign policy goals with the state of Israel,” Franke said. “And that’s the cynicism of this administration. They don’t give a darn that there’s that history. They’re looking for every piece of power that they can get, every law, no matter how ugly that law may be. Even the laws that interned Japanese people during World War Two. I’m sure they would be more than happy to use those at some point.”

James Luther Adams, my mentor at Harvard Divinity School, was in Germany in 1935 and 1936 until he was arrested and deported by the Gestapo. He worked with the underground anti-Nazi church, known as the Confessing Church, led by dissident clergy such as Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Adams saw how swiftly and cravenly German universities, which like ours were considered some of the best in the world, surrendered to the dictates of fascism and self-destructed.

The theologian and philosopher Paul Tillich, a close friend of Adams, was fired from his teaching post and blacklisted ten weeks after the Nazis came to power in January 1933. Tillich’s book “The Socialist Decision” was immediately banned by the Nazis. Tillich, a Lutheran pastor, along with the sociologist Karl Mannheim and the philosopher Max Horkheimer, who wrote “Eclipse of Reason” which examines the rise of authoritarianism, were branded as “enemies of the Reich,” blacklisted and forced into exile. The 1933 “Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service” saw all Jewish professors dismissed. The vast majority of academics cowered in fear or, as with the case of the philosopher Martin Heidegger, joined the Nazi Party, which saw him appointed as the Rector of Freiburg University.

Adams saw in the Christian Right disturbing similarities with the German Christian Church, which was pro-Nazi. He was the first person I heard refer to the Christian Right as “Christian fascists.” He also warned us about universities and academics which, if the country fell into authoritarianism, would debase themselves to protect their status and privileges. Few would speak out or defy authority.

“If the Nazis took over America, 60 percent of the Harvard faculty would happily begin their lectures with the Nazi salute,” he quipped.

And this is where we are. None of the liberal institutions, including the universities, the commercial media and the Democratic Party, will defend us. They will remain supine, hypocritically betray their supposed principles and commitment to democracy or willingly transform themselves into apologists for the regime. The purges and silencing of our most courageous and accomplished intellectuals, writers, artists and journalists ­ begun before Trump’s return to the White House ­ is being expedited.

Resistance will be left to us. Enemies of the state.

Chris Hedges: Surrendering to Authoritarianism

Liberal institutions, including universities, traditionally surrender without a fight to the dictates of autocrats. Ours are no exception.

scheerpost.com

WORKERS MEMORIAL DAY • APRIL 28
https://aflcio.org/sites/default/files/2025-03/2512%20WMD%202025%20Toolkit%20v2.3.pdf
CONTENTS
Workers Memorial Day Flier 2025 (English) 1
Workers Memorial Day Flier 2025 (Spanish) 3
Sample Talking Points for Workers Memorial Day 2025 5
…Trump Administration’s Worker Safety and Health Record 2017–2021 7
Trump Administration’s Worker Safety and Health Record January–March 2025 9
Fact Sheet: Prevent Heat Illness and Injury in the Workplace 10
Fact Sheet: Protect Workers from Violence on the Job 12
Fact Sheet: Right to Work Makes Workplaces More Dangerous Sample Workers Memorial Day Proclamation Sample Workers Memorial Day Resolution Sample 2025 Workers Memorial Day Letters to the Editor Sample 2025 Workers Memorial Day Media Advisory Template Sample 2025 Workers Memorial Day Event Press Release Template Sample 2025 Latino Workers Memorial Day Media Advisory Template (English) Sample 2025 Latino Workers Memorial Day Media Advisory Template (Spanish) 13
15
16
17
20
21
22
23
Sample 2025 Latino Workers Memorial Day Event
Press Release Template (English) 24
Sample 2025 Latino Workers Memorial Day Event
Press Release Template (Spanish) 25
Safety and Health Facts, 2025 Profile of Workplace Safety and Health in the United States U.S.- and Foreign-Born Latino Worker Fatalities by State, 2023 Examples of Workers Memorial Day Events Workers Memorial Day Fatality Data Guide 26
30
34
35
36Fight for
Our Lives:
Safe Jobs Now!
Nearly 55 years ago on April 28, Workers Memorial
Day, the Occupational Safety and Health Act went
into effect, promising every worker the right to a safe
job—our fundamental right.
The law was won because of the tireless efforts of the
labor movement, which organized for safer working
conditions and demanded action from the government
to protect working people. Since then, unions and
allies have fought hard to make that promise a reality—
winning protections under the law that have made jobs
safer and saved lives. But all of that is in serious danger
as elected leaders threaten to cut staff, defund or
outright eliminate federal job safety agencies.
THE SITUATION IS DIRE. EACH DAY, more than 340
workers are killed and more than 6,000 suffer injury
and illness because of dangerous working conditions
that are preventable. Job safety agency resources
already are critically underfunded: It would take the
federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration
(OSHA) 185 years to inspect every workplace once, and
Congress only allows the agency to spend less than
$4 protecting each worker it’s responsible for. Cuts to
hazard investigations and coal mine inspectors take us
back decades and harm workers.
MANY OF OUR HARD-WON WORKPLACE
SAFETY AND HEALTH RIGHTS ARE UNDER
THREAT. Working people have fought for our rights
for decades and still do every day—from the shop
floor to the halls of government. But now under the
Trump administration, new anti-regulatory attacks—
such as executive orders and removal of important
information from OSHA’s website—threaten the
gains we have won, and will prevent OSHA and the
Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) from
setting needed job safety standards and enforcing
the law. Funding and staffing cuts will make oversight
on businesses nearly impossible. When no one is
watching, many employers fail to do the right thing.
OUR JOB IS NOT FINISHED. We must protect
the rights we have won and keep fighting for
safer working conditions. Our nation’s job safety
laws are dangerously weak, allowing scores of
employers to violate the law without consequence
or repercussion. OSHA penalties still are too low to
be a deterrent. Employers retaliate against workers
who speak out against unsafe working conditions.
Workers still cannot freely join a union without
retaliation threats from their employers. Black,
Latino and immigrant workers are killed on the job at
higher rates than others. Heat, workplace violence,
infectious diseases and chemical exposures are
dangerous and uncontrolled hazards that need
to be addressed.
TOGETHER ON THIS WORKERS MEMORIAL DAY,
we fight for our lives and confront attacks on safety
and health agencies that keep our workplaces safe—
and we demand action for independent oversight.
We hold employers accountable to keep workers safe.
We demand more—not fewer—government resources
to do this. We demand dignity at work.
Across the United States, workers will organize for
strong health and safety standards from employers and
governments to improve working conditions. A seat at
the bargaining table can be a matter of life or death in
the workplace, securing a better livelihood and safer
future for workers and our families.
WE WILL FIGHT FOR OUR LIVES in the halls of
government and on the shop floor. We will fight to
protect our fundamental right to a safe job. Our nation’s
strength depends on safe workplaces and workers who
can return home to their families at the end of each shift.
ORDER WORKERS MEMORIAL DAY POSTERS AND STICKERS FOR YOUR EVENT
OBSERVE WORKERS MEMORIAL DAY n APRIL 28MOURN FOR
MOURN FOR
THE DEAD
THE DEAD
FIGHT FOR
FIGHT FOR
THE LIVING
THE LIVING
W
O
W
O
8
8
2
2
E M O R
K
R
E
K
R
E
S
R
S
M
M
E M O L
I
R
R
L
I
•
A
P
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A
P
D
L
A
D
Y
A
Y
R I A
R I A L
FOR ADDITIONAL
FOR ADDITIONAL
INFORMATION,
INFORMATION,
CONTACT
CONTACT
AFL-CIO Safety
AFL-CIO Safety
and Health
and Health
815 Black Lives
815 Black Lives
Matter Plaza NW
Matter Plaza NW
Washington, DC
Washington, DC
20006
20006
WEB
WEB
aflcio.org/
aflcio.org/
WorkersMemorialDay
WorkersMemorialDay
EMAIL
EMAIL
oshmail@aflcio.org
oshmail@aflcio.org
PHONE
PHONE
202-637-5047
202-637-5047
#1uSafety
#1uSafety
#WorkersMemorialDay
#WorkersMemorialDay
#IWMD2025
#IWMD2025
Workers Memorial Day—April 28, 2025
As we grieve those we have lost from unsafe working conditions, we must fight to
protect our right to a safe job. We must:
l Defend hard-won safety and health protections and workers’ rights from attacks.
l Oppose cuts in job safety staff and funding.
l Demand strong enforcement of all job safety laws.
l Hold our elected leaders accountable for any actions that weaken workers’ right
to a safe job.
l Win new protections against heat illness, workplace violence, silica exposure in
mining, infectious diseases, exposure to asbestos and other toxic chemicals, and
other preventable hazardous exposures.
l Increase efforts to protect Black, Latino and immigrant workers who are
disproportionately affected by and especially targeted for speaking up against
unsafe working conditions.
l Guarantee all workers have a voice on the job to raise safety concerns and the right
to freely form a union without employer interference or intimidation.
l Pass the Protecting America’s Workers Act (PAWA) to provide OSHA protection to the
millions of workers without it, stronger criminal and civil penalties for companies that
violate job safety and health laws, and improved anti-retaliation protections.
Plan and Share Your
Workers Memorial Day Event
l Organize a campaign to call for stronger safety and health protections using
our digital toolkit. Demand that elected officials put workers’ well-being over
corporate interests.
l Organize an event at your workplace to stand together to protect the fundamental
right to a safe job for every worker and hold your employer accountable for
keeping you safe.
l Hold a candlelight vigil, memorial service or moment of silence to remember those
who have died on the job, and highlight job safety problems in your community.
l Host events with members of Congress in their districts. Involve injured workers
and family members who can talk firsthand about the need for strong safety and
health protections, the ability to speak up against unsafe working conditions, and to
join together in union to keep workplaces safe. Invite local religious and community
leaders and other allies to participate in the event.
l Conduct workshops to train and empower workers to report job safety hazards and
exercise workplace rights. Invite union members, nonunion workers and community
allies to participate.
l Create a new memorial site at a workplace or in a community where workers have
been killed on the job.
l Create and share a photo and storyboard campaign on social media to remember
workers who have been killed on the job.
l Invite the press to your Workers Memorial Day events to increase public awareness
of the dangers working people face on the job.
l Continue to hold our leaders and employers accountable to provide safe working
conditions. As a labor movement, we mourn for the dead and fight for the living on
April 28 and every day of the year.
Order Workers Memorial Day posters and stickers for your event. An event planning
toolkit is coming soon, including state safety and health profiles and sample
communication materials.La lucha por
nuestras vidas:
¡TRABAJOS SEGUROS YA!
Hace casi 55 años, el 28 de abril, que es el Día de Conmemoración
Nuestro trabajo no ha terminado. Debemos proteger los
derechos que nos hemos ganado y seguir luchando por
condiciones laborales más seguras. Las leyes sobre seguridad
del trabajo de nuestra nación son peligrosamente débiles y
permiten que muchos empleadores violen la ley sin que haya
consecuencias ni repercusiones. Los castigos son todavía muy
bajos como para disuadir. Los empleadores toman represalias
contra los trabajadores que alzan la voz ante condiciones
de trabajo peligrosas. Los trabajadores todavía no pueden
afiliarse libremente a una unión sindical sin amenazas de
represalias de sus patrones. Los trabajadores de raza negra,
morena e inmigrantes mueren en el empleo en cantidades
mayores que otros. El calor, la violencia en el centro de trabajo,
las enfermedades infecciosas y las exposiciones químicas
constituyen peligros sin control que necesitan ser solucionados.
Juntos, en este Día de Conmemoración del Trabajador Caído,
luchamos por nuestras vidas y confrontamos los ataques a las agencias
de seguridad y salud que mantienen a salvo nuestros centros de trabajo,
y exigimos medidas para que haya una supervisión independiente.
Hacemos que los empleadores se responsabilicen de mantener a salvo
a los trabajadores. Exigimos más, no menos recursos del Gobierno para
hacerlo. Exigimos dignidad en el trabajo.
Por todas partes de Estados Unidos, los trabajadores se organizarán para
tener normas sólidas de salud y seguridad de los empleadores y de los
gobiernos, a fin de mejorar las condiciones de trabajo. Tener un lugar
en la mesa de negociaciones puede ser cuestión de vida o muerte en el
trabajo. Puede asegurar una mejor vida y un futuro con menos riesgos
para los obreros y nuestras familias.
Lucharemos por nuestras vidas en el salón gubernamental y en
el plantel de trabajo. Lucharemos por proteger nuestro derecho
fundamental a un trabajo sin riesgos. La fuerza de nuestra nación
depende de centros de trabajo a salvo de riesgos, y de que, al final de
cada turno, los trabajadores puedan regresar a casa con sus familias.
del Trabajador Caído, entró en vigor la Ley de Seguridad y Salud
Ocupacional, con la promesa del derecho de todo trabajador a un
trabajo a salvo de riesgos: un derecho fundamental.
La ley fue ganada gracias a los esfuerzos incansables del movimiento
sindical, el cual se organizó para lograr condiciones de trabajo más
seguras y que exigió al Gobierno medidas para proteger a las y los
trabajadores. Desde entonces, las organizaciones sindicales y nuestros
aliados hemos luchado duramente por hacer realidad esa promesa y
ganar por ley protecciones que han hecho los empleos más seguros
y que han salvado vidas. Pero todo eso está en grave peligro, pues
los dirigentes electos amenazan con hacer recortes de personal
y desfinanciar a las agencias federales de protecciones laborales o
abiertamente eliminarlas.
La situación es grave. CADA DÍA, más de 340 trabajadores mueren y
más de 6 mil quedan lesionados y enfermos por situaciones peligrosas
de trabajo que se pueden prevenir. Los recursos de protección laboral de
las agencias sufren ya una carencia de recursos crucial: se requerirían
185 años para que la OSHA (la Administración de Seguridad y Salud
Ocupacional) pudiera inspeccionar todos los sitios de trabajo una vez,
y el Congreso sólo le permite a la agencia gastar menos de $4.00 en la
protección de cada trabajador del que se hace cargo. Los recortes a las
investigaciones de los peligros y a los inspectores de minas de carbón
nos hacen retroceder décadas y perjudican a los trabajadores.
Muchos de nuestros derechos a la seguridad y la salud,
duramente ganados, están bajo amenaza. Los trabajadores
han luchado durante décadas por nuestros derechos, y aún
lo hacen cada día, desde los planteles de trabajo hasta los
vestíbulos y salones gubernamentales. Pero ahora, bajo el
gobierno de Trump, los nuevos ataques a las regulaciones—
tales como las órdenes ejecutivas y la eliminación de información
importante del sitio de la OSHA—amenazan los logros que nos
hemos ganado. Además, le impedirán a la OSHA y a la MSHA
(Administración de Seguridad y Salud de las Minas) establecer las
necesarias normas de seguridad laboral y hacer cumplir la ley.
Las reducciones a los fondos y al personal hará casi imposible
supervisar los negocios. Cuando nadie los está mirando, muchos
empleadores no hacen lo correcto.
DÍA DE CONMEMORACIÓN DEL TRABAJADOR CAÍDO
OBSERVEMOS EL DÍA DE CONMEMORACIÓN DEL TRABAJADOR CAÍDO.
APRIL 28HONREMOS
A LOS
MUERTOS
LUCHEMOS
POR LOS
VIVOS
DÍA DE CONMEMORACIÓN DEL
TRABAJADOR CAÍDO • 28 DE ABRIL
PARA OBTENER MÁS
INFORMACIÓN, PÓNGASE
EN CONTACTO CON:
Departamento de Salud
y Seguridad de la AFL-CIO
815 Black Lives Matter
Plaza NW
Washington, DC 20006
SITIO WEB:
aflcio.org/
WorkersMemorialDay
CORREO ELECTRÓNICO:
oshmail@aflcio.org
TELÉFONO:
202-637-5047
#1uSafety
#WorkersMemorialDay
#IWMD2025
Día de Conmemoración del Trabajador Caído:
28 de abril de 2025
Mientras lamentamos a las personas que hemos perdido por las condiciones peligrosas en el lugar de trabajo,
debemos luchar para proteger nuestro derecho a un empleo sin riesgos. Debemos lograr lo siguiente:
l Defender las protecciones duramente ganadas para la seguridad y la salud y los derechos de los trabajadores.
l Oponerse a las reducciones de personal y financiamiento para la seguridad ocupacional.
l Exigir un fuerte cumplimiento de todas las leyes de seguridad ocupacional.
l Hacer que nuestros dirigentes electos rindan cuentas por cualquier acción que debilite el derecho del
trabajador a un empleo seguro.
l Ganar nuevas protecciones contra las enfermedades por calor, la violencia en el lugar de trabajo, la exposición
a la sílice en la minería, las enfermedades infecciosas, la exposición al asbesto y a otras sustancias químicas
tóxicas, y demás exposiciones peligrosas que se pueden evitar.
l Aumentar los esfuerzos para proteger a los trabajadores de raza negra, morena e inmigrantes que son
afectados desproporcionadamente por alzar la voz contra las condiciones de peligro en el trabajo.
l Garantizar que todos los trabajadores puedan levantar la voz en el trabajo para plantear preocupaciones
de seguridad además de tener el derecho de formar libremente una unión o sindicato sin interferencia ni
intimidación del empleador.
l Aprobar la ley PAWA (Ley para Proteger a los Trabajadores de Estados Unidos) para brindar una protección
de la OSHA a los millones de trabajadores que no la tienen, así como para dar castigos penales y civiles más
fuertes a las empresas que infringen las leyes de seguridad en el empleo, y mejores protecciones contra las
represalias.
Planifica y difunde tu evento del Día
del Trabajador Caído
l Utilizando nuestra caja de herramientas digitales, organiza una campaña llamando a que haya protecciones
más fuertes a la seguridad y la salud. Exige que los funcionarios electos pongan el bienestar de los
trabajadores por encima de los intereses de los negocios corporativos.
l Organiza un evento en tu lugar de trabajo para, juntos, defender la protección al derecho fundamental a un
empleo seguro para todo trabajador, y para que tu empleador rinda cuentas por mantenerlos a ustedes a
salvo.
l Organicen una vigilia con velas o un servicio conmemorativo, o un minuto de silencio en honor a los que han
muerto en el trabajo, y destaquen los problemas de seguridad ocupacional en su comunidad.
l Organicen un evento con congresistas en sus distritos. Incluyan la participación de trabajadores lesionados
y familiares que puedan hablar de primera mano sobre la necesidad de tener protecciones de seguridad y
salud más fuertes, la capacidad de denunciar condiciones de trabajo peligrosas, y de unirse como sindicato
para mantener a salvo los centros de trabajo. Invita a líderes religiosos y comunitarios y a otros aliados a que
participen en el evento.
l Hagan talleres para capacitar y dar a los trabajadores el poder de reportar peligros de seguridad en el empleo,
y de ejercer sus derechos en el centro de trabajo. Inviten a participar a trabajadores sindicalizados y no
sindicalizados y a los aliados de la comunidad.
l Crea un nuevo sitio conmemorativo en un centro de trabajo o en una comunidad donde algún trabajador o
trabajadora haya perdido la vida en el empleo.
l Crea y divulga en redes sociales un guión gráfico de una campaña, incluyendo fotografías digitales, para
recordar a los trabajadores que han muerto en el trabajo.
l Inviten a la prensa a sus eventos del Día del Trabajador Caído para incrementar la conciencia pública sobre los
peligros que enfrentan los trabajadores en el empleo.
l Continúa haciendo que nuestros mandatarios y nuestros empleadores rindan cuentas y proporcionen así
condiciones de trabajo a salvo de riesgos. Como movimiento laboral, nosotros honramos a los muertos y
luchamos por los vivos el 28 de abril y todos los días del año.
Ordena carteles y calcomanías del Día de Conmemoración del Trabajador Caído para tu evento. Pronto
habrá un paquete de herramientas para planificación con perfiles de cada estado de seguridad
y salud y ejemplos de materiales de comunicación.SAMPLE TALKING POINTS FOR
WORKERS MEMORIAL DAY 2025
FIGHT FOR OUR LIVES: SAFE JOBS NOW!
• On April 28, 1971, the Occupational Safety and Health Act went into effect, promising every
worker the fundamental right to a safe job. (In 1989, the AFL-CIO chose this date to observe
Workers Memorial Day.)
• The labor movement and its allies won the law in 1970 through relentless advocacy,
amplifying work-related deaths, diseases and injuries, organizing for safer working conditions
and demanding the government take action.
• For more than 50 years, unions and our allies have fought tirelessly to fulfill that promise —
winning workplace protections and federal and state regulations that have made jobs safer
and saved lives. But there is much more work to be done moving forward.
• Each year, hundreds of thousands of workers are killed and millions more suffer injury
or illness because of their jobs. Far too many workers die from preventable hazards and
become ill from exposure to toxic chemicals—and these chronic exposures are becoming
more common.
• Black and Latino workers have higher job fatality rates and disproportionate exposures to
job safety and health hazards. Workers of color are often employed in dangerous industries
where they are exploited and retaliated against by their employers.
• Immigrant workers are especially vulnerable due to their immigration status.
• Child labor laws are under attack and being weakened as corporations exploit children in
dangerous jobs rather than fix the hazards that make workplaces safer for all workers.
• Workers and their families pay the price with their lives and livelihoods as these injuries,
illnesses and deaths are preventable!
• Unions fight for safe jobs for everyone—regardless of race, gender, employment relationship
or background. We fight for strong standards and employer practices to save lives. We
educate workers on their rights to keep us from being silenced.
• This year, workers’ rights to a safe job are under enormous threat. Anti-regulatory attacks
would remove protections that have been on the books for decades—protections we often
take for granted.
• President Trump is slashing government funding, reducing the federal workforce and
granting Elon Musk access to workers’ confidential information.
• Federal worker safety inspectors risk being fired, threatening their critical role in holding bad-
acting employers accountable.
• Regulations are vital worker protections, yet corporations are attempting to dismantle them.
Hard-won safety rules, such as the asbestos ban and the silica rule to protect miners, are
under threat from anti-worker corporatists Trump has handpicked to lead the Occupational
Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the Mine Safety and Health Administration
(MSHA).
AFL-CIO • Workers Memorial Day Toolkit 5• As attacks on regulations, enforcement and the government workers who protect us
escalate, we are fighting for our very lives.
• Corporations exploit weaknesses in our job safety laws and the lack of oversight resources,
putting workers in danger. Employers cut corners and blame workers, yet refuse to address
the root causes of unsafe workplaces for the sake of profit.
• Workers have had enough of watching their co-workers injured in the name of corporate
greed.
• As we grow our movement, we must use our voices to advocate for a strong, inclusive
workplace safety agenda to ensure all people have the opportunity for a better life.
• Too many employers and workers never see OSHA in the workplace. Penalties still are too
low to be a deterrent. Workers are not adequately protected from retaliation to speak out
against unsafe working conditions.
• We need employers to be held accountable through stronger criminal and civil penalties
for companies that seriously violate job safety laws.
• Workers must be able to choose their own representation during an OSHA inspection to
provide health and safety expertise on their behalf.
• We are fighting to hold onto safety agency budgets and resources, to expand their
enforcement and standard-setting efforts to protect the safety and health of all workers.
• We must win new protections from heat illness, workplace violence, infectious diseases,
toxic chemicals and other hazards.
• This Workers Memorial Day, we will mourn for the dead and fight for the living. We will
remember those who have suffered and died on the job, and those who are struggling with
chronic illnesses from workplace exposures. We will fight for our lives and fight for safe
jobs now!
AFL-CIO Safety and Health, March 2025
AFL-CIO • Workers Memorial Day Toolkit 6TRUMP ADMINISTRATION’S WORKER SAFETY
AND HEALTH RECORD 2017–2021
Rollbacks and Repeals
• Repealed OSHA rule requiring employers to keep accurate injury records (H.J.Res. 83).
• Repealed Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces rule to hold federal contractors accountable for
obeying safety and labor laws (H.J.Res. 37).
• Issued Executive Order 13771 requiring that for every new protection, two existing safeguards
must be repealed.
• Issued Executive Order 13777 requiring agencies to identify regulations that are burdensome
to industry that should be repealed or modified.
• Revoked most of the requirements of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) rule to
prevent chemical accidents, putting workers, the public and first responders in danger, after
delaying the original implementation for more than two years.
• Proposed federal budgets that would slash the Department of Labor’s budget; cut coal mine
enforcement; eliminate worker safety and health training programs; eliminate the Chemical
Safety Board; and reduce NIOSH’s job safety research under the CDC.
• Eliminated protections against dermal and emergency exposures in OSHA’s beryllium
standard for shipyard and construction workers, after delaying the effective date and
enforcement of the rule in all sectors. This rollback followed a previously unsuccessful
attempt to eliminate many protections for these workers while keeping them for others,
which ultimately was deemed to be “inconsistent with OSHA’s statutory mandate to protect
workers.”
• Weakened key provisions of MSHA’s mine examination rule for metal and nonmetal mines
after delaying the rule for months.
Delaying and Abandoning Protections
• Delayed enforcement of OSHA’s silica standard in construction for 90 days until Sept. 23,
2017, and full enforcement until Oct. 23, 2017, allowing continued high exposures to deadly
silica dust.
• Revoked the requirement for large employers to report detailed injury data to OSHA, after
delaying the requirement for all employers to submit summary injury data to the agency.
• Abandoned work on more than a dozen new OSHA rules, including rules on styrene,
combustible dust and noise in construction.
• Suspended work on new OSHA standards on infectious diseases, process safety
management, workplace violence to protect workers in health care and social assistance, and
emergency planning to protect first responders.
• Withdrew OSHA’s walkaround policy that gave nonunion workers the right to have a
representative participate in OSHA inspections.
• Reviewed MSHA’s coal dust standard to determine whether it should be modified to be less
burdensome on industry.
AFL-CIO • Workers Memorial Day Toolkit 7• Abandoned work on new MSHA rules for civil penalties and refuge alternatives in coal
mines, and suspended work on new standards on proximity detection systems for mobile
mining equipment and on the crisis silica-related lung disease among miners.
• Proposed to revoke child labor protections for 16- and 17-year-olds working in health care
that restricted the operation of powered patient lifting devices.
• Undermined the federal risk assessment process in order to issue weaker protections for
workers against chemicals, despite Congress’ bipartisan mandate to treat workers as a
vulnerable group that needed enhanced protections.
• Refused to address worker exposures to asbestos, methylene chloride and other hazards
in implementing the new toxic chemicals control law.
• Refused to include exposures to “legacy” asbestos in its risk assessment, until directed by
a scientific committee to do so.
Limiting Access to Information and Input, and Undermining Workplace
Safety Agencies
• Replaced OSHA’s inspection weighting system, discouraging complex and serious
inspections, such as investigating chronic health exposures to chemicals, ergonomics, heat
and workplace violence.
• Stopped posting information on all worker fatalities reported to OSHA.
• Refused to make public employer injury data reported to OSHA, even though similar data
has been posted on OSHA’s website for years, until a court ordered it to do so.
• Proposed strict data limitations on all scientific studies used to create EPA standards under
the disguise of transparency.
• Disbanded OSHA’s Federal Advisory Council on Occupational Safety and Health Safety
and Health and Whistleblower Protection Advisory Committee.
• Issued a final rule on “Promoting Regulatory Openness Through Good Guidance,” which
adds internal layers of DOL review and public notice and comment for the release of
nonrulemaking information and guidance.
• Failed to fill the top OSHA position and four of five seats on the U.S. Chemical Safety
Board.
Prepared by the AFL-CIO, January 2021
AFL-CIO • Workers Memorial Day Toolkit 8TRUMP ADMINISTRATION’S WORKER SAFETY AND
HEALTH RECORD JANUARY–MARCH 2025
Undermining Workplace Safety Agencies and Inspectors
• Withdrew job offers for 90 mine safety inspector positions across the country, putting the
agency’s ability to conduct mandatory inspections in serious jeopardy.
• Terminated leases for 29 MSHA field offices that are critical for enforcing mine safety and
health regulations.
• Illegally fired Department of Labor probationary employees, who were reinstated by the
courts.
• Proposed to slash job safety agency budgets, which would decrease capacity for job safety
enforcement, issuing protections and processing worker complaints.
• Issued an executive order stripping the independence from independent federal agencies
that serve as workers’ safeguards against employers who challenge organizing drives and
who retaliate against workers for speaking up about unsafe working conditions.
• Issued an executive order granting the “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) access
to workers’ personal information, claims and complaints; access to safety investigations of
Elon Musk’s companies; and access to Musk’s competitors’ information and confidential
business information.
• Nominated corporate executives—often from dangerous industries that have not followed the
law—to run government worker safety agencies.
Delaying and Abandoning Protections
• Issued an executive order requiring that whenever an agency promulgates a new rule,
regulation or guidance, it must identify at least 10 existing ones to repeal.
• Issued an executive order freezing all final rules that were not yet in effect.
• Announced plans to revise the Environmental Protection Agency’s protective framework for
evaluating risks to chemicals like asbestos.
• Announced plans to address significant nationwide bird flu outbreaks only through an
economic approach, rather than human or animal health.
Limiting Access to Information and Input
• Wrongly removed critical safety information from OSHA’s website referring to “diverse”
construction industries and “gender” and age considerations for respirator protection.
• Directed federal health agencies to freeze external communications and to stop publishing
material in the Federal Register, which prevented critical health information from reaching the
public.
• Halted federal advisory committee meetings, the longstanding committees for workers,
employers, and safety and health experts to guide the Occupational Safety and Health
Administration and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
• Withdrew the United States from the World Health Organization.
Prepared by the AFL-CIO, March 2025
AFL-CIO • Workers Memorial Day Toolkit 9PREVENT HEAT ILLNESS AND INJURY
IN THE WORKPLACE
The summer of 2024 was the hottest ever recorded. As record-shattering temperatures become
more commonplace, it remains evident that heat exposure in the workplace will be an ever-
increasing issue. Working in excessively hot and humid conditions, whether outdoors or indoors,
leaves American workers vulnerable to such heat-related illnesses as heat stress, heat exhaustion,
heat cramps, heat rash, heat syncope and heat stroke, which can result in death.
Without preventive measures in place, each year dozens of workers die and thousands more
become ill from heat exposure. The risk from occupational heat exposures is increasing as the
global temperature is rising; strong, enforceable standards are needed to protect workers.
QUICK FACTS:
• Between 1992 and 2022, heat stress killed 986 workers and caused 38,000 serious lost-
time injuries and illnesses.
• In 2023, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that 55 workers died from exposure to
environmental heat, a 28% increase from the previous year—and that is expected to be an
underestimate.
• Workplace injuries and illnesses from heat exposures often are not reported, so the true
toll is unknown.
• More than half of occupational heat fatalities occur during a worker’s first few days of
working in hot conditions.
• Hot working conditions contribute to other injuries due to slippery sweat, fogging personal
protective equipment, dizziness, and hot tools and equipment.
But occupational heat illness and injury is preventable. Workplace heat illness and injury
prevention plans:
• Are tailored to specific workplaces and employee populations.
• Prevent heat exposure through commonsense control measures.
• Require employers to monitor the temperature and implement prevention measures, report
heat-related illnesses and injuries, and regularly evaluate policies and procedures.
• Ensure workers have access to water and shade and cool-down areas, and require
adequate breaks to prevent overheating and acclimatize workers to working in hot
environments.
• Require training workers and supervisors to recognize the signs and symptoms of heat
illness and the importance of prevention measures.
1
U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics. Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries 2023 data; Survey of Occupational
Injuries and Illnesses 2023 data.
AFL-CIO • Workers Memorial Day Toolkit 10In the absence of a federal occupational heat protection standard, several states have issued
enforceable standards to protect workers from heat illness, including California (outdoor and
indoor), Colorado (in agriculture), Maryland (outdoor and indoor), Minnesota (indoor only), Nevada
(indoor and outdoor), Oregon (indoor and outdoor) and Washington (outdoor only, indoor coming
soon)—but the majority of workers across the country remain unprotected. New Mexico is
expected to issue a final OSHA heat standard by summer 2025. Texas and Florida have issued
policies preventing local jurisdictions from requiring water and rest breaks.
Enforceable standards are needed to protect workers from overexposure to hot working
conditions.
• Tell Congress to pass the Asunción Valdivia Heat Illness, Injury, and Fatality Prevention
Act to ensure federal OSHA issues a strong final heat rule.
• Urge states to implement strong, enforceable heat protections.
• Support employers in developing effective heat illness and injury prevention plans.
AFL-CIO Safety and Health, March 2025
AFL-CIO • Workers Memorial Day Toolkit 11PROTECT WORKERS FROM
VIOLENCE ON THE JOB
TELL CONGRESS TO PROTECT WORKERS FROM VIOLENCE ON THE JOB
• Workplace violence is a serious and emerging problem for workers in America.
• Workplace violence is one of the leading causes of death on the job. One out of
every seven workplace deaths results from workplace violence—more than from toxic
exposures, or fires and explosions.
• Workplace violence is responsible for more than 130,000 serious, lost-time injuries
annually and for 740 fatalities in 2023. Homicides accounted for 61.9% of all violent acts
and 8.7% of all work-related fatalities in 2023.
• Health care and social service workers are at greatest risk of violence on the job because
of direct contact with patients and clients.
• In the last 15 years, the rate of serious workplace violence injuries increased by 57% in
health care and social assistance settings.
• Workplace violence is foreseeable and preventable.
• A federal OSHA workplace violence standard is needed to protect health care and social
service workers from preventable injuries and deaths.
The Workplace Violence Prevention for Health Care and Social Service Workers Act would
require the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to issue a workplace violence
prevention standard, requiring employers in the health care and social service sectors to develop
and implement a plan to protect their employees from workplace violence. The legislation has
passed the U.S. House of Representatives in previous congressional sessions with bipartisan
support. Congress must act on this legislation now.
WORKPLACE VIOLENCE PREVENTION PLANS:
• Are tailored to specific workplaces and employee populations.
• Require identification and control of hazards, improved reporting, training workers and
management, and evaluating policies and procedures.
• Lead to such workplace improvements as emergency response systems, surveillance and
monitoring systems, improved lighting, and safe staffing levels or other strategies identified
by the employers and employees to keep workers safe.
An enforceable OSHA standard is necessary to prevent foreseeable, serious and life-altering
violence against workers in hospitals, nursing homes and social service settings. Keeping
workers safe from violence on the job also will protect patients.
• Nearly 30 years ago, OSHA issued voluntary guidance to employers outlining effective
ways to prevent violence in these settings, but the problem has only worsened. Voluntary
guidelines are not sufficient. Some states, including California and New York, have passed
standards to protect workers from violence, but federal OSHA has been slow to make
progress, and has been in the pre-rulemaking stage for more than five years.
1 U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics. Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries 2023 data; Survey of Occupational
Injuries and Illnesses 2021–2022 data. Excludes animal- and insect-related incidents.
AFL-CIO Safety and Health, March 2025
AFL-CIO • Workers Memorial Day Toolkit 12RIGHT TO WORK MAKES WORKPLACES
MORE DANGEROUS
“Right to work” laws make it easier for CEOs to weaken health and safety protections for
workers, increasing the burdens on working families. Workers in states with these laws have
lower wages, reduced access to health insurance and face higher poverty and infant mortality
rates. Their children attend lower-funded schools. Without strong unions advocating for safety at
the workplace, enforcement of safety and health laws will be weakened, leading workplaces to
become more dangerous.
Right to Work Would Increase Job Fatalities and Injuries
In 2023, a total of 5,283 workers died on the job and millions of workers were seriously injured.1,2
Health care workers in hospitals and nursing homes who care for patients and the elderly suffer
high rates of injury, as do warehouse workers and public employees like police and firefighters.3
Workers in right to work states are in greater danger than other workers in the United States.
Workers in states with right to work laws have a 56% greater risk of dying on the job than workers
in states without these laws.4
Right to Work Would Weaken Enforcement of Critical Safety and Health Protections
Unions ensure enforcement of safety standards that reduce workplace deaths and injuries,
but right to work will weaken unions’ ability to see that employers follow job safety laws. Unions
bargain for safety standards and rights that are stronger than those of the Occupational Safety and
Health Administration (OSHA), and enforce these protections through their collective bargaining
agreements. Union contracts protect workers from retaliation for raising job safety concerns, and
give workers the right to refuse unsafe work that poses a danger to them and their co-workers.
Unions provide training and education to workers about safety and health hazards. And through
workplace safety and health committees, union members help to identify hazardous conditions
and work to get them corrected. It is well documented that union workplaces have much stronger
enforcement of job safety laws than nonunion workplaces.5,6
1
2
3
4
5
6
Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). National Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries in 2023. BLS.gov/news.release/pdf/cfoi.pdf.
Bureau of Labor Statistics. Table 2. Numbers of nonfatal occupational injuries and illnesses by industry and case types, 2022–23.
BLS.gov/news.release/osh.t02.htm.
Bureau of Labor Statistics. Table 2. Incidence rates of nonfatal occupational injuries and illnesses by case types, 2022–23. BLS.
gov/news.release/osh.t02.htm.
Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). National Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries in 2023. BLS.gov/news.release/pdf/cfoi.pdf.
Weil, David. 1991. “Enforcing OSHA: The Role of Labor Unions.” Industrial Relations, Vol. 30, No. 1 (Winter), pp. 20–36. Available at
fissuredworkplace.net/assets/Weil.Enforcing-OSHA-Role-of-Unions.IR.1991.pdf.
Weil, David. 1996. “Regulating the Workplace: The Vexing Problem of Implementation.” Advances in Industrial and Labor Relations,
Vol. 7, pp. 247–286.
AFL-CIO • Workers Memorial Day Toolkit 13Union workplaces are safer than nonunion workplaces. States with high union density are among
the safest: Fourteen states rank in the top 20 in both union density and lowest rates of workplace
fatalities.7,8 States with higher union densities have significantly lower rates of construction
fatalities.9 In the mining industry, unionized mines have made much greater progress in reducing
serious injuries and fatalities than nonunion mines, and have lower rates of traumatic injuries and
fatalities. An in-depth study of mine safety data found that the presence of a union was responsible
for a 14% to 32% drop in traumatic injuries and a 29% to 84% drop in fatalities from 1993–2010.10
Unions ensure safe and healthy working conditions for public employees. More than 8.1 million
state and local public employees in 23 states in the United States are afforded no safety and
health coverage under current OSHA law. This makes unions even more vital to ensure health and
safety protections for police, firefighters, teachers, health care workers and many other workers.
Government enforcement of job safety laws is already too weak. There were only 1,802
inspectors to inspect more than 11.8 million workplaces in the United States in 2024. This leaves
one inspector for every 85,000 workers, and OSHA the ability to only inspect workplaces, on
average, once every 166 years.11
Penalties for job safety and health violations are low. In FY 2024, the average state penalty for a
serious safety violation was only $2,581. The median state OSHA penalty for killing a worker was
only $8,435, too low to deter future violations and prevent injuries and deaths.12
Right to work weakens safety enforcement and makes workplaces
more dangerous.
7
8
9
10
11
12
Bureau of Labor Statistics. National Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries in 2023. BLS.gov/news.release/pdf/cfoi.pdf.
Bureau of Labor Statistics. Union affiliation of employed wage and salary workers by state, 2023. BLS.gov/news.release/union2.
t05.htm.
Zullo, Roland. 2011. “Right-to-Work Laws and Fatalities in Construction.” Institute for Research on Labor, Employment and the
Economy, University of Michigan, March 2011. Available at https://brill.com/view/journals/wusa/14/2/article-p225_8.xml
Morantz, Alison. 2013. “Coal Mine Safety: Do Unions Make a Difference?” Industrial & Labor Relations Review, Vol. 66, 1: pp.
88–116, January 2013. Available at web.stanford.edu/group/amorantz/papers/union_coal_mine_safety.pdf.
AFL-CIO Death on the Job Report. AFLCIO.org/dotj.
U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Safety and Health Administration. OIS Inspection Reports, FY 2023.
AFL-CIO • Workers Memorial Day Toolkit 14SAMPLE WORKERS MEMORIAL DAY
PROCLAMATION
AFL-CIO • Workers Memorial Day Toolkit 15SAMPLE WORKERS MEMORIAL DAY
RESOLUTION
AFL-CIO • Workers Memorial Day Toolkit 16SAMPLE 2025 WORKERS MEMORIAL DAY
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
TITLE: Mourn for the Dead, Fight for the Living
More than 50 years ago, Congress passed the Occupational Safety and Health Act, promising
every worker the right to a safe job. Working people have fought hard to make that promise a
reality—winning protections that have made jobs safer and saved thousands of lives.
Each day, more than 340 people across the United States die from on-the-job injuries and
illnesses, impacting their families’ lives and livelihoods on top of insurmountable loss. These
tragedies are entirely preventable through commonsense measures—and it’s our elected leaders’
duty to take responsibility and take action to strengthen worker protections.
On this Workers Memorial Day, April 28, working people in our community will gather to
commemorate those loved ones who have died, become injured or made ill because of their
job. We urge federal, state and local policymakers to provide worker protection agencies with
the resources and authority they need to establish strong standards and to enforce them against
dangerous conditions.
[STATE] working families and their unions are speaking out for our fundamental right to a safe job.
We must fight to defend our job safety rights from rollbacks and political attacks while renewing
the demand for stronger protections and safer working conditions.
Sincerely,
[NAME]
[HOMETOWN]
TITLE: Workers are Dying on the Job in [CITY/TOWN]. The Trump
Administration’s Actions are Putting Even More of Us at Risk.
Today is Workers Memorial Day, when workers, unions and our community remember each worker
who lost their life, or has been injured or made sick by their jobs—and come together to organize
for a safer future for all workers.
Workers organized, fought and died for the workplace protections we have now. But last year,
more than 125,000 workers in the United States died, and millions more suffered injury or illness
because of their jobs.
That number will only go up with new anti-worker attacks by the Trump administration. Efforts to
fire federal workers mean we will have fewer job safety inspectors to ensure corporations follow
the law. Efforts to undermine independent federal agencies erode workers’ only safeguard against
employers who endanger them or retaliate for reporting unsafe working conditions. Efforts to
give private corporations like Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) greater
AFL-CIO • Workers Memorial Day Toolkit 17influence over government health and safety protections have given them access to confidential
worker data and allowed them to restrict critical safety information that both workers and
employers need.
It is unacceptable that corporations are raking in record profits while workers continue to suffer
injuries, illnesses or even death on the job—without sufficient government protections. This is the
time to increase, not cut, the resources we need to protect workers on the job.
I’m calling on [SENATOR], [SENATOR] and [REPRESENTATIVE] to demand the Trump administration
preserve the workplace protections we’ve fought so hard for. I hope you’ll join me, in honor of our
fallen co-workers, family members and friends.
Sincerely,
[NAME]
[HOMETOWN]
TITLE: Musk and His “DOGE” are Putting Workers’ Lives at Risk
Today is Workers Memorial Day—a time for workers, unions and communities to remember those
who have lost their lives, been injured or fallen ill due to their jobs. This is a time for us to organize
for a safer future for all workers. The workplace protections we have today exist because workers
organized, fought and died for them. Yet each day in the United States, 14 workers lose their lives
on the job, and millions more suffer from work-related injuries or illnesses.
Job safety agencies play a critical role in protecting workers from unsafe working conditions,
and agencies such as the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) have open,
active investigations against Elon Musk’s companies. Yet, the Trump administration is granting
Musk, through the so-called, “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE), access to workers’
confidential data from safety investigations, workers’ compensation claims and other filings. This
is an outrageous breach of privacy that puts many workers at risk of retaliation and discourages
workers from wanting to come forward about unsafe working conditions. Additionally, it is unfair
to businesses, as it gives Musk unfettered access to confidential business information about his
competitors.
The government’s role is to protect workers from unsafe workplaces that inevitably lead to serious
injury, illness or even death on the job. But now, our entire worker protection structure is under
threat. I’m calling on [SENATOR], [SENATOR] and [REPRESENTATIVE] to demand that the Trump
administration uphold the workplace protections we’ve fought so hard to secure. I hope you’ll
stand with me to defend and restore the protections we need to survive.
Sincerely,
[NAME]
[HOMETOWN]
AFL-CIO • Workers Memorial Day Toolkit 18TITLE: An Injury to One is an Injury to All
[TODAY/THIS WEEK] is Workers Memorial Day, a day when working families, union members and
labor leaders come together to remember each worker killed, injured and sickened from their jobs,
and to organize for an end to these preventable deaths of our brothers and sisters.
Last year, more than 125,000 workers in the United States died and millions more suffered injury
or illness because of their jobs. Black, Latino and immigrant workers were disproportionately
killed and injured on the job. Immigration status and lack of union representation make workers
especially vulnerable to unsafe working conditions.
Immigrant workers are the backbone of America. They build our bridges and homes, grow our
food and maintain our schools. They deserve safe workplaces without the fear of deportation. On a
jobsite, we’re all in this together—and when one worker is at risk, everyone’s safety is in jeopardy.
Far too many workers die from preventable safety hazards. Safety at work is a fundamental right,
and the law requires employers to provide hazard-free workplaces for everyone. Unions are
fighting to protect workers’ lives and ensure safe jobs for everyone. We will defend against anti-
immigrant attacks and continue to fight in the halls of government for stronger standards and for
safer practices on the shop floor.
We won’t stop until every worker has the right to speak up against unsafe working conditions,
without retaliation and deportation for calling out a bad-acting employer who puts everyone at risk.
Because enough is enough.
Sincerely,
[NAME]
[HOMETOWN]
AFL-CIO • Workers Memorial Day Toolkit 19SAMPLE 2025 WORKERS MEMORIAL DAY
MEDIA ADVISORY TEMPLATE
For Planning Purposes: DATE, 2025
Contact: [NAME, EMAIL, PHONE]
MEDIA ADVISORY: Union Members, Leaders and Community Members
to Remember [STATE] Workers Who Lost Their Lives on the Job and
Demand Job Safety Protections
DAY, DATE, 2025
(CITY, STATE)—On [DAY], local workers, union officials and community leaders will gather at
[LOCATION/ONLINE] to commemorate Workers Memorial Day, to remember those who have died
and suffered illnesses or injuries on the job.
[EVENT PARTICIPANTS—WORKERS/FAMILY MEMBERS] will share their stories at the [EVENT/
ACTION] in remembrance of their co-workers, family members and friends. They will highlight the
ways in which the current administration’s weakening of job safety agencies like the Occupational
Safety and Health Administration undermines safety standards and enforcement, putting workers
in even greater danger. Additionally, they will call for fundamental job safety protections and the
freedom to join unions to ensure every worker can return home safely at the end of their shift.
WHAT: [IN-PERSON ACTION/VIRTUAL EVENT] to commemorate Workers Memorial Day
WHEN: [DATE AND TIME]
WHO: [LABOR LEADERS/LOCAL ELECTED OFFICIALS/WORKERS]
WHERE: [LOCATION/WEBSITE REGISTRATION/LOGIN or ACTION]
To schedule an interview with event speakers, please contact [NAME] at [PRESS CONTACT INFO].
###
AFL-CIO • Workers Memorial Day Toolkit 20SAMPLE 2025 WORKERS MEMORIAL DAY
EVENT PRESS RELEASE TEMPLATE
For Immediate Release [DATE]
Contact: [NAME, PHONE NUMBER]
[STATE] Workers Commemorate Workers Memorial Day,
Remember Workers Who Lost Their Lives on the Job and Demand
Job Safety Protections
[EVENT] Recognizes [#] [STATE] Workers Killed on the Job
(CITY, STATE)—Union members, labor leaders, elected officials and allies gathered today at
[LOCATION] for a[n] [EVENT] for Workers Memorial Day, to remember those who have died and
suffered illnesses or injuries on the job—including [RESIDENTS OF STATE]—in the past year.
The event featured [PROVIDE DETAILS ON EVENT/SPEAKERS], who spoke about how workers
and the labor movement won safety protections over time by demanding the government
hold corporations accountable to protect workers on the job and organizing for safer working
conditions. Workers warned that their hard-won progress is at serious risk as President Trump
threatens to cut staff, defund or outright eliminate federal job safety agencies, which would have
critical effects on [STATE’s] funding and our working people.
SAMPLE WORKER QUOTE, PLEASE FEEL FREE TO EDIT: “Safety on the job is our basic right.
Without oversight, many companies don’t just do the right thing; they’ll cut corners that put us in
danger. Every one of us should be able to go home safely to our families at the end of the day,”
said [WORKER SPEAKER], [TITLE]. “Workers have fought for the protections we have now with our
blood and sweat, but corporate billionaires are putting all that at risk.”
The latest data show that in one year, [#] workers were killed on the job in [STATE], while
thousands more suffered from preventable occupational illnesses and job injuries. Under the
Trump administration, new anti-worker attacks threaten to increase those numbers. Efforts to fire
federal workers means we will have fewer job safety inspectors to ensure corporations follow the
law. Efforts to undermine independent federal agencies erode workers’ only safeguard against
employers who endanger them or retaliate for reporting unsafe working conditions. Efforts to
give private corporations like Elon Musk’s greater influence over government health and safety
protections have given them access to confidential worker data and allowed them to restrict critical
safety information that both workers and employers need.
SAMPLE LABOR LEADER QUOTE, PLEASE FEEL FREE TO EDIT: “Workplace safety inspectors are
on the front lines of the fight for worker health and safety, being independent eyes and holding
corporations accountable when they break the law. Federal actions are moving in the wrong
direction on worker safety protections, which need to be strengthened, not weakened,” said
[LABOR LEADER SPEAKER], [TITLE] of [LOCAL UNION]. “Unions push for laws and enforcement
that keep workers safe, from the shop floor to the halls of government. We will not be satisfied until
the number of worker deaths on the job is zero.”
###
AFL-CIO • Workers Memorial Day Toolkit 21SAMPLE 2025 LATINO WORKERS MEMORIAL DAY
MEDIA ADVISORY TEMPLATE
For Planning Purposes: DATE, 2025
Contact: [NAME, EMAIL, PHONE]
MEDIA ADVISORY: Union Members, Leaders and Community Members to
Remember [STATE] Latino Workers Who Lost Their Lives on the Job and
Demand Job Safety Protections
DAY, DATE, 2025
(CITY, STATE)—On [DAY], local workers, union officials and community leaders will gather at
[LOCATION/ONLINE] to commemorate Workers Memorial Day, to remember Latino workers who
have died and suffered illnesses or injuries on the job.
[EVENT PARTICIPANTS—WORKERS/FAMILY MEMBERS] will share their stories at the [EVENT/
ACTION] in remembrance of their co-workers, family members and friends. They will highlight the
increased safety risks Latino workers face on the job, and the ways that attacks on Latino and
immigrant communities and weaker job safety enforcement make workplaces more dangerous for
everyone. Additionally, they will call for fundamental job safety protections and the freedom to join
unions to ensure every worker can return home safely at the end of their shift.
WHAT: [IN-PERSON ACTION/VIRTUAL EVENT] to commemorate Workers Memorial Day
WHEN: [DATE AND TIME]
WHO: [LABOR LEADERS/LOCAL ELECTED OFFICIALS/WORKERS]
WHERE: [LOCATION/WEBSITE REGISTRATION/LOGIN or ACTION]
To schedule an interview with event speakers, please contact [NAME] at [PRESS CONTACT INFO].

aflcio.org

aflcio.org

Trump’s assault on the rule of law: ‘the speed and intent is remarkable’ The US president is testing constitutional limits and challenging the courts to stop him. Who will blink first?
3/21/25
…https://www.ft.com/content/3741dee9-a801-4572-8f61-997c04d6698d?accessToken=zwAGMRe8QWDQkc83Qd7pqAFFctOPYZl8BNZpjQ.MEYCIQCnPvpj5kbVVBM8RFuB4jWUWEJd7TeeEksjvTXU85VfygIhAItFoDpZgwBp92VbHuujunHNhysVhEzATAtJIovXzMvq&sharetype=gift&token=599c94f8-9764-409c-9177-cc871920dde0

Trump has faced little scrutiny from an obedient Congress, while the other branch of government, the judiciary, is being severely tested © Carolina Vargas/FT Montage/Bloomberg/Getty/Reuters
Trump’s assault on the rule of law: ‘the speed and intent is remarkable’ on x (opens in a new window) Trump’s assault on the rule of law: ‘the speed and intent is remarkable’ on facebook (opens in a new window)
Trump’s assault on the rule of law: ‘the speed and intent is remarkable’ on linkedin (opens in a new window) Save current progress 0% Edward Luce in Washington Published MAR 21 2025 970 Print this page Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for free Your guide to what the 2024 US election means for Washington and the world “He who saves his country does not violate any law,” Donald Trump posted last month, in a quip attributed to Napoleon. Trump has been acting on that maxim from day one. But over the past week his assault on the judiciary has intensified. Having been blocked from deporting more than 200 Venezuelan alleged gangsters, federal agents went ahead with the flights anyway. When the judge, James Boasberg, asked Department of Justice lawyers to explain that seeming disregard for the ruling, Trump called him a “radical left lunatic” and demanded his impeachment. His rhetoric is so out of the ordinary that John Roberts, US Supreme Court chief justice, felt obliged on Tuesday to point out that such threats were “not appropriate”, though he did not specify from whom. Whether Trump takes Roberts’s admonition seriously — he was quick to observe that he was not named — will soon be apparent. Yet his judicial showdown is only one of many “not appropriate” lunges at the US system’s jugular with a ferocity that has taken even pessimists by surprise. Among these are Trump’s declaration of war on universities — notably Columbia University and the University of Pennsylvania, with more in the pipeline; his purge of oversight officials and inspectors from the executive branch, including from the FBI and the Pentagon; and his bypassing of Congress’s fiscal monopoly by allowing his super-powered tsar, Elon Musk, to seize control of the state’s cash spigots and databases. In addition to throwing dozens of agencies into turmoil, Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) has also dismantled USAID and is targeting the Department of Education. The courts can barely keep up. Trump officials have stonewalled multiple court restraining orders, and he still plans to punish the “scum” who investigated him — a pledge he repeated earlier this month in a speech he gave inside the justice department. Protesters gather outside DC Central Detention Facility in Washington in late January. On his first day in office, Trump pardoned roughly 1,500 people convicted or charged in connection with storming the Capitol in 2021 © Roberto Schmidt/AFP/Getty Images Trump’s moves, which started on day one with his pardoning of roughly 1,500 people jailed for storming Capitol Hill four years ago, and commuting the terms of the hardest core offenders, have ticked nearly every box on the scholarly checklist of democratic backsliding. But his alacrity has also cast the system’s defenders into disarray. “This is moving a lot faster than any of us anticipated,” says Steven Levitsky, a Harvard scholar and co-author with Daniel Ziblatt of How Democracies Die. The capture of state institutions that took strongmen like Viktor Orbán or Recep Tayyip Erdoğan many years to accomplish, “Trump is trying to pull off in months”. Moreover, a hostile seizure of the key government organs has never been tried in a wealthy and established democracy like America, he says. “Trump’s speed and intent is remarkable. Even when they happen slowly, such all-out assaults are hard to stop.” Trump has been fortunate to start with an obedient Congress, America’s first branch of government. The release of the so-called “J6 hostages” set the tone. Since their aim had been to “hang Mike Pence”, Trump’s then vice-president, the message was stark. Only loyalty can buy you safety. The Republican-controlled Senate dutifully confirmed every Trump nominee, including several whose conduct and record would have caused their rapid ejection in any other era. The US now has, among others, a health secretary who doubts the efficacy of vaccines, an FBI director who has vowed lawfare on Trump’s enemies and a director of national intelligence accused of parroting Kremlin propaganda. Almost no Republicans objected when Trump stripped security protections from erstwhile officials, including Mike Pompeo, his former secretary of state, John Bolton, a former national security adviser, and Brian Hook, his ex-Iran envoy. The FBI says each are on an Iranian hit list. “It’s pure fear and cowardice,” says Adam Kinzinger, a former Republican Congressman who served on the committee that investigated the January 6 assault and who Trump has threatened with arrest. “I’ve lost friends and some family over it. A former [air force] co-pilot told me he was ashamed to have been in combat with me. But it’s outweighed by the fact that I can look at myself in the mirror.” I’ve lost friends and some family over [serving on a committee investigating the January 6 assault]. But it’s outweighed by the fact I can look at myself in the mirror Not once, meanwhile, has Congress called Musk to testify about the authority or actions of Doge. “Congress . . . has been disembowelled,” says Don Kettl, former dean in the School of Public Policy at the University of Maryland. “He can count on doing pretty much whatever he wants without resistance from Capitol Hill.” Though Musk’s tool is the chainsaw, not a scalpel, and his approval rating has plummeted, he knows where the power lies. Trump may have packed the “power ministries” of law enforcement, the military and intelligence with loyalists, but his boldest power grab is being spearheaded by Doge. “The takeover of the federal payments and personnel systems was a genius move,” says Rosa Brooks, a professor at Georgetown Law School. “Doge shows that you don’t need tanks in the street if your pension or grant has suddenly gone missing. If you can eliminate or control the entire government’s ability to hire and fire and issue payments and not issue payments, then you’ve done it. Who needs an army?” Trump’s legal targets have also been shrewdly chosen. One of Columbia’s graduates, Mahmoud Khalil, was arrested earlier this month for allegedly aiding terrorists by organising protests where pro-Hamas literature was handed out. As a Muslim and an Arab, Khalil’s plight is unlikely to spark public outpourings. Yet as a green card holder, his defeat in court would give Trump licence to deport any permanent resident on whatever grounds he chose. US citizens would not be immune. In recent weeks, several arriving green card holders and tourists have been incarcerated for days on petty bureaucratic grounds. “Thought has gone into who to target first,” says Don Moynihan, a public policy professor at the University of Michigan. “If you read the executive orders and memos there is a lot of creative thinking in this White House and a determined legal machinery to see this through.” Demonstrators attend a protest in Times Square this month after the arrest by US immigration agents of Mahmoud Khalil for his involvement in pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University © Eduardo Munoz/Reuters Universities are no darlings of public affection. Having been the originators of progressive America’s speech orthodoxy, they are also on weaker ground to push back against Trump’s speech-policing agenda. A move by Trump to tax the Ivy League’s bulging endowments — something he is considering — would be popular with large swaths of America. “Higher education has made itself an attractive weak target for Trump to advance his loathsome and extra-lawful approach,” says Lawrence Summers, a former Harvard president and US Treasury secretary. “I fear Trump, in the authoritarian way, is looking for grounds to prosecute and chill institutions whose constituents oppose his methods and policies and where there is a strong capacity to communicate.” When Trump wants an institution closed, it happens fast. This past week, the Voice of America was dismantled after more than 80 years. Most of Radio Free Asia employees were suspended. National Public Radio is also in the White House’s sights. “I’m critical of universities and have tried not to add to the hyperventilation, but it’s important to note that almost anything can get worse,” Summers adds. “I did not envision two months ago the disregard for due process and savagery that we’re seeing.” Two questions keep recurring in Washington. How much further will Trump go? And why is there such little pushback from his opponents? On the first, there are plenty of shoes yet to drop. Trump has mostly confined his deportations to test cases, rather than sweeping communities up en masse as his supporters had hoped he might. “It turns out it’s not that easy to deport people,” says Kettl. “It can take several [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] agents to track down one or two individuals.” Trump recently said he had the authority to use the US military for future round ups and is poised to invoke the Insurrection Act to deploy troops on the southern border and on America’s streets. Insiders say that his purge of senior brass is still in its early stages. Trump’s oft-recited revenge plans against his enemies are yet to bear fruit, although his attorney-general, Pam Bondi, has become increasingly belligerent in her rhetoric against legal norms. Having only recently been confirmed, the FBI director Kash Patel, and his deputy, Dan Bongino, have yet to initiate any vengeful probes, though they are widely expected to do so soon. Trump greets Chief Justice John Roberts as he arrives to address Congress earlier this month. Roberts has pointed out that threats to the judiciary are ‘not appropriate’ © Win McNamee/AFP/Getty Images Nor has Trump yet moved on the US Federal Reserve, which he has often mused about bringing under White House control. How hard Trump feels able to push will ultimately depend on how much resistance he meets. Democrats, chief executives and civic leaders are conspicuously betting that the courts will erect roadblocks. Yet the most fateful questions would likely be heard by the same Supreme Court that issued last year’s sweeping 6-3 ruling that granted Trump substantial immunity from criminal prosecution. Before his congressional address this month, Trump told Roberts, “Thank you again. Won’t forget it.” Relying on judges is a mistake. Democrats . . . are overinvested in the law and underinvested in the information space The Democratic Party, lacking leadership and in a fractious mood, is perhaps investing the most faith in the law. But Trump’s appetite to play hardball keeps growing. In the past 10 days, he has stripped clearances and contracts from firms that have advised anyone on his enemies list. One such law firm, Perkins Coie, says it has suffered an exodus of corporate clients. Another, Paul Weiss, was reinstated only after agreeing to give his administration $40mn in pro bono advice. Dissenting judges, meanwhile, are branded as anti-national. “Relying on judges is a mistake,” says Brooks of Georgetown University. “Democrats . . . are overinvested in the law and underinvested in the information space.” Much like his trade tactics, Trump doubles or quadruples retaliatory threats whenever a judge pauses one of his actions. But he has not yet unequivocally refused to comply with an order. “It’s a game of chicken,” Brooks says. Trump’s alter ego, Musk, last month said that “the fundamental weakness of western civilisation is empathy”. The president’s closest observers, including some Republicans, agree there are few inner limits on what he might do. Trump is an irresistible force yet to meet an immovable object. “We have too much faith in what is ultimately a partisan process — the law,” says Moynihan of the University of Michigan. “People are hoping that Roberts and one other conservative will rule against the same party — Trump’s party — that put them on the court.” As others have remarked, however, hope is not a strategy — still less so against a figure as unbound as Trump.

Trump’s assault on the rule of law: ‘the speed and intent is remarkable’

The US president is testing constitutional limits and challenging the courts to stop him. Who will blink first?

www.ft.com

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-03-19/uc-eliminates-diversity-statement-requirement-faculty-hiring?fbclid=IwY2xjawJMXEpleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHTmc0JP1EMtEJjBf38lsy2kX_thEkAwrs7lfT1PZGJmruyMDHyOgxe_zHw_aem_rv6cKR6GLCPacdOAAHE10g

As Trump attacks DEI, UC bans ‘diversity statements’ in faculty hiring

The decision ends a UC practice requiring job applicants to submit written testimonials about how they have worked to enhance diversity.

www.latimes.com

https://www.slj.com/story/Federal-Judge-Rules-Colorado-District-Must-Return-Books-Shelves-Censorship-News?utm_content=328053671&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&hss_channel=fbp-12461602719

Federal Judge Rules Colorado District Must Return Books to Shelves | Censorship News

The judge ruled in favor of the ACLU of Colorado, which brought the lawsuit on behalf of two students in the Elizabeth School District; Texas bill…

www.slj.com

https://www.mprnews.org/story/2025/03/13/minnesota-sues-to-halt-dismantling-of-us-education-department?fbclid=IwY2xjawJMQBZleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHXHlPHnGm59nyr94oMwySQeA3QbtwEGd53NlP3DDIkgT1GHkdQlWPmYbsw_aem_dhnlLO43aa-yBdabGJSwHQ

Minnesota, 21 other states sue to halt dismantling of U.S. Education Department

The lawsuit filed in federal court in Massachusetts argues dismantling the federal Department of Education is unconstitutional and usurps…

www.mprnews.org

Trump and DOGE Propel V.A. Mental Health System Into Turmoil
A chaotic restructuring order threatens to degrade services for veterans of wars in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/22/us/politics/veterans-affairs-mental-health-doge.html
“I just constantly …felt like I am at war,” said Sandra Fenelon, a Navy veteran who had a rocky transition back to civilian life.Credit…Sarah Blesener for The New York Times

By Ellen BarryNicholas Nehamas and Roni Caryn Rabin
March 22, 2025
Updated 2:13 p.m. ET
Late in February, as the Trump administration ramped up its quest to transform the federal government, a psychiatrist who treats veterans was directed to her new workstation — and was incredulous.

She was required, under a new return-to-office policy, to conduct virtual psychotherapy with her patients from one of 13 cubicles in a large open office space, the kind of setup used for call centers. Other staff might overhear the sessions, or appear on the patient’s screen as they passed on their way to the bathroom and break room.

The psychiatrist was stunned. Her patients suffered from disorders like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Treating them from her home office, it had taken many months to earn their trust. This new arrangement, she said, violated a core ethical tenet of mental health care: the guarantee of privacy.

When the doctor asked how she was expected to safeguard patient privacy, a supervisor suggested she purchase privacy screens and a white noise machine. “I’m ready to walk away if it comes to it,” she wrote to her manager, in a text message shared with The New York Times. “I get it,” the manager replied. “Many of us are ready to walk away.”
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Scenes like this have been unfolding in Veterans Affairs facilities across the country in recent weeks, as therapy and other mental health services have been thrown into turmoil amid the dramatic changes ordered by President Trump and pushed by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.

Among the most consequential orders is the requirement that thousands of mental health providers, including many who were hired for fully remote positions, now work full time from federal office space. This is a jarring policy reversal for the V.A., which pioneered the practice of virtual health care two decades ago as a way to reach isolated veterans, long before the pandemic made telehealth the preferred mode of treatment for many Americans.

As the first wave of providers reports to offices where there is simply not enough room to accommodate them, many found no way to ensure patient privacy, health workers said. Some have filed complaints, warning that the arrangement violates ethics regulations and medical privacy laws. At the same time, layoffs of at least 1,900 probationary employees are thinning out already stressed services that assist veterans who are homeless or suicidal.
ImageA man holding a sign that reads “we want to work” takes part in a demonstration.
A demonstration outside a V.A. medical center in Detroit last month.Credit…Paul Sancya/Associated Press
In more than three dozen interviews, current and recently terminated mental health workers at the V.A. described a period of rapid, chaotic behind-the-scenes change. Many agreed to speak on the condition of anonymity because they want to continue to serve veterans, and feared retribution from the Trump administration.

Clinicians warn that the changes will degrade mental health treatment at the V.A., which already has severe staffing shortages. Some expect to see a mass exodus of sought-after specialists, like psychiatrists and psychologists. They expect wait times to increase, and veterans to eventually seek treatment outside the agency.

“Psychotherapy is a very private endeavor,” said Ira Kedson, the president of AFGE local 310 at the Coatesville V.A. Medical Center in Pennsylvania. “It’s supposed to be a safe place, where people can talk about their deepest, darkest fears and issues.” Veterans, he said, trust that what they tell therapists is confidential.

“If they can’t trust us to do that, I think that a sizable number of them will withdraw from treatment,” he said.

A Veterans Affairs spokesman, Peter Kasperowicz, dismissed the contention that a crowded working environment would compromise patient privacy as “nonsensical,” saying that the V.A. “will make accommodations as needed so employees have enough space to work and comply with industry standards for privacy.”

“Veterans are now at the center of everything V.A. does,” Mr. Kasperowicz added. “Under President Trump, V.A. is no longer a place where the status quo for employees is to simply phone it in from home.” Anna Kelly, a White House spokeswoman, said the president’s return-to-office order was “ensuring that all Americans benefit from more efficient services, especially our veterans.”

The DOGE cuts have already sparked chaos and confusion within the sprawling agency, which provides care to more than nine million veterans. The Trump administration has said it plans to eliminate 80,000 V.A. jobs, and a first round of terminations has halted some research studies and slashed support staff.
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The exterior of a Veterans Affairs medical center, with a “VA” logo, in Chicago..jpeg
Therapy and other mental health services at Veterans Affairs facilities have been thrown into turmoil amid the dramatic changes ordered by President Trump and pushed by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.Credit…Jamie Kelter Davis for The New York Times
The cuts drive at a sensitive constituency for Mr. Trump, who has campaigned on improving services at the V.A. In Mr. Trump’s first term, the agency expanded remote work as a way to reach veterans who are socially isolated and living in rural areas, who are at an elevated risk for suicide. Now those services are likely to be sharply reduced.

“The end of remote work is essentially the same as cutting mental health services,” said a clinician at a mental health center hub in Kansas, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “These remote docs aren’t moving and they have other options if they are forced to drive to some office however many miles away every day to see their patient virtually from there.”

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Veterans, too, are expressing anxiety. Sandra Fenelon, 33, said she had a rocky transition back to civilian life after leaving the Navy in 2022. “I just constantly felt like I am at war,” said Ms. Fenelon, who lives in New York and is training to become a pharmacist.

It took a year, working with a V.A. psychologist, until she felt safe enough to begin sharing the troubling things she had seen on deployment, things that, she said, “people on the outside would never understand.”

Now, Ms. Fenelon is worried that the tumult at the V.A. will prompt her therapist to leave before she is better. In her session this past week, she burst into tears. “I feel like I’m now forced to be put in a position where I have to start over with someone else,” she said in an interview. “How can I relate to a therapist who never worked with veterans?”

‘You Deserve Better’

For a suicide prevention coordinator in California, mornings start with referrals from a crisis hotline. On a typical day, she said, she is given a list of 10 callers, but sometimes as many as 20 or 30. The work is so intense that, most days, there is no time for a lunch break or bathroom breaks.

“My job is to build rapport, to figure out what I need to do to keep them alive. I let them know: ‘I’m worried about you, I’m going to send someone out to check on you,’” the coordinator said. “I tell them, ‘You served this country. You deserve better.’”

The team, which is responsible for covering some 800,000 veterans, was supposed to get three more social workers, but the new positions were canceled as a result of the administration’s hiring freeze, the coordinator said.

She said the stress around the staff reductions is intense, and fears it will cause her to miss something critical. “I’m so scared I’ll make a mistake,” she said. “I’m not sleeping well, and it’s hard to stay focused.”

Veterans are at sharply higher risk for suicide than the general population; in 2022, the suicide rate was 34.7 per 100,000, compared to 14.2 per 100,000 for the general population. A major factor in this is the availability of firearms, which were used in 73.5 percent of suicide deaths, according to the V.A.
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Bilal Torrens sits on a leather couch surrounded by house plants..jpeg
Bilal Torrens had a job helping homeless veterans settle into life indoors.Credit…Rachel Woolf for The New York Times
In Denver, Bilal Torrens was just finishing a shift when he was notified by email that he was being terminated.

His job, he said, was helping homeless veterans settle into life indoors after years of living on the street. During those early months, Mr. Torrens said, the men are often overwhelmed by the task of collecting benefits, managing medications, even shopping for groceries; he would sit with his clients while they filled out forms and paid bills.

The layoffs reduced the support staff at the homeless service center by a third. The burden will now shift onto social workers, who are already staggering under caseloads of dozens of veterans, he said.

“They’re not going to have enough time to serve any of the veterans properly, the way that they should be served and cared for,” Mr. Torrens said.

Alarms Over Privacy

In Coatesville, Pa., mental health providers have been told they will conduct therapy with veterans from several large office spaces, sitting with their laptops at tables, said Dr. Kedson, who is a psychologist, speaking in his capacity as union president. The spaces are familiar, he said — but they have never before been used for patient care.

“That would sound like you’re seeing them from a call center, because you’d be in a room with a bunch of people who are all talking at the same time,” Dr. Kedson said. “The veterans who are going to be in that position, I suspect they will feel very much like their privacy is being violated.”

So far, only supervisory clinicians have been affected by the return-to-office policy; unionized workers will be expected to report to the office in the coming weeks.
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Rows of small flags lined up along the National Mall in front of the Capitol..webp
A memorial for veterans who died by suicide in Washington.Credit…Stephen Crowley/The New York Times
Dr. Kedson said clinicians have warned that the orders compromise patient privacy, but he has seen little response from the agency’s leadership. “They’re doing it because these are the marching orders coming out of the current administration,” he said. “People are trying to make something that is really untenable work.”

Dr. Lynn F. Bufka, head of practice at the American Psychological Association, said the “longstanding presumed practice for the delivery of psychotherapy” requires a private location, like a room with a door and soundproofing outside the room.

She said HIPAA, the health privacy law, allows for “incidental disclosures” of patient information if they cannot be reasonably prevented — a threshold that she said the V.A. risks not meeting. In this case, she said, the privacy risk could be prevented “by simply not requiring psychologists to return to the office until private spaces are available.”

Several V.A. mental health clinicians told The Times they were interviewing for new jobs or had submitted their resignations. Their departures risk exacerbating already severe staffing shortages at the V.A., outlined in a report last year from its inspector general’s office.

Matthew Hunnicutt wearing a shirt and tie in his home..jpeg
Matthew Hunnicutt, a social worker with nearly 15 years of experience at the V.A., retired last month.Credit…Jamie Kelter Davis for The New York Times
“Everybody is afraid, from the top down,” said Matthew Hunnicutt, 62, a social worker who retired in late February after nearly 15 years, much of it in supervisory positions, at the Jesse Brown V.A. Medical Center in Chicago.

When staff were ordered to shut down diversity initiatives, Mr. Hunnicutt decided to speed up his retirement, feeling that “everything I had done was just wiped away.” He said care at the V.A. had been improved during his time there, with better community outreach, shorter wait times and same-day mental health appointments.

“Just to have it be destroyed like this is extreme,” he said.

Alain Delaquérière and Kirsten Noyes contributed research.
Ellen Barry is a reporter covering mental health for The Times. More about Ellen Barry

Nicholas Nehamas is a Washington correspondent for The Times, focusing on the Trump administration and its efforts to transform the federal government. More about Nicholas Nehamas

Roni Caryn Rabin is a Times health reporter focused on maternal and child health, racial and economic disparities in health care, and the influence of money on medicine. More about Roni Caryn Rabin

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Four Megabanks on Wall Street Hold $3.2 Trillion in Uninsured Deposits – Which May Explain Senator Schumer’s Pivot to the GOP to Stop a Government Shutdown
…https://wallstreetonparade.com/2025/03/four-megabanks-on-wall-street-hold-3-2-trillion-in-uninsured-deposits-which-may-explain-senator-schumers-pivot-to-the-gop-to-stop-a-government-shutdown/

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: March 17, 2025 ~

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Senator Chuck Schumer
During Senator Chuck Schumer’s (D-NY) political career, three of his five largest campaign donors have been Wall Street megabanks – Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase. His second largest campaign donor over his political career are the partners and employees of Big Law firm Paul Weiss, where his brother, Robert, is actively engaged in Mergers and Acquisitions by major corporations that are publicly traded on Wall Street. Paul Weiss, as a firm, represents some of the largest banks and trading houses on Wall Street.

Last week Schumer, the Minority Leader of the U.S. Senate, did a major pivot between Wednesday and Friday. On Wednesday he vowed that Democrats would stand firm in voting against the Republican version of a Continuing Resolution (CR) to keep the federal government open, a spending bill deeply opposed by the majority of Congressional Democrats, who viewed it as a slap in the face to the working class of America. By Friday, Schumer had flipped and voted in favor of the bill – outraging progressives in the party.

Schumer explained his flip-flop as follows on the Senate floor: “As bad as passing the CR is, allowing Donald Trump to take even more power via a government shutdown is a far worse option.”

Shutting down the U.S. government would have had an immediate negative impact on stock prices on Wall Street; the U.S. dollar; potentially the credit rating of U.S. sovereign debt; and it would increase the existing threat of uninsured deposits stampeding out of U.S. banks – raising the threat of another banking crisis potentially worse than the one that occurred in the spring of 2023.

On November 14, 2023, the then Chair of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), Martin Gruenberg, testified before the Senate Banking Committee on why his agency had to pay out billions of dollars as a result of the spring bank runs. Gruenberg revealed that the biggest losses to the Deposit Insurance Fund when Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and Signature Bank failed in March, did not come from bad loans or underwater debt instruments but from the FDIC having to make good on the banks’ uninsured deposits that were stampeding out the door. (The FDIC temporarily took the banks into receivership when they failed until they could be sold.) Gruenberg stated:

“As of June 30, 2023, the FDIC estimated the cost for the failures of SVB and Signature Bank to total $18.5 billion. Of that estimated total cost of $18.5 billion, the FDIC estimated that approximately $15.8 billion was attributable to the cost of covering uninsured deposits as a result of the systemic risk determination made on March 12, 2023, following the closures of SVB and Signature Bank.”

The banking crisis of 2023 set off a panic bank run where depositors were withdrawing their uninsured deposits at banks from coast to coast, including from the megabanks. (Federal deposit insurance is capped at $250,000 per depositor per bank.)

What most Americans do not know is that the vast amount of uninsured deposits that are concentrated at just four Wall Street banks could tank the U.S. economy if there was a bank run at these institutions.

According to the Call Reports for the period ending December 31, 2024, uninsured deposits at the domestic branches of the following four megabanks were as follows:

JPMorgan Chase: $1.15 Trillion

Wells Fargo: $652.7 Billion

Citibank, N.A. (part of Citigroup): $594.5 Billion

Bank of America: $821.9 Billion

The above four banks’ domestic uninsured deposits total $3.2 trillion. That’s 202 times the amount of losses on uninsured deposits that the FDIC had to absorb in the 2023 banking crisis.

Stock markets are said to “climb a wall of worry,” which they had been doing for most of January. But markets collapse under a sea of chaos, which has been the operative descriptor of the Trump administration since February.

The other notable news item that may be connected to Schumer’s pivot on the Republican’s spending plan is that the same day (last Friday) that the Senate voted and passed the plan, Donald Trump signed an Executive Order that could potentially cripple the ability of Schumer’s brother’s law firm, Paul Weiss, to stay in business.

The Executive Order stripped the many lawyers holding security clearances at the firm of their security clearance – meaning the firm would have to drop major cases that required their review of classified government documents for their clients, and decline taking new cases involving classified government documents.

The order said the security clearances would be suspended “pending a review of whether such clearances are consistent with the national interest.”

The Executive Order also cut off Paul Weiss lawyers’ access to government buildings and was silent as to whether that included federal courts. The order also prevented the law firm from getting federal jobs and to receive money from federal contracts.

Every major corporation and Wall Street firm with whom Paul Weiss has done business for 150 years now understands that it has been placed on Donald Trump’s growing list of blacklisted law firms. That is going to have a chilling impact on its ability to attract new business until the case winds its way through the courts.

Paul Weiss has gotten many firms on Wall Street off easy for serious crimes. But that’s not the basis of Trump’s attack on the firm. The Executive Order is all about getting personal revenge for Trump.

Trump specifically cites in the Executive Order the law firm’s representation of the District of Columbia Attorney General against the January 6 attackers, (who were trying to keep Trump in office illegally); and it names a Paul Weiss former law partner, Mark Pomerantz, for joining the Manhattan District Attorney’s office “solely to manufacture a prosecution against me….”

Four Megabanks on Wall Street Hold $3.2 Trillion in Uninsured Deposits – Which May Explain Senator Schumer’s Pivot to the GOP to Stop a Government Shutdown

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: March 17, 2025 ~ During Senator Chuck Schumer’s (D-NY) political career, three of his five largest campaign donors…

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