Alexandra Bradbury

More Unions Are Saying ‘ICE Out’

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Alexandra Bradbury

More unions across the country are taking a stand against Immigration and Customs Enforcement since the January 23 mass strike in Minneapolis and the January 24 killing of Alex Pretti, an intensive care nurse and union member.

Pretti was a member of the Government Employees (AFGE) Local 3669, working in the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs Hospital. His death at the hands of Border Patrol agents has shocked and outraged people across the country. Health care and V.A. workers have felt it even more keenly.

There are no clocks in a casino, so the dealers all set their phone alarms for noon. Everyone was a bundle of nerves. Before work, a couple of people threw up.

But when the cacophony of alarms sounded, everyone lifted their hands in the air, slammed down the lids on their games of baccarat, blackjack, craps, and roulette, and announced they were on strike. “It was more powerful than anything I’ve ever felt in my life,” said dealer Tera Arnold. “I had goosebumps head to toe.”

Indiana Casino Dealers Are Bringing Back the Recognition Strike

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A dozen or so workers stand on a corner in from of a parking garage with a giant horseshoe logo on it. They look determined. They carry a mix of hand-lettered and printed signs saying things like "Dealers on strike," "Organize," "Fight back," "Horseshoe Teamsters on strike," and "On strike only against Horseshoe Casino Greed, Teamsters Local 135." Behind them is a canopy that has been insulated with tarps closing some of the sides. Camp chairs and a propane tank are visible. Some wear knitted hats.

Still Got the Power of the People

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Alexandra Bradbury

In these terrifying times, I keep thinking of something Racine, Wisconsin, educator Angelina Cruz once said: “There’s a reason we’re supposed to feel isolated and powerless. It’s because we’re not.”

Every day Trump unveils some outrageous new cruelty against immigrants, federal workers, peaceful protesters dressed as frogs, or whoever is the target of today’s Two Minutes Hate. He and his gang of billionaires act like they’re all-powerful—and they’re getting away with so much, so fast, that it’s easy to start believing it.

Heat, smoke, flooding, hurricanes, fires, turbulence—on the job, workers are already facing the ravages of a changing climate.

These problems are ripe for organizing—usually everyone is feeling it. Often it’s very clear what solution would help, and who could deliver it.

Such fights don’t address the underlying causes of climate change. But they’re opportunities to build union power by strengthening the bonds among co-workers and getting folks into action together.

Coping with Climate Crises on the Job

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Several people with colorful signs in red and orange face the camera, one says “Delbar treat your workers right”

UPDATE: On May 29, SEIU Local 925 announced that Lewelyn Dixon was being released after being held by ICE for three months. An immigration judge ruled that Dixon could not be deported. "Because of our communities coming together and exercising people power, Auntie Lynn is being released from detention," the union said in a Facebook post.

The Seattle-area labor movement is rallying in defense of immigrant members seized by the Trump regime.

Labor Defends Jailed Immigrants: Forklift Driver, Hospital Worker

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Ten people, some with Machinists Union shirts, stand with a Machinists Local 160 banner

From big cities to small towns, postal workers organized hundreds of rallies across the country in the past week to defend a beloved public service—and the nation’s largest union employer—against privatization and DOGE attack.

“Whose Postal Service?” workers chanted in New York: “The people’s Postal Service.”

Postal Workers Throng to 500 Rallies to Save the Postal Service

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Two Black workers foregrounded in a dense crowd. Man on left wears orange New York Metro APWU T-shirt and lifts his hands to clap. Woman on right has thick eyelashes and holds a blue printed sign: "The Post Office belongs to the people, not the billionaires." Both smiling, energetic, probably chanting.

Is the nation’s biggest union workforce, at the Postal Service, President Trump’s next target?

The Washington Post broke the news February 20 that Trump was on the verge of issuing an executive order to dissolve the independent leadership of USPS and move it into the executive branch under the Department of Commerce, now led by enthusiastic privatizer Howard Lutnick, a Wall Street banker. Trump confirmed the next day that he was “looking at” this option.

Postal Workers Brace for Trump’s Wrecking Ball

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A large crowd of people in red "Fight Like Hell" shirts stand outside in bright sunlight. Some hold printed NALC signs with the slogans "Hell No to Attacks on Us" and "Fight Like Hell!"

Welcome, Danielle!

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Author(s): 
Alexandra Bradbury

Our newest staff writer/organizer, Danielle Smith, joined the Labor Notes staff in October. Danielle is a dynamo—a skilled journalist and organizer.

As a labor reporter for the legal news website Law360.com, she was a member and shop steward of the NewsGuild of New York. Later she joined the union staff as a full-time organizer, and worked on strikes at Business Insider and Law360.

A wave of anger is cresting at post offices across the country. Letter carriers are looking at the big raises that other union members have won—38 percent over four years at Boeing, 62 percent in six years at the East Coast ports, $7.50 in five years at UPS.

They’re comparing those gains to the tentative agreement their president handed them in October: 1.3 percent a year for three years.

Letter Carriers are Organizing Against an Insulting 1.3 Percent Raise

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At least 32 letter carriers in uniform, holding "no" signs printed in various fonts, pose in a post office parking lot. The group looks diverse in race and gender. Several give the "thumbs-down" hand signal.

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