America's Labor Unions Are Joining the April 5 Hands Off Mobilization
“Trump’s threat to unions and working people across America is clear: fall in line or else.” - AFGE president Everett Kelley
President Trump issued an executive order last week and his administration filed lawsuits with the aim of removing a million federal workers from collective bargaining agreements. He denounced those unions as “hostile” to his agenda, saying existing agreements had “hamstrung” executive authority.
A timeworn concern for national security interests was the basis of lawsuits filed in Texas (where judge shopping is routine) asking for permission to rescind collective bargaining agreements.
Agencies impacted included the Departments of Defense, Veterans Affairs, State, Treasury and Energy, most of the Justice Department, and parts of the Departments of Commerce, Homeland Security, and Health and Human Services.
Unions representing federal employees had been on the front lines of a legal offensive aimed at thwarting the destruction underway by Elon Musk’s DOGE, and responding to White House edicts undoing existing policies and procedures.
The largest union representing federal workers, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), maintains that the executive order is illegal. Since strikes are not allowed for those employed by the government, jawboning by union leaders and picketing of closed agencies have been the early responses.
A consequence of Trump’s attack on the federal workforce is that there has been a surge of workers joining federal unions. Over 14,000 workers have joined the AFGE in the past five weeks–about as many as have joined in the previous 12 months.
AFGE president Everett Kelley said in a statement. “Trump’s threat to unions and working people across America is clear: fall in line or else.”
Federal workers organizing across unions through the Federal Unionist Network (FUN) have been connecting activists to make plans to fight back. The group organized an emergency call on Sunday that included the AFGE, AFT, CWA, IFPTE, NFFE, and UAW.
Coming out of the discussions were four points:
The need to grow public outcry far beyond activists who are already engaged to encourage much bigger numbers than are already in the streets thru systematically reaching out to co-workers and communities.
An endorsement of the All Out for the Hands Off! Mass Mobilization on Saturday, April 5th
Make it a goal for each union member to talk to at LEAST 5-10 people to ask them to join an event nearby on April 5th.
Reaching out to other organizations to ask them to join in on April 5th.
The group also issued a video from the organizing meeting that included a short training on how to have effective 1:1 conversations, along with a flyer aimed at federal employees, a flyer for use in speaking with organizations, an April 5th Organizing Toolkit, and an email template to request an organization’s participation.
The group to watch, however, is the AFL-CIO. With deep pockets and a communications infrastructure, the union of unions should want to be in the thick of things. The group’s Department of People Who Work for a Living is keeping track of the Trump administration’s actions across a range of federal agencies with a focus on the lives of the people affected.
There are lawsuits filed and promised. And everybody is supposed to reach out to their congresscritters.
AFL-CIO President Liz Schuler has called the executive order on unions in the federal government “the very definition of union busting”:
To every single American who cares about the fundamental freedom of all workers, now is the time to be even louder. The labor movement is not about to let Trump and an unelected billionaire destroy what we’ve fought for generations to build. We will fight this outrageous attack on our members with every fiber of our collective being.
The group does have links to the Hands Off Day of Action signup page available, as do a few member unions. Some union presidents and local councils have endorsed the April 5th protests, but when you start looking into their web presence, efforts at member mobilization are limited to statements of condemnation, filing lawsuits, and prompts for calling congressional offices.
In some places more than others organized labor is throwing its weight behind the mass events. The Chicago Federation of Labor, for example, is a cosponsor of the Daley Center rally and event.
A mass mobilization over Trump’s actions isn’t apparently a big enough deal for inclusion in most union chapter calendars. I realize that chapters and organizations can’t run after every good cause that comes along, but you’d think that the very real prospect of being outlawed or reduced to cowering might warrant more effort. Right now it’s mostly just a nod and a wink.
As Governor J.D. Pritzker said in remarks to the Human Rights Campaign: "The response to authoritarianism isn't acquiescence. Bullies respond to one thing and one thing only: a punch in the face.”
Michael Podhorzer, former political director of the AFL-CIO, had this to say in a recent podcast with Harry Litman, a former U.S. Attorney who has become a major online legal analyst:
Trump’s new executive order, purporting to cancel federal workers’ union contracts, isn't just anti-labor. Just like his attacks on media, law firms, and the courts, it’s about suppressing democratic resistance to his authoritarian takeover. What’s more, the Trump administration isn’t just going after the federal workforce—it’s sending a signal to the entire private sector that the federal government won’t resist union-busting, and that it’s open season on working people.
I have seen April 5 endorsements from the California Labor Federation and San Diego and Imperial Counties Labor Council leadership on social media. But I can’t help but sense that much of the consensus in labor on Trump’s actions is that he’s following Project 2025. What I don’t see —and maybe I’m just too radical– is a widespread understanding of the purpose of Project 2025.
The business as usual leadership in the Democratic Party keeps hiding behind the hope and prayers that the checks and balances within our system will derail the destruction of institutions, maybe in 2026.
What we’ve seen thus far is that the Trump regime’s use of its power has been relentless. They’re winning a few court cases, stalling on acting on court decisions they don’t like, and just making shit up when needed. And they’re forcing it down our throats.
Consumers who bought Vizio televisions at the bargain prices offered in recent weeks are discovering a little “extra” from the Trump administration. When screens default to scenery after non-use, there are ads included, so out of the blue people are bombarded with Krisi Noem, Secretary of Homeland Security praising the president and seeking to scare people about immigrants. It’s something right out of North Korea’s media playbook.
Beyond claiming a mandate from the last election, MAGAts seek to destroy every system and institution that will create friction for them and daring anyone to try and stop them. Their theory of change is: might makes right and they’re banking on the rest of society being unable to effectively come together and oppose them.
The national mobilization on April 5 has plenty of faults, both organizationally and ideologically, but the point of getting huge turnouts in a lot of places is what counts today. People need to see for themselves and feel solidarity with all the groups who have been (or are being) disenfranchised.
Beyond massive gatherings, death by a thousand cuts of resistance is valid. This is an all-in situation if there ever was one. While saying that Trump is tax cuts for billionaires paid for by cuts in social services sounds about right, the solution to what the president stands for must go beyond just saying “no”.
On Tuesday, April 8, a coalition of patients, patient advocates and labor unions across the country are coming together for Kill the Cuts, a national Day of Action to raise awareness and put pressure on elected representatives to fight back against Trump’s attacks on research, healthcare, and higher education.
The future beyond Trump needs to be scripted by those who resist its carrots and sticks. Too few people acquired too much wealth and envisioned a system with themselves as beneficiaries. So the problem isn’t just about tax cuts for the rich; it’s how their wealth has fostered inequities among the rest of us.
As the movement for democracy continues, unions have the infrastructure and experience needed to sustain actions. Let’s hope they don’t want to be observers and participate fully.
Andrew Cuomo Still Doesn’t Get Why His Workplace Harassment Was Offensive by Audra Heinrichs at Jezebel
“You see all this behavior, for a 25-year-old or younger woman with different mores and sensitivities, it’s ‘Don’t touch me’ and ‘Ciao bella is offensive’ and ‘honey’ is offensive and ‘sweetheart’ is offensive, and that is a legitimate school of thought,” he told Freedlander. “I heard that intellectually, and I got it—but I just didn’t actually get it enough.”
If anyone was in need of further evidence of how much he continues to not “actually get it enough,” nearing the end of the story, Cuomo actually made light of the allegations. As he left an event, a mother and a daughter asked him for selfies. As Freedlander notes, Cuomo then posed in “a three-sided hug.”
“I didn’t hug anybody, I didn’t kiss anybody, I didn’t touch anybody. It never happened,” Cuomo jested with, as the noted in the story, a literal wink. “I was harassed about 800 times, but that’s it.”
Cuomo is currently the front-runner in the race, according to reports. I only wish I were surprised.
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Inside Cory Booker’s Plan To Disrupt ‘Business As Usual’ On The Senate Floor by Hunter Walker at Talking Points Memo
This marathon speech comes amid widespread protests over Trump’s actions during his first two months and change in office. Some of the frustration has been aimed at Democrats, particularly after Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and a handful of other Senate Democrats voted to advance a Republican spending bill earlier this month, helping Republicans pass legislation to avert a government shutdown. Booker referenced the anger from voters in the prepared version of his remarks.
“Our constituents are asking us to acknowledge that this is not normal, that this is a crisis,” Booker said. “So I am going to stand here until I no longer can. I am going to speak up.”
In a video posted on Instagram hours before his speech began on Monday, Booker framed the current Trump era as an “AMERICAN moment” that calls for protest. He also referenced his past activism including an incident in 2017 where he and the late Civil Rights icon and congressman John Lewis conducted a livestreaming sit-in on the Capitol steps as Republicans were trying to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
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The DOGE Axe Comes for Libraries and Museums by Paresh Dave and Louise Matsakis at Wired
Some IMLS programs also require states to provide matching funding, and legislatures may be disincentivized to offer support if the federal money disappears, further hampering library and museum budgets, the IMLS employee says.
The IMLS was created by a 1996 law passed by Congress and has historically received bipartisan support. But some conservative groups and politicians have expressed concern that libraries provide public access to content they view as inappropriate, including pornography and books on topics such as transgender people and racial minorities. In February, following a Trump order, schools for kids on overseas military bases restricted access to books “potentially related to gender ideology or discriminatory equity ideology topics.”
Last week, a bipartisan group of five US senators led by Jack Reed of Rhode Island urged the Trump administration to follow through on the IMLS grants that Congress had authorized for this year. "We write to remind the administration of its obligation to faithfully execute the provisions of the law," the senators wrote.
