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Leaked UAW Transcripts Discredits Fain’s Attack on UAW Monitor Barofsky
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By Mike Elk • 15 Jul 2026


On Sunday, Bloomberg broke the story that a federal grand jury had been impaneled at the request of the Trump Administration to look into allegations of financial misconduct and self-enrichment by UAW President Shawn Fain. He is also expected to face possible federal indictments over retaliating against union leaders who reported financial misconduct and abuses of power within the union.

In response to news of the grand jury, Fain lashed out at the UAW Federal Monitor Neil Barofsky, who was appointed by former union-side labor lawyer and Clinton-appointed Judge David Lawson. He reports directly to Lawson, not Trump, whose administration impaneled the jury. In a sign of the independence of Barofsky’s oversight, the Trump Administration has issued subpoenas for all of Barofsky’s confidential matters in his monitorship of the UAW.

Barofsky, who is Jewish and was praised by progressives including Bill Moyers for his honesty in calling out the Obama Administration for selling out to Wall Street during the bailout, has been singled out for scorn by Fain. Fain has accused Barofsky of publishing reports critical of his leadership due to the union’s opposition to Israel’s attacks on Gaza.

“I’m done being silent. Neil Barofsky has a political grudge against me because the UAW took an anti-war stance about what was happening in Gaza,” Fain told the Detroit Free Press.

However, leaked transcripts of UAW executive board meetings obtained by Payday Report discredit Fain’s claims that Barofsky tried to interfere in the union’s positions on Gaza.

Not only did Barofsky not interfere in the UAW’s political process, but he openly denounced legal threats leveled by the ADL against the UAW due to their support of Gaza. He also denounced accusations that the UAW’s position on Gaza could be construed as “antisemitism”.

“I think [the ADL is uninformed. I think he is wrong,” said Barofsky of the ADL’s CEO Jonathan Greenblatt. “I don't agree with it.”

Despite strong evidence that Barofsky did not interfere in the union’s politics, Fain, who is caught in a heated re-election battle, has attempted to implicate Barofsky in a Zionist conspiracy theory.

Much like how some supporters of Graham Platner tried to discredit critics of his abuse by labeling them as supporters of Zionism and other imperialist causes, Fain is trying to implicate Barofsky in a Zionist conspiracy theory. Fain is getting help in this from one of Platner’s chief defenders, Drop Site News’s Ryan Grim.

Drop Site News, Jacobin, & Labor Notes Fail to Disclose Financial & Personal Conflicts of Interests

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Ryan Grim, Founder of Drop Site News
Last week, Ryan Grim outraged many on the left when he attempted to discredit the rape allegations brought against Graham Platner. On his podcast, Grim had disclosed that Platner had been his bartender at his favorite dive bar, the Tune Inn in DC.

It wasn’t the first time that Grim faced accusations of smearing a critic without disclosing his deep financial and personal conflicts of interest.

Grim’s editor Nausicaa Renner is married to then-UAW Communications Director Jonah Furman, who was demoted and suspended from his job for his role in illegally retaliating against UAW Secretary-Treasurer Margaret Mock.

However, in July 2024, when Grim first published an article at Drop Site News accusing Barofsky of being a Zionist, nowhere in the article did he mention that his editor was married to the UAW’s Communications Director. Given that Renner and Furman jointly own a $1.3 million home in Evanston, Illinois and have a child together, this was a clear financial and personal conflict of interest that Grim should have disclosed.

In 2024, Payday Report repeatedly asked Grim to disclose his editor’s marriage to Furman; Grim refused. Since then, Grim’s story, which was based on just one anonymous source, has been accepted as truth among many labor activists, who are completely unaware of Grim’s conflict of interests

In recent months, two other leading publications on the labor left, Jacobin and Labor Notes, have amplified Grim’s smear campaign. In both instances, these publications refused to disclose their own deep conflict of interest with the UAW.

Jacobin Doesn’t Disclose Labor Columnist Forced Out of UAW

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Jacobin labor columnist Chris Brooks was forced to resign from UAW (Photo: Matt Hamilton/ Chattanooga Times-Free Press)
In June, Alex Press of Jacobin wrote a piece repeating Grim’s Zionist conspiracy theory, claiming that “The origin of Barofsky’s escalating conflict with Fain had little to do with the financial corruption the monitor was tasked with investigating.”

Not disclosed in the Jacobin piece is the fact that Jacobin’s lead labor columnist Chris Brooks was forced to resign as the UAW’s Chief of Staff in December of 2025 Brooks’ resignation came after it was discovered that he had lied to union members while orchestrating a smear campaign against UAW Secretary-Treasurer Margaret Mock, who questioned the financial oversight of the UAW.

In December of 2023, Mock angered Brooks and then-UAW Communications Director Jonah Furman and Brooks by refusing to award a $500,000 no-bid contract to a politically connected DC consulting firm for billboards and media buys to support union organizing at Volkswagen in Chattanooga.

Given that the no-bid contract was for $500,000, a significant expenditure for any union, Mock denied the request until more dialogue within the union could be had about whether the expenditure should be approved.

Union organizers debated whether spending $500,000 was an effective use of organizing resources, especially given that the no-bid contract was awarded to a media firm, Conexión, with little experience in union organizing. The firm was founded by Adrian Saenz, who served as the White House’s Director of Public Engagement under President Biden, and was staffed primarily by DC-based Democratic Party officials.

Furman and Brooks also grew frustrated with Mock after she refused to approve a no-bid contract for Feldman Strategies, a communications firm founded by DC political operative Andrew Feldman. The federal consent decree was very clear that the union should solicit at least three bids before approving any contract, unless the union had a reason to grant a special exception.

In their attempts to discredit Mock, who was Fain’s running mate four years ago, and demote her from several of her leadership positions, Brooks and Furman engineered charges against Mock, and were found to have lied to the union membership about their campaign.

In December of 2025, Brooks was forced to resign as UAW Chief of Staff and Furman was demoted from his job and suspended for two weeks without pay.

Despite the fact that it was covered by major publications including the Detroit Free Press, Reuters, and even Brooks’ hometown paper, The Chattanooga Times Free Press, Jacobin at no point informed its readers that its labor columnist had been forced out of the union after Barofsky proved that he had lied to union members.

(For more on the Jacobin scandal, read our February 2026 piece titled “Jacobin’s New Columnist Chris Brooks Doesn’t Disclose Corruption Charges that Led to His Ouster from UAW”)

Labor Notes Doesn’t Disclose Role in Financing Fain’s Re-Election Support Group

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Around the same time that Jacobin began attacking Barofsky, Labor Notes’ Jane Slaughter joined in the fray. In her piece published on June 25th, Slaughter quotes Nick Licktick, a member of the UAW Member Action network, telling her, “The Monitor told Fain to support Israel. Fain told him to kick rocks. It’s clear this has all been personal since then.”

Much like Ryan Grim and Alex Press, Slaughter also refused to reveal her direct conflict of interest – she’s funding the UAW Member Action network, which is backing Fain.

As one of four directors of the Social Justice and Solidarity Fund, Slaughter is responsible for giving out nearly a million dollars in grants a year to labor organizing, including the UAW Member Action network

Nowhere in her Labor Notes piece quoting Nick Licktick does Slaughter reveal her role in helping bankroll Fain’s support network as he runs for re-election. Instead, Slaughter presents herself as a neutral and objective labor reporter.

The smear campaign launched by Drop Site News, Jacobin, and Labor Notes, all without revealing massive conflicts of interest, has proven effective in persuading the left that Fain is facing retaliation for the union’s opposition to Israel’s attacks. Activists regularly claim that Barofsky has a secret Zionist agenda, despite strong evidence contradicting this smear campaign

However, an examination of the transcripts of the UAW’s International Executive Board meetings discredits this Zionist conspiracy theory. Examining these records is crucial to understanding the truth of the crisis hitting the UAW.

(Full Disclosure: I feel it’s necessary to let readers know that I am an anti-Zionist Jew, who’s proud that my Dad, Gene Elk, as UE Director of Organization, helped lead efforts to get UE to become the first union to pass a BDS resolution back in 2015. I have long been critical of Zionists in the labor movement, and Payday has even lost subscribers as a result of our support of Palestinian liberation.)

UAW Blocked Release of Transcripts that Discredit Fain’s Zionist Conspiracy Theory

Under the UAW’s constitution, the UAW is supposed to release full transcripts of the UAW’s Executive Board meetings to all UAW members interested in reading them. However, for nearly two years, the UAW has refused to release the Executive Board meeting transcripts, including the controversial dispute between Fain and Barofsky.

In April of 2025, Payday ran a piece heavily criticizing the UAW for not releasing the transcripts. Fain refused to make the transcripts available at regional UAW offices. Instead, UAW Secretary-Treasurer Margaret Mock agreed to allow any UAW member to view the transcripts at UAW’s Detroit Headquarters, Solidarity House.

Fain, though, forbade UAW members from taking photos of the transcripts and posting them online. The UAW did, though, allow UAW members to take notes on what they saw at the UAW’s Detroit headquarters.

Some UAW members brought their laptops and typed out word-for-word what was said in the meetings. Payday checked these transcripts against one another and presents for the first time a record of what was said between Fain and Barofsky about Israel in the meeting.

UAW Faced Lawsuit Over Gaza & Lost Hundreds of Thousands of Dollars Fighting Them

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An action organized by UAW Labor for Palestine. (Photo: UAW Labor for Palestine)
Following the lead of unions like United Electrical Workers (UE) and UFCW Local 3000, which called for a ceasefire in October of 2023, the UAW, became the largest union in the country to oppose Israel’s attack on Gaza in December of 2023. Some UAW locals even pushed for the union to back the Boycott, Disinvestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel.

At the same time, the UAW also began to face intensive legal actions by Zionist legal campaigns against the UAW. UAW Local 2325, the Association of Legal Aid Attorneys (ALAA), was forced to pay $315,000 to three Zionist union members over claims that they violated their rights as union members.

Given the legal cost of these lawsuits, the UAW’s Executive Board began to debate how they could limit the union’s legal liability. UAW leaders thought it would be good to hold a “teach in” to understand the issues better and how they could address the legal risk.

UAW Executive Board members asked Barofsky to help them obtain more information and asked if he could provide some speakers. Barofsky had been appointed as the monitor of the Credit Suisse lawsuit over the Swiss bank stealing money from Holocaust victims. He suggested that the UAW perhaps speak to Ira Forman, Obama’s former United States Special Envoy for Monitoring and Combating Antisemitism.

In December 2023, Barofsky also received a letter from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) hinting at legal action against the UAW over its opposition to Israel’s attack on Gaza. Given UAW Executive Board members’ instruction to Barofsky to share information on this subject, Barofsky felt he was fulfilling his duty by forwarding the legal threat.

Labor law experts, including anti-Zionists like the University of St. Louis’s Mike Duff, say that Barofsky, as a lawyer, may have been justified in forwarding a potential legal threat from the ADL to the UAW.

“I think forwarding a letter from the ADL out of concern that the union risked violating the anti-BDS law (leaving questions of constitutionality to one side) arguably fell within the monitor’s legal-ethical duty,” said Duff.

In a February 2024 UAW Executive Board Meeting, Barofsky made it very clear that he thought the actions taken by the ADL were wrong.

However, UAW President Shawn Fain, who was facing probes over his retaliation against Mock and Boyer, used Barofsky’s forwarding of the ADL legal threat as evidence that Barofsky had a secret Zionist grudge against the UAW.

The UAW’s Hidden Transcripts Revealed

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UAW Federal Monitor Neil Barofsky (center) with staff (The Detroit News)
In the February 2024 executive board meeting, things exploded into a contentious, often profanity-laced, back-and-forth between Fain’s team and Barfosky.

Payday Report has printed the transcript of the exchanges with light annotations below. After UAW legal counsel Benjamin Dictor blasted Barofsky for forwarding the email, Barofsky took the floor to defend his actions:

BAROSKY: When we got the letter from the ADL, the Anti-Defamation League, you know, including serious allegations one of the local unions had issued a statement that had had what I presume were wildly unintended con – potentially having unintended consequences, and it was the ADL's view that there was a risk that the words were being used by that local could contribute to the rising tide of anti-Semitism and violence it is, unfortunately, sweeping the country and its campuses. And so when we received that, we took it very seriously, in part because of who it was that was making the allegation: the Anti-Defamation League.

You know, our understanding, our view, is the ADL is an organization that's been around for more than 100 years. It is a – ,you know, it is an important civil rights organization in this country. It's the Jewish NAACP is how it's been described to me and is my perception of it.

Note, many organizations have criticized the ADL for conflating antisemitism with anti-Zionism. However, Barofsky told UAW leaders that he did not feel the union was engaged in anything antisemitic:

BAROFSKY: And so frankly when we got this, we treated it with what we believe that it was a serious thing; that a local had issued a statement that again, advertently or inadvertently – seems to me almost certainly inadvertently, could contribute to some of those issues and these problems as reported by the ADL.

To me, it would be the equivalent, if after George Floyd was murdered and a local issued a statement and we got a letter from a third-party hotline from the NAACP saying that local union statement could possibly contribute to fan the flames of racism that were tearing across the country in the aftermath of that, I would have done the exact same thing that I did here.

Barosky then added that he provided the UAW with this information after the UAW specifically asked one of Barofsky’s staffers, Ali, to forward in situations like this:

BARFOSKY: And so we thought, we discussed, and we thought it should go to the IEB, you know, for a couple of reasons. One is it the IEB has oversight over the local unions, that's our understanding. Secondly, it just seems like something that the board would want to know. And, you know, after the board enacted its own ceasefire statement – I was not at that meeting, but Ali was and he let me know that there was a sentiment within the room that perhaps additional information members of the board wanted to know, other perspectives to fill it out. And that was a small part.

The monitor then went on to explain how he had responded to a request from the UAW to come up with speakers for a teach-in:

BAROFSKY: Now, the second area that I understand that raised some concern was my call to Shawn shortly after the board issued its ceasefire statement. Again, I would like to share some context with that. I was not at that meeting, as I said. Where I was, actually, I was in Switzerland. And I was in Switzerland; this is all public record. I am overseeing an investigation of Credit Suisse's historical ties that were previously undisclosed to high level Nazis and what its role was in the lead up to World War II and the Holocaust, its role in providing financial services to the Nazi Regime, as well as any role that it may have played in the smuggling of Nazis out of Europe to Argentina in the aftermath of World War II.

The reason why I tell you that is that I am in Switzerland, and someone with whom I’ve built a relationship is a man named Ira Forman. And Ira Forman is an expert, a global expert, on anti-Semitism. Ira Forman was President Obama's special envoy against anti-Semitism when Barack Obama was president. He runs a center in Georgetown University, where he is a professor, that monitors anti-Semitism across the world. And he had seen the UAW’s statement and agreed, offered to talk with the UAW.

And when Ali shared his report out of that meeting to me, in which he reported that several members had concerns and wanted to have the ability to hear more and on other sides on this issue and that there was contemplated, I don't know what the word was, teach-in or it was contemplated that that was going to happen, I thought, wow, what a weird coincidence. I happened to be here in Switzerland with someone who can provide exactly that service and said to me that he'd be willing to talk to Shawn and to the IEB to share his perspective and some of the concerns that he had when reading the IEB’s statement calling for a ceasefire.

And so was within that context and with that motivation that I called Shawn, and I explained to Shawn that I was in Switzerland. I'm doing this work with Credit Suisse, and I work with this guy, Ira Forman; that I understood that the IEB was looking for another resource that – you know, that I had been informed by Ira and others who had reached out to me, again in my capacity of monitor informally, concerns about potential implications along the line. And so, once again, or this time would be in the first instance, I was trying to provide that information as is what we do when we are monitors. We provide information.

UAW President Shawn Fain then shot back at Barofsky in a tirade:

FAIN: On December 13th Mack Trucks voted their agreement down. On December 13th, I was in Pennsylvania and spent the day meeting with one of the locals and was meeting the next morning with the committee, with the members. And that night, you know, I get a phone call. When it says Neil Borofsky, naturally I answer because this is the guy that monitors for the UAW; it's pretty important that I answer that call.

And I guess we have a different recollection of what that call was about, because the first thing he said to me is, I'm not calling you as a Monitor, but at the end of the day you're still the monitor. That's like me calling a member saying I'm not calling you as the president; I'm still the president.

But, you know, the first thing you said to me was that you were calling me because you had concerns about my comments and they could be — you knew what I meant, but my comments could be misconstrued as being anti-Semitic. That's what you said to me.

And when I started explaining to you what I meant by my comment, then your comment was, well, I guess it is anti-Semitic. I guess I wasn't misreading what he said. That is what you said to me. Shake your head all you want; it's what you said to me.

Barofsky then interrupts Fain to dispute that he ever called the UAW or Fain “antisemitic” for their views on Gaza:

BAROFSKY: Shawn –

FAIN: I’ve got the floor now, so let me continue.

BAROFSKY: Okay, but Shawn —

PRESIDENT FAIN: No, let me continue. That’s exactly what you said, trust me. I’m the guy on the receiving end.

BAROFSKY: I did not say that, I did not accuse you of being anti-Semitic, I don’t believe that you’re anti-Semitic. I would never —

FAIN: I have the floor. And your next statement to me was you wanted to tell me about your background and how your kids at school were being harassed and when you go to and from school and there were members, UAW members, with signs out there yelling and shouting as your kids were going to school. Did you not tell me that? Yes.

BAROFSKY: If you’re asking me, I will — I didn’t want to recount this part of the conversation, but I will be happy to.

FAIN: Well, I do, because that’s what I heard. Then you went into discussion –

BAROFSKY: I’m sorry, Shawn, you asked me to answer a question. Now you’re not actually —

FAIN: Okay.

BAROFSKY: If you want me to answer the question, I told you about my background, like I just said, that I was in Switzerland. And then I told you about Ira Forman, and I told you about the concerns that were being raised. And your comment to me in response – and, again, I wasn't intending to do this, but your comment response was, I don't think that the Jews are suffering at all. I think that is bullshit. I don't think there's any suffering from the Jews. I think all the suffering here is on one side.

And I said in response, Shawn, I could tell you from my experience that that is not true. And I shared the anecdote about the fact that my kids have been harassed since October 7th with anti-Semitic language. And, yes, I described that protest with people holding UAW signs chanting hateful comments. And I said, hey, this is what these people are telling me. You were saying in response you thought it was bullshit. And so I was sharing with you a personal anecdote.

But to be very clear, I said to you — I said to you that there was inadvertently that your statement might be perceived as contributing to all of this, because that is what Mr. Forman had said to me and others have said to me. And I said, I assume it was inadvertent. And you said to me, it was not inadvertent; I knew exactly what I was saying.

But I never said to you that I thought you were anti-Semitic. I don't think that you're anti-Semitic. I have no reason to think that you're anti-Semitic. It was a conversation about me wanting to provide perspective and information because the board. And if you heard that or perceived that, I'm really sorry that that happened. But I'm very careful in my wording, and I would never have said something like that, even if I did believe it, and I did not.

Fain then acknowledges that Barofsky did not accuse the UAW of antisemitism, but said that some could falsely misconstrue the UAW positions as antisemitic:

FAIN: I'm very careful with my wording when I'm talking to the Government Monitor too, although he's saying he's not the Monitor. But let me – I'm going to be really fucking clear here, because I said that's fucking bullshit when I talked to you, and it wasn't about Jews. It was about the fact that I said I have plenty – I have friends that are Jewish, and I have friends on both sides of this argument, and my – I took it as – your statement to me was my comments could be misconstrued as anti-Semitic. And you said, I know that wasn't your intention.

When I explained what the fuck I meant, then you said, well, maybe that is what you meant. That's exactly what you said. I know what I said, because I'm the guy on the receiving end and however you wanted to view it, brother, you are – ,you're the Monitor over us. You have a realm of power over us, so, yeah, it concerned me greatly. So, yes, when we got off that phone, and you did go into the diatribe about your kids in school being harassed and all that shit and people holding up the UAW signs. And then you went into your thing about offering Ira to come and speak.

So I had zero fucking interest at that point, because I didn't know what the hell to do but try to get off the call. So I got off the call, and yes, I called Legal and said, I just want to let you know what is happening. I don't know what the fuck to do.

So then I was told — you know what, they called about it, they discussed it. They told me, let's just leave it alone, let it go and let's move on, so that's what I did.

And it pisses me off, because now when you're claiming this wasn't about opinions and shit, I know what I feel like your opinion is. But one of our locals, who is perfectly within our rights to take action, which they did, just like this board did, comes out and puts a statement out, and the ADL contacts you, which who gives a shit, we don't care. I couldn't give a damn what the ADL says. But even there, your comment to the ADL was, unfortunately, this is not in my jurisdiction. Not this is not my jurisdiction, your comment to them was, unfortunately this isn't in my jurisdiction.

And I don't give a shit about how you want to say this, and you can smile all that shit all you want to, it’s bullshit. And I'm sorry, but for me to see this any other way or perceive this any other way, don't blame Ben on this. You can blame me. I relayed to them what I heard, what was told to me and what happened since.

And honestly I don't give a shit, but I am not going to be harassed. I don't give a damn about what opinions people have of me. I will do what I know is right. And what's happening over there was atrocious. What happened on October 7th is atrocious, and what's happened since is atrocious. And at the end of the day it's like every other fucking war in this world, the working class and poor are paying the fucking price for the people at the top that are fighting over shit nobody else cares about.

That's what this is all about. That's my opinion if you want my opinion. And for anybody to ever fucking say I'm anti-Semitic, brother, I'll fight your ass in front of this building in a heartbeat. I do not fucking like that, and I don't appreciate it.

Barofsky then apologizes to Fain for smiling while they were debating:

BAROFSKY: I'm sorry I was smiling. I was just smiling because the idea that I would want to have jurisdiction over this or deeply care, I mean, honestly it's just off base. I don't want to have jurisdiction over this. And I've really, really never intended for you to take up my comments is suggesting that I thought that you were anti-Semitic.

Yes, I said again, because based on the conversations I had with third parties. And I'm sorry you don't give a fuck about what the ADL says. I feel like — I'm surprised to hear that. I have — maybe I have a different perception of the ADL and where they stand as a historical civil rights organization in this country than you do. But again, I feel terrible that you think I — I never used the word anti-Semitic. I never used those words.

FAIN: What I do give a shit about is that you reached out to me back then because you had concern, but then you decided to email my board and out me and say you had a conversation with me when I didn't fucking tell them. So it makes it look like I'm holding something from this board, which I wasn't, but that's how it looked.

So you could have called me and said, hey, I got this, but you didn't. You chose to go directly to the board and email them and throw shit out about me and throw shit out about the local. So, you know, I don't know.

But I'm going to turn this over to Ben. Ben's had his hand up.

BAROFSKY: I really don't think I threw shit out about anyone. I didn't throw shit out about the local. I included the local's response, because again this was something to share with the IEB, because the IEB has jurisdiction over the local. And my reference frankly — my reference in the fact that I previously brought to your attention that third parties had concern was not intended to throw shit at you.

I just obviously thought it was a courtesy to make reference to our previous conversation, and again it was obviously a mistake. You took it the wrong way. That's not what it was intended to be, to throw shit. I'm not interested in throwing shit at anyone. Like what would be my reason or justification of why I would want to throw shit? Again, I'm just doing my job of passing on information without any tail to it, without any follow-up, just simply sharing information.

Then, Benjamin Dictor took the floor to blast Barofsky for forwarding the letter from the ADL:

DICTOR: I'm very proud of my Jewish background, and I'm even prouder perhaps of the way the UAW has navigated this particularly sensitive issue. I despise anti-Semitism; I would never work for an anti-Semite or an anti-Semitic organization or an organization that fosters anti-Semitism.

The ADL is an interest group. They are an interest group. I'm sure you get any number of complaints, as you noted, from people who think that Sean Fain is an alien. But I assume — I mean, I would be surprised if you haven't received any complaints through your hotline about the UAW endorsing Joe Biden. We've got plenty of members on the right, and we've got plenty of members on the left that are mad at that political decision.

And I'm sure that we're not going to get the IEB alerted every time members think that the IEB made a poor decision in its political endorsement, whether that's from people who are upset with the genocide in Gaza or people on the right who think that Donald Trump needs to come back to office for all of our sake.

Then, Barofsky responded that he may have been wrong in labeling the ADL as more than an interest group. He then promises not to bring up the issue of Gaza again:

BAROFSKY: We seem to be a little far afield here. Again, my intent here was not to in any way suggesting political outcomes for the UAW. I don't even know what political outcome it is that you (are) suggesting that I'm pushing for. I shared the information. My perception, and perhaps I'm wrong, is that the ADL is more than a special interest group; that it is a civil rights organization. I think there was a – and maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I misunderstood that.

And I also had in context the fact that certain members of the board had stated that they wanted to hear that information, and that's why I called Shawn. And trust me, I deeply wish I hadn't done any of it at this point, because it was never my intent to create such an issue. It was just what I believed, what we believe, that we do all the time in sharing external information because the organization might want to hear it.

And typically, what I would normally expect – and, again, I feel terrible that there is this perception here. I feel terrible that Shawn thinks that I think that he is anti-Semitic. This is just not how I operate. It's just not within the four corners of what I do.

And so, look, I mean if you want me to say lesson learned, yeah, lesson learned. I won't bring information to the UAW board or Shawn’s attention in the future. That is unique. In other monitorships the board and the heads of the organization usually are very interested to get that type of information and to get access to it.

Barfosky then goes on to state he does not agree with the repeated implication by Dictor that he is somehow a Zionist and distances himself from a statement made by some members of his law firm denouncing the October 7th attack:

BAROFSKY I'm not going to engage with you or anyone else in this organization about my personal views on my law firm’s statement or what's happening in Gaza, unless somebody really wants to have that conversation with me. I'm happy to do it offline, I'd be happy to share with you my views. I think they're more nuanced, and I think they're very different from what folks presume them to be. Like everything, I'm sure with all of us, they evolve over time as we learn new facts and new things come up. And that's why I don't have anything to do with it, and that's why I don't want to have anything to do with it.

But really, the Board — you know, wanted to hear my perspective on these issues. You've heard my perspective on these issues. I was trying to — my initial call to Shawn, I was trying to respond to a need that had been expressed in the board for outside information. I thought it was happenstance that I happened to be with Ira Forman at the time and thought I would like to make that connection, and that's why I called him. And, obviously, things have gone south from there. And so, again, I don't know what more there is to necessarily say on this issue. I hope this has been helpful.

Afterward, then-UAW Region 9 District Director Daniel Vicente (Vincente unexpectedly resigned from office in 2025 amid various scandals) took the floor and repeatedly accused Barofsky of being a ZIonist:

VICENTE: For my role, as the director of Region 9, nothing about this conversation today has alleviated any of my concerns. Personally, I found the e-mail very troubling, shocking, matter of factly. And I am very concerned about your ability to take your personal opinions on things out of your decision-making process. You said something this morning that we could come to you with questions and concern(s), and mine is how do I make a report and raise a concern about you sitting in the role as Monitor.

BAROFSKY: What personal opinion have I advanced during this meeting that you're concerned about? What is my position — what is my position on the ceasefire, because there's this implication and these statements that I have strong views on these issues and that I'm somehow going to be unfair to the union because of my personal views. And so that presumes that you know my personal views.

VICENTE: My concern isn’t your personal view. My concern is that you feel that it's appropriate to reach out to our democratically elected president to talk offline, somehow that that makes you not the monitor, and raise concerns with him. That's my concern.

BAROFSKY: We share information after a board meeting where there was an expressed — an interest for a teach-in or to get information from people with other perspectives. I thought because I happen to be with someone who is a global expert on these issues to make an introduction, not to push it, not to require it, but to offer it. That's what we do as Monitor, is that we try to assist the organization and meet needs that were expressed during a board meeting.

If you don't think that I can do my job because I did that, then it is of course the union’s, you know, right to raise these concerns to whomever you would like to raise them to. If you're raising them to me, I'm giving you my response. I have no bias. I have no, you know, view. I will continue to conduct myself. And if you have any evidence or anything to suggest that I've done anything in my role as a Monitor in a way that was biased or tilted to one side or the other, I strongly encourage you to share that information, because I'm not aware of it existing, and I don't think that it does exist.

And, you know, I came into this job with very strong views on unions, being very, very pro union. I think — you know I have all sorts of very strong personal views, and it does not impact the way that I do this job. Because my personal views on any issue are irrelevant when one is a Monitor. I am governed by the agreement between the parties and the best practices of Monitors in every context available. That's what drives me.

And I think that if you're going to suggest that I have a bias, I'd like you to know what your basis is for concluding that I have that bias, and I would like to know what actions that you perceive that I have taken that have been prejudicial to the union, unfairly harsh in my criticisms or anything else that you think is this alleged bias impacts. Because I respectfully don't think that there is anything there for you to point to.

VICENTE: I'll say we agree on one thing at least, your personal opinions are irrelevant.

BAROFSKY: Okay, agreed, agreed. But what that has to do with my bias, my alleged bias, I don't know.

Afterwards, the conversation moved on to other topics.

Do UAW Rank-and-File Deserve to Read All the UAW Transcripts?

With Fain facing a grand jury for credible scandals around his leadership, he’s leaned harder than ever into a persecution narrative against Barofsky to make himself a martyr, relying heavily on his narrative and the lack of access to transcripts for members and independent news outlets to review

A review of the UAW’s Executive Board transcripts presents a very different view of what happened between Fain and Barofsky. Why this Zionist conspiracy theory has been allowed to persist raises troubling questions about the editorial independence of some left-leaning media outlets.

Drop Site News, Jacobin, and Labor Notes all refused to disclose their massive personal and financial conflicts of interest with the UAW in their attempts to defend UAW President Shawn Fain.

Payday Report, though, believes that union members have the right to know honest and accurate information, especially during a union leadership election. If you have any information, you would like to share with Payday, you can contact me anonymously melk@paydayreport.comor (412) 613-8423. … See MoreSee Less

Leaked UAW Transcripts Discredits Fain’s Attack on UAW Monitor Barofsky

paydayreport.com

UAW leaked transcripts discredit Fain’s claim that Barofsky tried to interfere in the union’s position on Gaza.

United Public Workers for Action

2 days ago

LABOR ACTIVISTS MARK 92nd ANNIVERSARY OF 1934 MPLS TRUCK STRIKE
please call Randy Furst at 612-201-5522
LABOR ACTIVISTS MARK 92nd ANNIVERSARY OF 1934 MPLS TRUCK STRIKE
AT MEMORIAL EVENT AND PROCESSION ON SUNDAY, JULY 19 AT 2 P.M.
CEREMONY TO BE HELD AT SITE WHERE TWO WORKERS WERE KILLED
AND 60 WOUNDED WHEN MINNEAPOLIS POLICE OPENED FIRE IN 1934
GATHERING TO UNDERSCORE THE CONNECTION BETWEEN 1934 SHOOTINGS
AND MURDER OF INNOCENTS BY ICE AND BORDER PATROL IN MPLS IN 2026
What: Memorial Meeting to remember 1934 strike
When: Sunday, July 19, 2 to 3 p.m.
Where: Intersection of 7th Ave. & 3rd St. N, Minneapolis
Who: Speakers and music, followed by short procession
A memorial meeting, endorsed by local labor organizations, will be held in the old Minneapolis
warehouse district, Sun., July 19 at 2 p.m., marking the 92nd anniversary of the 1934 truck strike
that made Minneapolis a union town. A short procession will follow.
Sunday’s gathering will take place on the site where Minneapolis police opened fire on July 20,
1934, killing two strikers, Henry Ness and John Belor, and wounding about 60 strikers, many of
whom were shot in the back. It became known as Bloody Friday.
The strike ended in a decisive victory for the Teamsters, resulting in a first contract for truckers and
inside warehouse workers that included an increase in wages and new benefits and protections for
union members.
Sunday’s gathering will draw connections between the horrific killing of Ness and Belor and the
brutal slayings by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents in 2026. The shootings in 1934 provoked a city-wide outcry and 100,000 marched in a funeral procession, not unlike the huge mobilizations in Minneapolis in 2026, following the deadly ICE invasion.
On Sunday, there will be memorial wreaths for Ness and Belor; for Reneé Nicole Macklin Good, fatally shot by an ICE agent on Jan. 7 and Alex Jeffrey Pretti, slain by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers on Jan. 26, 2026; and for Victor Manuel Diaz, a Nicaraguan taken into custody by ICE agents in Minneapolis on Jan. 6, 2026. He died at Camp East Montana detention camp in El Paso, Texas on Jan.
14, 2026. Family members have raised doubts about ICE’s statement that he committed suicide.
The memorial this Sunday is sponsored by the Remember 1934 Collective and endorsed by major labor organizations including the Minnesota AFL-CIO, Teamsters Locals 120, 289, 638 and 792 and the Minneapolis Building and Construction Trades Council. [See attached flyer for complete list of endorsers.]
Speakers at the event will include Scott Wilkie, president of Teamsters local 638; John Hanson, son of John Hanson who was a member of the Committee of 100 that led the strike; Max Graves, organizer with End Slavery Minnesota; and Yaan Chen, organizer with Minnesota Immigrants Rights Action
Committee (MIRAC).
Music will be provided by the Brass Solidarity Band and Emmett Doyle.
Sunday’s memorial will be live-streamed at www.facebook.com/remember1934
Remember1934 Collective
Commemorating the Minneapolis Truckers’ Strike of 1934
& Advocating for Union Solidarity
Website: www.rem34.ampmpls.com
Instagram: www.instagram.com/remember_1934 … See MoreSee Less

Remember 1934 (@remember_1934) • Instagram photos and videos

www.instagram.com

210 Followers, 92 Following, 70 Posts – See Instagram photos and videos from Remember 1934 (@remember_1934)

United Public Workers for Action

3 days ago

UAW's Fain hires criminal defense team amid federal grand jury probe
archive.ph/wpWBF#selection-317.0-2733.24
Robert Snell,
Breana Noble
Luke Ramseth
The Detroit News

July 13, 2026, 8:38 p.m. ET
UAW watchdog cites retaliation pattern
Watchdog report finds recurring retaliation by Shawn Fain and his staff; no basis for Rich Boyer's removal as head of Stellantis Department
United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain, who is being investigated by a federal grand jury, has hired two former federal prosecutors who specialize in fraud and bribery cases and work as defense lawyers for a Washington, D.C., firm with a stable of high-profile clients, including trillionaire Elon Musk and former New York City Mayor Eric Adams.
The hiring of lawyers Robert Zink and Ben O’Neil of the law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan comes amid an investigation focused on allegations Fain pressured another high-ranking union official to secure benefits for his fiancée and her sister, sources told The Detroit News. The sources requested anonymity to freely discuss aspects of a secret federal grand jury investigation.
UAW President Shawn Fain delivers his keynote speech to members at the union's Constitutional Convention on June 16 in Detroit.
UAW President Shawn Fain delivers his keynote speech to members at the union's Constitutional Convention on June 16 in Detroit. Clarence Tabb Jr., The Detroit News
The hirings hint at possible federal crimes being scrutinized in an investigation that increases pressure on the union weeks away from when UAW members will decide whether to elect Fain to a second term as president. The probe also coincides with attempts by the UAW to free itself from a years-long corruption scandal that sent two former UAW presidents, labor leaders and automotive executives to federal prison.
"Anybody in their right mind should hire a former federal prosecutor if they think they are being investigated," said federal defense lawyer Anjali Prasad, a former federal prosecutor and owner of Prasad Legal in Bloomfield Hills. "It doesn’t mean he’s guilty. It means he's on the radar and needs an experienced litigator to unpack this problem."
Catch & Release
More than a dozen people, including public officials and labor leaders convicted of corruption crimes, have been freed after serving a fraction of their prison sentences in recent years.
Sentence (months)
Months behind bars*
0
300
200
100
50
350
250
150
Months
UAW President Gary Jones
UAW President Dennis Williams
UAW Director Vance Pearson
UAW Assistant Mike Grimes
UAW VP Joe Ashton
Chrysler VP Alphons Iacobelli*
UAW VP Norwood Jewell
Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick
Macomb Prosecutor Eric Smith
Troy Manager Brian Kischnick
Detroit Councilman Andre Spivey
UAW official Tim Edmunds
Lobbyist Vince Brown
Businessman John Dawood Dalaly
GOP politician Rick Johnson
28
28
21
21
12
12
28
28
30
30
48
48
15
15
336
336
21
21
30
30
24
24
57
57
20
20
28
28
55
55
9
9
9
9
6
6
15
15
9
9
27
27
4
4
94
94
7
7
13
13
11
11
18
18
8
8
8
8
21
21
Source: Federal Bureau of Prisons • * A judge reduced the initial sentence from 66 months.

No dues money is being used in Fain’s personal legal defense in connection with the DOJ investigation, according to a UAW spokesperson. The union does offer liability insurance as a standard benefit available to all UAW staff. Employees can pay the premiums from their own personal funds, as they would for health insurance. No dues are used for the insurance, the spokesperson said.
Zink and O'Neil work for a firm with a long history with Musk, the Tesla and SpaceX founder. In 2023, the firm won a multi-billion securities trial that ended with jurors concluding Musk and Tesla were not liable for misleading investors.
Quinn Emanuel also defended Adams against federal bribery charges. He was facing bribery, fraud and conspiracy charges and accused of soliciting illegal campaign contributions, but last year a top official at President Donald Trump’s Justice Department directed prosecutors to drop the case.
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Bumper to bumper reports on carmaking in Michigan and around the world.

Zink is the former head of the fraud section of the U.S. Justice Department’s criminal division and acting deputy assistant attorney general in the department’s criminal division who spent more than a decade prosecuting fraud and bribery cases. That included a 2012 conviction of Miami-area doctors convicted of participating in a $205 million Medicare fraud scheme — the largest such fraud in U.S. history at the time.
Zink has handled cases in federal court in Detroit, too. In 2016, he helped prosecute a $13.2 million psychotherapy fraud scheme involving several co-conspirators. That included Dr. Alphonso Berry of Orchard Lake, who was accused of participating in a scheme that involved using the Medicare information of mentally disabled Detroit residents to defraud Medicare.
O'Neil, meanwhile, focuses on white collar and corporate investigations. During his career as a federal lawyer, he worked foreign bribery, financial and health care fraud.
The hirings signal a concern for Fain, said Harley Shaiken, a labor expert and professor emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley.
“It indicates he is very concerned about where this might go when you hire attorneys at that level,” he said. “They’re very expensive. It reflects concerns. It doesn’t reflect guilt. That’s for a judge to decide or a jury.”
Inside the costly, thorny battles between UAW & court watchdog
It’s unclear what the ultimate impact on the union will be, he added. A DOJ investigation suggests the union may need more than direct elections to ensure a strong leadership. It could open the way for pursuing an extended monitorship under the 2021 consent decree. Some may fear it could distract or weaken the union at the bargaining table.
"Shawn Fain has done some impressive things at the bargaining table, with the stand-up strike, and provided real gains,” Shaiken said, “but that is not a pass for a democratic process when it comes to other officers and when it comes to the future of the union.”
He noted Fain owned the crowd at the union’s quadrennial constitutional convention last month, but a federal investigation can make a big difference.
“On the eve of an election, could it have an impact?” he said. “Yes, it could have a significant impact.”
The ongoing investigation of Fain involves a subpoena issued by a federal grand jury to the court-appointed watchdog overseeing the UAW.
That watchdog, attorney Neil Barofsky, last month concluded a separate investigation into allegations of retaliation by Fain against Vice President Rich Boyer, who now is running against Fain for reelection. But the monitor deferred a decision about any remedial action pending further consultation with the parties to the union's consent decree with the DOJ.
“Department of Justice policy prohibits me from neither confirming or denying the existence of an investigation,” said Gina Balaya, spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Detroit.
In a statement Sunday, Fain referred to hiring a law firm but did not mention Zink or O'Neil or mention he had hired criminal defense lawyers.
"I’ve retained a law firm to fight against the Monitor’s trumped-up claims against me," Fain said in a statement. "What the monitor is doing is wrong, it’s unfair to the UAW and to you as members, and my lawyers are looking at any and all legal options I can pursue to make it stop."
Fain is the fourth UAW president in recent years linked to a DOJ investigation. Dennis Williams and Gary Jones were convicted of charges, including embezzlement of union funds, and sent to prison. Federal agents investigating a kickback and bribery scandal within the union also looked at former President Rory Gamble; no charges came from that probe.
The convictions and a deeper "culture of corruption" within the union described by federal prosecutors led to a consent decree and the appointment of the monitor, Barofsky of New York, to oversee union elections and activities starting in 2021 for at least six years.
In Barofsky's latest report filed last month in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, he said he found unsupported, unfounded and exaggerated reasons cited by Fain in Boyer's removal from leadership of the Stellantis Department. Additionally, he said Fain acted improperly with respect to matters involving people close to him.
Fain hit back with a statement claiming the investigation had been politically motivated. He pointed back to a heated 2024 International Executive Board meeting where the discussion centered on how the monitor responded to the union's statement calling for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war.
The monitor's report described Fain as exhibiting a "recurring pattern of retaliation" and "abused the authority of his office." Boyer had accused Fain of retaliating after he declined to intervene in Fain’s fiancée’s sister’s worker’s compensation claim and failed to approve a cash bonus that would have benefited a pool of non-UAW employees at the Stellantis National Training Center, which included Fain’s fiancée, Keesha McConaghie.

UAW members and leaders meet in Detroit
The union in June held its constitutional convention, which includes policy debates and leadership nominations, at Huntington Place.
The report described details of what Barofsky described as "preferential treatment" by Fain in his fiancée’s sister's worker's compensation claim. The monitor said he substantiated the claim about improper actions related to benefits affecting his fiancée, but additional details weren't being shared pending further consultation with the parties of the consent decree.
Boyer is now running against Fain in a six-member race for president. Ballots are scheduled to be mailed to the union's nearly 400,000 members plus retirees in late August.
rsnell@detroitnews.com
bnoble@detroitnews.com
lramseth@detroitnews.com … See MoreSee Less

United Public Workers for Action

4 days ago

The Rise of Fascism, Racism & General Strikes
laborfest.net/2026/event/the-rise-of-fascism-racism-general-strikes/
July 12 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm PDT
The fascist racist agenda to re-segregate the South, remove all Black representation and target Black and Brown workers has a historical precedent. This forum will look at the history of the Civil War, Reconstruction and the rise of fascism in the Post War period and what workers and unions can do to fight the rise fascism and a racists country and world.
speakers:
Carol Lang – AFT PSC CUNY Professor
Barry Anderson – IBT 856 Steward
Russ Bellant – Researcher & Author On Fascism & Right … See MoreSee Less

Events for July 2026 – LaborFest 2026

laborfest.net

This forum will look at the history of the Civil War, Reconstruction and the rise of fascism in the Post War period and what workers and unions can do to fight the rise fascism and a racists country a…

United Public Workers for Action

4 days ago

The Hard-Line Activists Ramping Up for the War With AI
The resistance to artificial intelligence is growing over fears about human extinction—but one activist’s disappearance has the movement on edge
www.wsj.com/tech/ai/anti-ai-activists-disappearance-sam-kirchner-6872879f?st=H82VNL&reflink=artic…

By
Zusha Elinson
July 11, 2026 at 9:00 pm ET

The resistance to artificial intelligence is growing over fears about human extinction—but one activist’s disappearance has the movement on edge
SAN FRANCISCO—In the months after Sam Kirchner disappeared in November, Matthew Hall searched for him on city streets where homeless live and in wooded hills where campers hide away.

Hall worried for the safety of Kirchner, an intense 27-year-old activist who had been leading sit-ins at OpenAI to protest the dangers of artificial intelligence. He feared for OpenAI’s employees, too.

The last time Hall saw him was at the spartan Oakland cottage that served as headquarters for their hard-line group, Stop AI. Kirchner, an electrical engineering technician by training, was angry, insistent that more had to be done.

“I’m done with this,” he said, according to Hall. “The ship may have sailed on nonviolence.”

Kirchner’s disappearance looms over what has become ground zero for a hardening resistance to the world’s hottest technology. The Bay Area’s AI boom is drawing young disillusioned men and women to join the fight against it. They are upending their lives and leaving behind careers for think tanks, nonprofits and street protest groups.

Sam Kirchner leads an anti-AI protest in front of the OpenAI office, speaking into a megaphone and wearing a "STOP AI" shirt.
Sam Kirchner at an AI protest in February 2025. AUTUMN DEGRAZIA/THE SAN FRANCISCO STANDARD
Their cause is now riding a surge of anti-AI backlash. Many Americans are souring on the technology amid mass layoffs, data center sprawl, reports of chatbot-fueled attacks by unstable users and hacking tools that have panicked cybersecurity professionals. Seventy percent of U.S. adults believe AI will cost jobs, and 55% believe it will do more harm than good in their daily lives, according to a recent Quinnipiac University poll.

But for activists on the front lines, the driving fear is often more dramatic: human extinction.

They cling to dire predictions, like Geoffrey Hinton’s. The Nobel laureate, dubbed the “godfather of AI” for his work on artificial neural networks, warns of a 10% to 20% chance AI will wipe out humans.

At its most extreme and troubling end, some believe they must stop an AI apocalypse by any means necessary.

In April, an unknown assailant fired 13 shots at the home of an Indianapolis councilman, leaving a note: “no data centers.”

That same month, authorities arrested a 20-year-old Texas college student for an attack on OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s home in San Francisco, and charged him with attempted murder and arson. The student was carrying an anti-AI document with a section on “our impending extinction,” according to a federal criminal complaint. He has pleaded not guilty and his lawyers have said his actions appear to have been driven by an “acute mental-health crisis, not a desire to harm.”

“We’re committed to building AI that improves people’s lives and embrace robust debate because it makes our research, products, and policies better and safer,” an OpenAI spokesman said in a written statement. “But violent rhetoric and actions put people at risk and make it harder to have the conversation this moment needs.”

When Kirchner vanished in November, his own comrades feared the worst. So they called the San Francisco police with a stark warning: Kirchner “wants to murder people and OpenAI…is ‘at risk’,” a friend told the officer, according to police records obtained by The Wall Street Journal.

A person walks along a connecting skywalk at an OpenAI office.
A connecting skywalk at an OpenAI office in San Francisco.
Holly Elmore had a dilemma on her hands: What to do about Sam Kirchner’s demands.

It was February 2024, and Elmore, a 34-year-old Harvard Ph.D., was running Pause AI US, a group devoted to halting development of the most advanced AI models. A rift had formed between members over tactics. Kirchner, one of them, wanted to engage in acts of civil disobedience, such as blockades of OpenAI’s offices, to bring more attention to the cause, according to Elmore and others in the group. Elmore didn’t want to break the law.

A prophet for those fighting AI is philosopher Eliezer Yudkowsky, co-author of “If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies: Why Superhuman AI Would Kill Us All.” Yudkowsky has warned for years of AI’s perils, often invoking the thought experiment known as the “paper clip maximizer,” in which an AI ordered to make paper clips devours the universe’s resources, humans included, to do so.

Yudkowsky’s acolytes grew into the rationalist movement, a group of brainy, often libertarian-leaning outsiders who revel in logical debate. The overlapping effective altruism movement, a network of wealthy do-gooders whose most infamous adherent is imprisoned Sam Bankman-Fried, also adopted the cause.

Both factions obsess over AI risks, and both prefer technical solutions and quiet influence over AI companies to street protests.

At the time, Elmore was working at a think tank funded by effective altruists, and wanted to see more done to sway public opinion. A 2023 letter signed by Elon Muskand other industry figures, warning of the “profound risks” of the most advanced AI and calling for a moratorium, inspired her.

The letter echoed something Altman himself had said back in 2015: that “superhuman machine intelligence is probably the greatest threat to the continued existence of humanity.” He’d later, as OpenAI’s CEO, laud AI’s benefits, including “faster scientific progress and increased productivity.” (News Corp, owner of the Journal, has a content-licensing partnership with OpenAI.)

Holly Elmore, founder of PauseAI US, poses for a portrait.
Holly Elmore, founder of Pause AI US. MORIAH RATNER/FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Three years ago, Elmore quit her job to start Pause AI US out of her Berkeley apartment. A key moment for the fledgling group came in February 2024, when Elmore organized a protest against OpenAI and its ties to the military, which at the time included collaborating with a Pentagon agency on cybersecurity. Kirchner drove down from his home in Seattle in a red pickup truck to help and she was struck by his dedication to the cause.

“He did sleep in his truck, and he was very willing to just rough it,” she recalled.

Less than three dozen people picketed outside of OpenAI’s offices, but the demonstration sparked a bitter feud on an effective altruist forum. One of the demonstrators accused her online of overstating the company’s work with the Pentagon.

It looked like a semantic quibble but in these circles, it was a serious accusation, one that drew rebuke even from Elmore’s husband, Ronny Fernandez, a rationalist and self-described “unlicensed philosopher.” He agreed AI could wipe out humanity but disagreed with Elmore’s approach.

“He…looked me in the eyes and said, ‘Holly you could be very dangerous,” she recalled.

She left him that week.

“I actually got divorced because of starting Pause AI US,” she said. “I wasn’t going to be able to do the organizing if we were married.”

Fernandez said he worried that Elmore wasn’t taking the criticism seriously enough, adding that he’s wary of advocacy groups in general.

“I think that activism is dangerous,” he said. “Youth movements with unusual views and a lot of moral certainty don’t have a great track record.”

But if Elmore was too extreme for the rationalists and effective altruists, Kirchner and others quickly became too hardcore for Pause AI.

“They just wanted to do civil disobedience—that was the line for me that we’re not doing illegal stuff,” she said.

Elmore kicked Kirchner out of the group, she said.

Life in the anti-AI barracks

Kirchner thrived on solving thorny engineering riddles. In his 20s, he invented a bicycle powered by legs and arms to give riders an upper body workout and extra speed. His father, an engineer, helped him file a patent application that is now pending.

As AI advanced, Kirchner feared it would extinguish that spark of human ingenuity. He picketed alone outside Google and Microsoft in his home city of Seattle, carrying a sign: “Death of Human Invention & Discovery = Depressing,” according to his social-media posts.

The prospect of human obsolescence drew him into the fight, he said in videos recorded before he vanished. “If super intelligence does everything for us then there’s not going to be a whole lot of reason to live,” he said.

In the Bay Area, he rallied a group of like-minded young men to co-found Stop AI, a group devoted to “protecting human life by achieving a permanent global ban on artificial superintelligence.” One recruit was Derek Allen, a computer programmer who graduated from high school at 16 and dropped out of college, convinced AI-generated code would turn programming into a dead-end job.

“I knew that if I stuck in computer science, it might just end up being a minimum wage job by the time I graduated,” said Allen, 24. “It was going to turn into like the same wage as working at McDonald’s.”

Kirchner, Allen and other members moved into a one-room cottage that some called “the barracks” in a rundown industrial Oakland neighborhood. They slept in bunk beds and dedicated every waking hour to the cause, garnering thousands of followers on X. They drew up fliers and screen-printed red “Stop AI” shirts.

Kirchner was single-minded and spoke with a flat affect, rarely smiling or laughing, members said. When he felt he was right, which was often, he dug in. He fumed when a group member suggested printing ‘Stop AI’ on purple shirts rather than red.

“He didn’t see a future for himself and he was so worried about the future of humanity,” said Wynd Kaufmyn, a retired engineering professor and veteran activist who joined the group later.

Stop AI members gathered signatures for a letter campaign in May; a Stop AI protester's sign. JASON HENRY FOR WSJ
Kirchner’s conviction about imminent danger only grew. He obsessed over a scenario—often discussed among rationalists—in which a superintelligent AI covers the earth in data centers. “We need to get people scared about extinction,” Allen recalled him saying.

Kirchner was arrested three times in the Bay Area in the fall of 2024, records show: twice for blocking the entrances at one of OpenAI’s San Francisco offices, and once for blocking traffic in the street outside another. In April 2025, at a conference in Berkeley, he interrupted a presentation by Yoshua Bengio, a prominent academic working to make AI more compatible with human values.

“Permanently ban artificial superintelligence!” Kirchner shouted. “What they’re doing is going to kill everyone on Earth.”

Stop AI’s viral peak came last November when an investigator with the public defender’s office cut in on a talk about the societal impact of artificial intelligence between OpenAI’s Altman and Golden State Warriors Coach Steve Kerr. The investigator hopped on stage and served Altman a subpoena, naming him as a potential witness in the continuing criminal case against Kirchner for blocking OpenAI’s entrance. Video of Altman looking quizzically at the investigator ricocheted around the internet.

Two weeks later, everything fell apart.

The breaking point

Stop AI was plotting its next stunt, draping banners from the top of the Golden Gate Bridge, when Kirchner and Allen got into a screaming match over the wording, Allen and other members say. Kirchner wanted to warn that human extinction could come within one to three years; Allen didn’t want to mention specific dates. Kirchner huffed off.

Kirchner came back inside the cottage, ranting about how he was fed up with the group’s democratic decision-making, and then left, members recalled. He returned later that night, calm.

“As we all kind of lied down to go to bed, he leaped out of bed, started knocking furniture over, and that’s kind of when he snapped and started punching me,” said Hall, a 36-year-old who goes by “Yakko.”

Allen fled the barracks. Kirchner stormed off again.

He came back the next morning, when he said, “The ship may have sailed on nonviolence,” according to Hall.

The comment sent the group into a frenzy. Some jumped in a car and drove to San Francisco to warn OpenAI, then changed their minds outside the office and drove back to the barracks instead. They found Kirchner in bed; he apologized.

Four days later, on Nov. 21, Kirchner, Kaufmyn and others were scheduled to hold a press conference ahead of their trial on blocking OpenAI’s entrance. But early that morning, Kirchner posted on X that he was “no longer part of Stop AI.” He skipped the press conference, and when Hall returned to the barracks, he was gone.

One of Kirchner’s associates called the police, saying he was possibly armed with a knife and might be trying to get more weapons, according to police records. The OpenAI headquarters will be the first place he goes to cause harm, the caller said.

Officers rushed to OpenAI. The company locked down its campus, issued an internal security warning with Kirchner’s photo, and told employees to stop wearing gear with the company logo in public, according to media reports at the time.

“We made an effort to contact him and have not been able to locate him,” said Evan Sernoffsky, a spokesman for the San Francisco Police Department. “We take all information we receive very seriously.”

The department’s unit that deals with mental-health crises blocked release of the full report, citing medical privacy. A synopsis provided by the department said that OpenAI officials told officers that Kirchner “made threats against employees of the business through another subject but was never on scene.”

His comrades now say that he never made any specific threats, adding they alerted authorities out of an abundance of caution.

Kirchner’s friends searched desperately. He had taken only his bicycle and camping gear. The last search on his phone was for a bike shop in a nearby suburb, Hall said, where the owner recalled Kirchner saying only that he was “headed north.” His friends hired a private investigator and hung fliers begging him to come back.

Two weeks later, on Dec. 8, San Francisco police got a tip that Kirchner had been spotted at a cheap motel two hours away in Merced, Calif., according to police records. But their search was fruitless.

Kirchner’s exit sent AI activism spiraling. Critics blamed doomsday rhetoric for radicalizing young men, while the movement itself, including Stop AI, denounced violence and tried pivoting to a gentler brand of advocacy. In May, the group sang songs and performed anti-AI themed street theater outside of the Oakland federal courthouse during the high-profile Musk-Altman trial.

Demonstrators protest Elon Musk and Sam Altman outside a federal courthouse.

Meanwhile, the existential crisis is deepening in the movements focused on the risks of AI. At the Bay Area Secular Solstice, a biannual celebration for rationalists and effective altruists, one speaker’s voice quavered as he talked about the threat of AI in the dimly lit hall: “Guys, I don’t think we’re going to make it.”

The mystery of Stop AI’s founder remains. One theory holds that he’s gone underground or perished in the wilderness. “He was definitely planning some kind of bulls— against OpenAI back in October, but I cannot say that he lives into the year 2026,” said Allen.

Some believe he’s back with his family in Seattle; his father declined to comment, and Kirchner didn’t respond to emails or a letter left at his family’s home. A red pickup like one he drove to San Francisco in early 2024 sat in the family’s driveway on a recent day, though Hall said Kirchner didn’t drive to the Bay Area when he moved here permanently.

The last tip about Kirchner came in January. An OpenAI employee told security that they thought they saw him on a bus near the company’s office. Security contacted Stop AI with the news, and Hall rushed to the neighborhood. He rode the bus for hours, back and forth in front of OpenAI looking at every face—but he couldn’t find Kirchner.

“I’ve thought about Sam probably every night, every day since he’s disappeared, and I pray that he’s OK,” said Hall. “I pray about the issue of AI more generally, that humanity will choose the right path here.”

Copyright ©2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Zusha Elinson is a national reporter for The Wall Street Journal, based in California, who covers guns, crime and politics. He is co-author of the book "American Gun: The True Story of the AR-15." Zusha grew up on a dirt road in upstate New York and has worked as a stonemason and a chimney sweep. … See MoreSee Less

The Hard-Line Activists Ramping Up for the War With AI

www.wsj.com

The resistance to artificial intelligence is growing—although one activist’s disappearance has the movement on edge.

United Public Workers for Action

4 days ago

A sugar company built this Bay Area town. Now residents are turning against it
www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/crockett-sugar-refinery-strike-22323665.php
By Connor Letourneau,
Staff Writer
July 11, 2026

Kendra Sparks, third from left, holds a pickets sign outside the C&H Sugar refinery in Crockett on June 30. Sparks has worked at the company for 30 years.
Kendra Sparks, third from left, holds a pickets sign outside the C&H Sugar refinery in Crockett on June 30. Sparks has worked at the company for 30 years.
Santiago Mejia/S.F. Chronicle

Standing in a picket line outside the Crockett refinery where she usually packages sugar cubes, Kendra Sparks took a drag from her cigarette and nodded toward a nearby silo. On it was a pink-and-blue sign with the California and Hawaiian Sugar Co.’s catchphrase: “Baking Happiness Since 1906.”
“Just absurd,” Sparks said, shaking her head as she exhaled a thin ribbon of smoke. “This place is not nearly as happy as it once was.”
At 59, her graying hair dyed light purple, Sparks is old enough to remember when C&H wasn’t just Crockett’s largest employer, but also its social anchor. Some of her fondest childhood memories are of tagging along with her parents to C&H Christmas parties that brought much of the town together.

As the plant changed ownership over the decades, those annual parties at a company-owned cottage lingered only in people’s minds. Now, in response to a proposed contract her union called “egregious,” Sparks is one of 93 C&H warehouse workers four weeks into a high-profile strike against the employer she once loved.
Crockett might be the Bay Area’s last surviving example of a historic “company town,” but many residents have offered unwavering support for the protesters. In the process, the strike has become about far more than contract negotiations. It’s a community’s referendum on the company that helped shape it.
Mariko DiBiase at her shop, Flowers Fresco, in Crockett. “Right now, a lot of people are upset with how C&H is treating their employees,” she said.
Mariko DiBiase at her shop, Flowers Fresco, in Crockett. “Right now, a lot of people are upset with how C&H is treating their employees,” she said.
Santiago Mejia/S.F. Chronicle
“Folks will always love the history Crockett shares with C&H,” said Mariko DiBiase, the owner of a flower shop in town. “But right now, a lot of people are upset with how C&H is treating their employees.”

With more artists, musicians and craftspeople flocking here for its relatively cheap apartments and commercial rents, Crockett feels suspended in a kind of limbo: It’s still known throughout the Bay Area as “Sugar Town,” but now it’s more day-trip destination than an industry town.
Crockett, a town of roughly 3,200, was shaped by C&H Sugar. But the town has now developed a bohemian business district separate from the sugar company.
Crockett, a town of roughly 3,200, was shaped by C&H Sugar. But the town has now developed a bohemian business district separate from the sugar company.
Santiago Mejia/S.F. Chronicle
C&H’s 55-acre facility, purchased in the early 2000s by a global sugar giant, still produces around 15% of all domestic cane sugar. When many of Crockett’s roughly 3,200 residents see the refinery’s porcelain “C and H” sign rising above where the San Pablo Bay meets the Carquinez Strait, they feel a surge of pride.
But as the current dispute has shown, those same “Sugar Town” residents are increasingly frustrated by what they view as the company’s indifference — or disregard — toward the surrounding community. Within the past decade, C&H stopped importing raw sugar from Hawaii, scaled back its charitable giving to local nonprofits and received hundreds of complaints from locals over a foul smell that lasted for weeks.
“For some people here, the refinery has kind of always been this mysterious ‘Willy Wonka’-type thing in the distance,” said Sparks, a second-generation C&H employee in her 30th year with the company. “But lately, I think more and more people are really starting to see it as a villain.”
That much was obvious outside the refinery on a sunny recent Monday. Cars honked in support as they cruised past workers holding “LABOR SOLIDARITY” signs. While repeatedly blaring his horn, one middle-aged man in a white BMW rolled down his window, looked directly at the refinery and stuck out his left middle finger.
“F— you, C&H!” he yelled.
Lucia’s Craft Sandwich offers “Strike Brownies” in support of C&H Sugar workers in Crockett. Many local businesses have sided with the warehouse workers in the strike.
Lucia’s Craft Sandwich offers “Strike Brownies” in support of C&H Sugar workers in Crockett. Many local businesses have sided with the warehouse workers in the strike.
Santiago Mejia/S.F. Chronicle
About a half-mile away, some downtown storefronts displayed navy-blue flyers backing the warehouse workers’ union. Noticing one outside Lucia’s Craft Sandwich, a young woman covered in tattoos turned toward her friend. “I’m done with C&H sugar,” she said.
During the company’s early days, that kind of declaration would have been blasphemous.
In 1906, just a week before a 7.9 magnitude earthquake devastated San Francisco, a company backed by Hawaiian cane growers opened the refinery, converted from an old sugar beet factory. Ships brought raw sugar from the islands through the strait, then refinery workers melted, filtered and crystallized it.
Within 15 years, pink-and-white sacks of C&H sugar were a domestic staple, and the company employed about 95% of the town’s residents.
C&H helped its workers purchase plots of land, obtain bank loans, design their new homes and even maintain their gardens. Employees enjoyed public amenities that might seem better suited for a posh resort, like tea parties, a bowling alley, company tennis courts, swimming pools and a shooting club.
“There probably wasn’t a better place to raise a family than in Crockett during its heyday,” said Barbara Pagni Denton, a longtime resident and author of a 2024 history of the town, “Sweet Success.” “This wasn’t just some ordinary company town. This was a company that understood that to run a good business, you need happy workers.”
Barbara Pagni Denton at the Crockett Historical Museum in Crockett. Denton is a volunteer at the museum and the author of “Sweet Success: How Industry, Immigrants, and Working Women Shaped a Town.”
Barbara Pagni Denton at the Crockett Historical Museum in Crockett. Denton is a volunteer at the museum and the author of “Sweet Success: How Industry, Immigrants, and Working Women Shaped a Town.”
Santiago Mejia/S.F. Chronicle
In the late 1930s, just before World War II, C&H peaked at about 2,500 employees in Crockett. Though the company was reducing its workforce by the time Sparks was growing up there in the ’70s and ’80s, her mother, father and stepfather all still worked at the refinery.
Like many other Crockett schoolchildren at the time, Sparks used the shrill, long wail of the refinery’s day-shift whistle as a timekeeping device. At one particularly memorable C&H Christmas party, she was given what would become one of her favorite toys: a little doll wearing a Hawaiian shirt.
C&H’s rosy reputation was part of why Sparks joined as a temporary employee after graduating high school in 1985. But as the company installed more automation, she couldn’t get a full-time job there. After playing bass guitar in a punk rock band in Los Angeles for a while, she moved back to the Bay Area in 2001 and landed a job at C&H when the warehouse started hiring.
“I figured I could always work on my art when my shift ends,” Sparks said. “At that time in my life, I wanted stability.”
She started as a shipping foreman, overseeing the crews who loaded bags of sugar onto trucks and railcars, then became a forklift operator. More recently, she graduated to her role wrapping sugar cubes during the day shift — a coveted position that requires decades of seniority.
Kendra Sparks at her home in Crockett, the town where she grew up. Sparks has fond memories from C&H during her childhood, but now says the company is alienating its workers.
Kendra Sparks at her home in Crockett, the town where she grew up. Sparks has fond memories from C&H during her childhood, but now says the company is alienating its workers.
Santiago Mejia/S.F. Chronicle
In the 24 years since Sparks returned to C&H, she hasn’t seriously worried about losing her job. A steady stream of overtime pay has allowed her to travel — she’s visited Scotland four times — and paint and sew in her off hours. Two years ago, she bought a single-story house downtown with a view of the Carquinez Bridge, just a 10-minute walk from work.
Most of her colleagues aren’t so fortunate. Many commute from places like Vacaville, Antioch, Brentwood and even Sacramento, sometimes logging 12-hour workdays and sleeping for only a few hours.
As workers moved farther away, other changes have strained the relationship between the refinery and the town. In 2005, American Sugar Refining — the world’s largest cane sugar refiner — bought the C&H plant, adding to its expansive portfolio of sugar brands including East Coast giant Domino Sugar. Since then, Sparks and some other Crockett employees have feared the refinery is beginning to prioritize profits above all else.
In January 2017, after decades of contraction in Hawaii’s commercial sugar industry, C&H severed its 111-year relationship with the islands. It now imports its raw sugar from countries including the Philippines, Vietnam, Nicaragua and Brazil.
Protests roil town of Crockett
The unincorporated, census-designated place has a population of roughly 3,200 people and has been dominated by the C&H Sugar Refinery.
Of more pressing local concern was a sudden stench in 2022. For more than a month, a rotten-egg smell wafted from a wastewater treatment plant jointly operated by C&H. Community members later learned that the culprit was a potentially hazardous gas called hydrogen sulfide. At a public meeting in Crockett, they took turns lambasting ASR.
“This whole town has suffered because of you people,” one resident said. “If you can live with yourselves, shame on you!”
Crockett has been divided over a worker strike at the sugar refinery that has long defined the town.
Crockett has been divided over a worker strike at the sugar refinery that has long defined the town.
Santiago Mejia/S.F. Chronicle
Last fall, ASR agreed to settlements totaling more than $1.2 million with the Contra Costa County District Attorney's Office and San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board. According to authorities, the excessive odors were the result of operational disruptions at the wastewater plant worsened by unusually high temperatures.
But for C&H warehouse workers, the real breaking point didn’t come until last month. After weeks of stalled negotiations between their union, ILWU Local 6, and ASR executives over a five-year contract renewal, all 93 workers walked out of the refinery at noon on June 15. They contend that ASR is trying to cut their sick days in half, reduce overtime pay and limit medical benefits to retirees.
“It’s a huge slap in the face,” said John Parrish, a forklift operator in his 24th year with C&H, who was just months away from retiring at 67. “All of a sudden, you want to pull the retirement rug out from under me? Are you kidding me?”
Signs on utility poles outside the C&H Sugar refinery in Crockett. A worker strike is roiling the town and testing the relationship between residents and its major company.
Signs on utility poles outside the C&H Sugar refinery in Crockett. A worker strike is roiling the town and testing the relationship between residents and its major company.
Santiago Mejia/S.F. Chronicle
Mario Rivas, a crane operator at C&H, lamented the possible loss of overtime pay, which allows him to earn more than $100,000 a year despite an hourly wage of only around $30. “Without it, there’s no way I could keep working here,” said Rivas, who helps support his three adult children. “It’s scary to even think about.”
In an email to the Chronicle, Peter O’Malley, ASR’s vice president of corporate relations, said the contract proposal included a 2% signing bonus for all warehouse workers, a 4% wage increase in the first year and a total 20% wage increase over the term of the five-year agreement. “While we are disappointed the union has chosen to walk out, we fully respect their right to do so,” O’Malley said.
The strike hasn’t shut down the plant. Warehouse workers say ASR has made supervisors work overtime in their absence. The sugar workers, who boil and prepare the raw sugar itself, are represented by another union and are still on the job.
Laborers who unload raw sugar from ships arriving at the Crockett facility are represented by the same union as the warehouse workers. Although they aren’t on strike themselves, they have refused to cross the picket line to do their jobs. This recently forced C&H to divert a sugar shipment from the Philippines to Richmond, where a private company handled the unloading.
Through it all, some Crockett residents have delivered food to striking workers, and politicians, including Sen. Alex Padilla, have weighed in to support them. But this 1.1-square-mile community has hardly come to a halt. As C&H became less of a local influence in recent decades, Crockett carved out an identity all its own.
Samantha Jean Bartlett at her shop, the Cat Vintage & Antiques, in Crockett. The town has become a destination for day-trippers.
Samantha Jean Bartlett at her shop, the Cat Vintage & Antiques, in Crockett. The town has become a destination for day-trippers.
Santiago Mejia/S.F. Chronicle
On that sunny recent Monday, a handful of local artists and day-trippers strolled its small downtown, popping into the antique shops, cafes and art galleries clustered around Second Avenue. Partially hidden underneath the southern end of the Carquinez Bridge, this bohemian burg has begun to receive considerable media attention for its small-town charm, colorful characters and whimsical backdrop.
There are stunning bay views, century-old California cottages and Craftsman bungalows, steep hillsides with narrow, winding streets and even a 125-year-old dive bar with a rotating cast of regulars. But what locals value the most is its volunteer ethos and friendly neighbors.
“It feels like there’s always something going on here, whether it’s live music or a stand-up comedy night, and that’s really a testament to how invested people are in this place,” said Brian Montgomery, president of the Crockett Community Foundation, which supports dozens of nonprofits in the area. “You can barely go anywhere without striking up a good conversation with someone.”
It’s also hard to spend time in Crockett without being reminded of its “Sugar Town” history. At Cat Vintage & Antiques, visitors can see old C&H belt buckles. Several posters downtown advertise the upcoming “Sugar Town Festival,” sponsored by C&H, among others. A quaint history museum is loaded with sugarcane-themed knickknacks.
Even as she fights back against C&H, Sparks herself holds on to that history. She still has the doll with the Hawaiian shirt from that Christmas party half a century ago.
“The thing is, we’ll always be ‘Sugar Town,’” Sparks said from the picket line. “Nothing can really change that.” … See MoreSee Less

A sugar company built this Bay Area town. Now residents are turning against it

www.sfchronicle.com

Does the Bay Area’s last “company town” still need the sugar company that founded it?

United Public Workers for Action

5 days ago

AI could replace humans in 90% of tasks at 90% of jobs by 2030, predicts KDI
english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_business/1267727.html

Posted on : 2026-07-10 17:15 KST Modified on : 2026-07-10 17:15 KST
The think tank stressed that employment prospects will depend heavily on how companies approach AI transformation and their ability to create new jobs.
Image generated by ChatGPT depicting the replacement of human work by AI..jpeg
Image generated by ChatGPT depicting the replacement of human work by AI.

A Korean state think tank projected that the adoption of AI and other technical advancements will make it possible to automate over 90% of tasks for over 90% of jobs by 2030. The outlook is part of why the government has decided to launch its own “canaries dashboard” that shows changes brought about by AI development in the country’s labor market.

The projection was made by Han Joseph, a labor economist at the Korea Development Institute, during a policy forum titled “The Future of Work: A New Labor Market Coexisting with AI,” put on by the Ministry of Finance and Economy and the KDI at the Korea Federation of Banks building on Thursday.

Noting the mounting discussion on the potential for technology to shrink job opportunities for young people both in Korea and worldwide, Han stressed that employment prospects will depend heavily on how companies approach AI transformation and their ability to create new jobs.

“In these circumstances, net job creation is only possible if new labor demand is generated quickly. Increasing flexibility within organizations to facilitate transitions to new roles and enhancing the capacity to create new roles and occupations by revitalizing the start-up ecosystem should be considered,” he said.

A series of reports warning of the potential impact of job losses caused by AI have been published by major institutions around the world. In May, the International Labour Organization noted around one-quarter of jobs worldwide are in occupations that could be affected by generative AI, with the share rising to 34% in high-income economies.

McKinsey & Company published a report in 2023 which estimated that by 2030-2060, 50% of all jobs could become automated.
Lee Hyoung-il, the first vice minister of finance and economy, speaks at a forum on the future of work put on by the ministry and the KDI. (courtesy MOFE).webp
Lee Hyoung-il, the first vice minister of finance and economy, speaks at a forum on the future of work put on by the ministry and the KDI. (courtesy MOFE)


Some argue that the growing impact of AI on employment among younger generations calls for a comprehensive overhaul of policies spanning economic distribution, governance, and skills development.

“We are facing an asymmetric situation where productivity gains are expanding the economic pie, but polarization is worsening,” said Chang Ji-yeun, a senior research fellow at the Korea Labor Institute.
“We must diversify the foundations for securing financial resources, such as measures to redeem AI-generated excess profits through sovereign wealth fund mechanisms,” she said.

Furthermore, Chang called for young people to be included as actual decision-makers, rather than merely serving as advisers in name, on social issues that cannot be resolved at the corporate level.
She suggested expanding government support, which currently focuses on education in schools and training institutes, to include those existing outside the formal education system. Such programs should also better reflect rapidly changing technologies by incorporating online and workplace-based learning opportunities, she suggested.

By Park Su-ji, staff reporter … See MoreSee Less

AI could replace humans in 90% of tasks at 90% of jobs by 2030, predicts KDI

english.hani.co.kr

The think tank stressed that employment prospects will depend heavily on how companies approach AI transformation and their ability to create new jobs.

United Public Workers for Action

5 days ago

East Bay health system averts layoffs as county approves $19.3 million lifeline
www.sfchronicle.com/health/article/alameda-health-layoffs-averted-22338195.php
By Catherine Ho,
Staff Writer
July 9, 2026

Pedestrians walk past the acute care tower at Wilma Chan Highland Hospital in Oakland in 2016. Alameda Health System, which operates the hospital, has rescinded its decision to lay off 92 employees after the county allocated $19.3 million to avoid the cuts.
Pedestrians walk past the acute care tower at Wilma Chan Highland Hospital in Oakland in 2016. Alameda Health System, which operates the hospital, has rescinded its decision to lay off 92 employees after the county allocated $19.3 million to avoid the cuts.

Alameda Health System, Alameda County’s safety net healthcare provider, has rescinded its decision to lay off 92 employees — a cost-cutting move that doctors and other workers had decried for months — after the county allocated $19.3 million to avoid the cuts.
The county Board of Supervisors last month passed a budget for fiscal 2026-27 that includes $19.3 million to prevent the layoffs and extend a behavioral health program that had been slated to close.
The union that represents healthcare workers at Alameda Health System, SEIU 1021, called it a “major victory for public health.”

Alameda Health System, which operates the flagship Wilma Chan Highland Hospital in Oakland, announced in December it would lay off about 250 employees, roughly 4% of its workforce, due to federal funding cuts to Medicaid laid out last year in the GOP’s tax and spending megabill.
The plans included closing the outpatient behavioral health programs at Highland Hospital and Fairmont Hospital in San Leandro, which provide critical services for low-income patients with moderate to severe mental illness.

Dozens of physicians and other staff pushed back against the reductions, calling the decision hasty and dangerous for patient care.
In March, the Board of Supervisors voted to delay the layoffs and form a working group to consider alternative solutions. By June, the initial layoff target was reduced after negotiations among the hospital, the county and labor, and due to attrition, said a spokeswoman for Alameda Health System, which also runs three other hospitals and nine clinics in the East Bay.
The allocation will allow the behavioral health program, which had been slated to close in June, to continue through Oct. 31.
The Board of Supervisors approved the allocation at the recommendation of Supervisors Nikki Fortunato Bas and Nate Miley. … See MoreSee Less

East Bay health system averts layoffs as county approves $19.3 million lifeline

www.sfchronicle.com

Alameda Health System, Alameda County’s safety net health care provider, has rescinded its decision to lay off 92 employees after the county allocated $19.3 million to avoid the cuts.