INHUMAN CONDITIONS, ICE RAIDS PLAGUE GEORGIA HYUNDAI PLANT

Immigrants forcibly arrested during an ICE raid, Payday Report

The joint venture Hyundai and LG Energy plant, currently under construction in Georgia and employing Korean immigrant workers, had a notoriously bad safety record. Two workers, including one Korean, were killed in preventable accidents a few months ago.

The company and its subcontractors get away with these conditions because immigrant workers are in a fragile position, particularly these days when they are the target of President Trump’s ICE raids. Plants like these are often located in open-shop right-to-work states hostile to unions that could protect them from unsafe conditions.

A week ago, ICE agents raided the place. But they didn’t do it to enforce the labor safety laws or to protect the people working there. They did it to arrest some 300 Korean workers for deportation, part of the reign of terror these nation-wide raids are instilling on immigrant communities.

Many of  the immigrants rounded up around the country have been here and have lived clean lives for many years. Many have American spouses and American children. They are seeing their families ripped apart as they are arbitrarily arrested with little or no due process and shipped off to countries that are strange to them.

The Korean workers at the Hyundai plant were here legally. They were working in the United States on ESTA visas. ETSA allows foreign workers who are performing instruction or teaching workshops to work in the United States.

Under the terms of ESTA, foreign workers are not allowed to perform manual labor. However, most of the 300 Korean workers arrested at the plant were performing dangerous, hard manual labor.

On March 24th, Sunbok You, a 67-year-old construction worker, was killed when a forklift dragged him and his body was severed in half. On May 21st, 27-year-old Allen Kowalski, an employee of a subcontractor, was killed when a load fell off a forklift.

During previous Democratic administrations, workplace safety officials in federal courts routinely argued that “human trafficking” existed when an immigrant worker’s legal status was tied to an employer that was asking them to violate labor laws. Due to workers’ dependence on their employer for their immigration status and in violation of labor laws, workplace safety advocates have argued that such practices constitute “human trafficking.”  The company argues that it is not responsible since it does not directly employ the workers. They are employed by subcontractors but many see this as a way of simply getting around the labor laws.

Hyundai has also faced scrutiny for its use of child labor. In 2022, Reuters reported that four separate Hyundai supplier plants in Alabama were using underage immigrant children to do dangerous factory work.  In 2024, the Department of Labor sued Hyundai and one of its subcontracted staffing agencies after a 13-year-old girl was found to be working 50-60 hours a week at the plant instead of attending middle school.

The Georgia AFL-CIO has condemned both the terrible working conditions at the plant and the ICE raids. “When multiple workers have died during the construction of this very plant, the only federal action that could possibly be justified is to strengthen enforcement of occupational safety and health protections and other labor rights—a far cry from ICE raids,” said Georgia AFL-CIO President Yvonne Brooks.  “Hundreds of people abducted in the raids are now at the Folkston ICE Processing Center (FIPC) located in Charlton County. FIPC has a well-documented history of inhumane conditions and violations found by federal inspectors.”

Payday Report, 9/7

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TRUMP SAYS HE’S A FRIEND OF WORKING PEOPLE – HA! HA! WHAT A JOKE

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has moved to strip thousands of federal health agency employees of their collective bargaining rights, according to a union that called the effort illegal.

HHS officials confirmed Aug 23 that the department is ending its recognition of unions for a number of employees, and is reclaiming office space and equipment that had been used for union activities.
It’s the latest move by the Trump administration to put an end to collective bargaining with unions that represent federal employees.

Previously affected agencies include the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Environmental Protection Agency.
In May, an appeals court said the administration could move forward with President Donald Trump’s executive order aimed at ending collective bargaining rights for hundreds of thousands of federal employees while a lawsuit plays out.

Denver Pust wire services, 8/23

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COURT ALLOWS TRUMP TO END UNION BARGAINING FOR FEDERAL WORKERS

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A federal appeals court Aug. 1 lifted a judge’s order blocking President Trump from stripping hundreds of thousands of federal workers of the ability to engage in union bargaining with U.S. agencies.

A three-judge panel of the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals put on hold pending a further appeal an injunction issued by a lower court judge that had been obtained by six unions including the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE).

Trump’s order exempted more than a dozen federal agencies from obligations to bargain with unions. They include the Departments of Justice, State, Defense, Treasury, and Health and Human Services.

U.S. District Judge James Donato in San Francisco in June had issued the injunction blocking 21 agencies from implementing Trump’s March executive order exempting many federal agencies from obligations to bargain with unions.

Donato concluded Trump’s order retaliated against unions deemed critical of the president and that had sued over his efforts to overhaul the government, including the mass firings of agency employees, violating their right to free speech under the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment.

But the 9th Circuit panel said Trump’s order on its face “does not express any retaliatory animus,” and it agreed with the Trump administration that the president “would have taken the same action even in the absence of the protected conduct.”

Eliminating collective bargaining would allow agencies to alter working conditions and fire or discipline workers more easily, and it could prevent unions from challenging Trump administration initiatives in court.

Labor Start, 8/1

 

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BOEING JET WORKERS STRIKE 

In the St. Louis area, 3,200 Boeing fighter jet workers, members of the International Association of Machinists (IAM), are out on strike after voting down a union contract that would have included a 20% raise over 4 years.

Last fall, Boeing ended a 53-day strike in Washington State by offering workers a 38% wage increase over a 5-year period, but St . Louis area union members said they want to hold out for more.

“IAM District 837 members build the aircraft and defense systems that keep our country safe,” said IAM Midwest Territory General Vice President Sam Cicinelli. “They deserve nothing less than a contract that keeps their families secure and recognizes their unmatched expertise.”

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MEDICAL RESIDENTS NOW A NEW FRONT IN UNION ORGANIZING

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Resident physicians at LA General in Los Angeles, California, rally outside the hospital on April 3, 2025, for a fair contract. DEANDRE JACKSON

Resident physicians are doctors who have graduated from medical school and are now on hospital staffs. They are akin to apprentices before becoming fully licensed. In many hospitals and emergency rooms they are the ones who deal with patients on a daily basis.

They work very long hours under often stressful conditions. Their pay is low, considering their training and the importance of their work. That is why they have become a new front in labor organizing.

Across the country in the last few years medical residents have been unionizing and striking by the thousands. They comprise some of the largest new units to unionize in the United States. Some 40,000 of them are now members of Committee of Interns and Residents, a part of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).

“Medical residents are monumental to the care that patients receive,” declared Dr. Armin Tadayyon, a resident physician at the University of Buffalo’s affiliated hospitals who helped lead a strike last year of residents affiliated with another organization, the Union of American Physicians and Dentists, that resulted in their first contract. In an interview with Truthout, an online publication, Dr Tadayyon explained, “Our labor holds the hospital afloat. Most of the direct patient contact is with residents. If residents don’t show up to work, the hospitals are in crisis mode.”

Another resident interviewed, Dr. Mahina Iyengar of the Los Angeles General Medical Center, elaborated:

“In many hospitals you visit, the residents will be the people taking care of you. They’re the backbone of whatever hospital they’re working at.

“We pretty much do everything, depending on the specialty. We’re usually in the hospital before 6:00 am. We do multiple rounds a day with patients. We order medications, call families for information, consent patients for surgeries, perform surgery under supervision, talk to nurses, explain treatment plans, and much more. Almost all this day-to-day work is done by interns, residents, and fellows.

“ Resident physicians have been overworked and underpaid for decades,” said Dr. Iyergar, “as we’ve seen the consolidation and corporatization of health care. We’ve been taught over generations to just push through and ignore our working conditions.”

What prompted the change in residents’ attitude was the Covid pandemic where they were working 14 and 16-hour days and 80-hour weeks. Their collective realization of their exploitation by hospitals who were completely dependent on their labor led to their desire to organize.

 Unionization has helped residents advocate for better patient care and get funds for equipment and supplies that patients need. Patients are ill-served by attending physicians who are exhausted after putting in 16-hour shifts.

Now hospitals find that a new generation of residents are union-minded and wish to be part of the labor movement.

Labor Start, 7/21

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GARBAGE WORKERS STRIKE SPREADS TO ATLANTA & SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA 

On July 9, Payday Report described a strike of garbage workers employed by the private contractor, Republic Services,that had spread to Illinois, Georgia, Washington State, and Massachusetts. 

Now, the strike has spread to Atlanta as well as to Southern California in Orange County and the suburbs of San Diego.

“Republic abuses and underpays workers across the country,” Sean M. O’Brien, Teamsters president, said in a statement Wednesday. “We will flood the streets and shut down garbage collection in state after state. Workers are uniting nationwide, and we will get the wages and benefits we’ve earned, come hell or high water.”

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UNIONS FEAR DEMISE OF NIOSH

 Multiple labor unions and states are challenging the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

NIOSH is an agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that funds and develops research to support workplace safety regulations, including studies aimed to reduce cancer risk in firefighters and treat respiratory diseases in miners. NIOSH also evaluates the safety of worksite protective gear and investigates workplace disease outbreaks and health hazards.

In March 2025, HHS announced a “dramatic restructuring” of the NIOSH workforce, and over the course of the next few months, laid off approximately 90% of its workforce. Absent the support of NIOSH research and expertise, worker advocates fear that OSHA’s workplace safety enforcement will deteriorate. Already, the loss of NIOSH research leaves OSHA’s proposed heat stress regulations vulnerable to attack.

On Labor, 7/13

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WRITERS GUILD EAST BLASTS PARAMOUNT SURRENDER OVER CBS 60 MINUTES BROADCAST

The settlement of Trump’s lawsuit against CBS has been sharply criticized by the Writers Guild of America East “as a capitulation to Trump threats to “journalists’ ability to do their job reporting on powerful public figures.”

They have branded the settlement a brazenly “transparent  attempt to curry favors with an administration in the hopes it will allow the Paramount (CBS’ parent company) and Skydance Media merger to be cleared for approval.” The settlement calls for Paramount to pay $16 million for Trump’s legal fees and a donation to his future presidential library. The media company also agreed that future 60 Minutes broadcasts with presidential candidates will release transcripts of the interviews “subject to redactions as required for legal or national security concerns.”

Trump sued the network, claiming the 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris during last year’s presidential campaign had been edited to make her look good, causing him “mental anguish.”

“The Writers Guild of America East stands behind the exemplary work of our members at 60 Minutes and CBS News,” said the Guild statement. “We wish their bosses at Paramount Global had the courage to do the same.”

The Wrap, 7/2

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LABOR PLAYS IMPORTANT ROLE IN “NO KINGS” PROTESTS

A protester dressed as a founding father hold a flag that reads “No Kings In America” at a “No Kings” protest outside the Michigan Capitol in Lansing, Michigan on June 14.
(PHOTO BY JEFF KOWALSKY/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES)

For days, the news has been filled with accounts of the massive “No Kings” demonstrations around the country on Oct. 14. The turnout in some 2,000 cities and small towns all across America involving an estimated five million people, the largest in memory, was a thunderous  protest against the policies of President Donald Trump.

They represented Americans of many political views but all united in opposition to Trump’s agenda of huge tax breaks for billionaires while taking crippling cuts to basic services for poor and middle class families, his attacks on the U.S. Constitution, and his attempts to set himself up as some kind of American king.

“No Kings” protest along Fifth Avenue in New York City on June 14

Although most unions didn’t officially mobilize members to protest as organized groups, union members were an important part of the demonstrations.  The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) was prominent in Philadelphia and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) in California and the South. In New York City, the most organized groupings were the college teachers union PSC-CUNY, the Communication Workers of America and federal workers, who have been at the center of Trump’s efforts to destroy the labor movement.

Among the tens of thousands who turned out in Philadelphia were members of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers.  ​“We know that when organized labor is defeated, it usually means open season for everybody else,”  said one high school teacher and PFT member. “They’re not done attacking organized labor and trying to dismantle what remains of working class organizations.”

 Jen Gaboury, first vice president of PSC-CUNY, branded Trump’s authoritarian overreach as “really financial abuse of workers, New Yorkers, of people who need the social safety net.”

Carl Rosen, president of United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America, says a new formation called Labor for Democracy brought together 15 national unions and hundreds of locals and regions to back the No Kings Day protests, recognizing ​“that the labor movement has a special role to play in defending democracy in our country.”

Labor for Democracy is planning to launch a political education program for rank-and-file union members. Unions are a major force as part of an effort to defeat Trump’s so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill” whose provisions like eligibility changes to Medicaid would cut healthcare coverage to nearly 11 million people and have a  devastating impact on millions of working people if the bill passes.

Jackson Potter, vice president of the Chicago Teachers Union also spoke about a plan to  develop a joint strategy alongside national education unions, federal unions, logistics workers and the AFL-CIO. Potter says the game plan is to mobilize workers to “defend our communities against the billionaire agenda hellbent on cutting healthcare, food for hungry children and school funding.”

In These Times, 6/16

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LABOR LEADERS CONDEMN ARREST OF UNION HEAD IN L.A. ICE RAIDS

Labor unions around the US rallied together June 8 to demand the release of a labor leader arrested and injured during Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids in Los Angeles.

David Huerta, president of Service Employees International Union California and SEIU United Service Workers West, was serving as a community observer during an ICE raid in Los Angeles on Friday when federal agents arrested him over allegations of interfering.

He was initially hospitalized and released later on Friday for injuries sustained during the arrest. Videos circulating online show officers shoving Huerta to the ground during the arrest before handcuffing him.

“What happened to me is not about me; this is about something much bigger. This is about how we as a community stand together and resist the injustice that’s happening,” Huerta said in a statement after his release from the hospital. “Hard-working people, and members of our family and our community, are being treated like criminals. We all collectively have to object to this madness because this is not justice. This is injustice. And we all have to stand on the right side of justice.”

“As the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda has unnecessarily targeted our hard-working immigrant brothers and sisters, David was exercising his constitutional rights and conducting legal observation of ICE activity in his community,” Liz Shuler, president of the AFL-CIO, said in a statement. “The labor movement stands with David and we will continue to demand justice for our union brother until he is released.”

Leaders of major unions convened hundreds of protesters outside justice department headquarters in Washington DC.

“David was the first one to say this isn’t just about him,” said Becky Pringle, president of the National Education Association, the largest teachers union in the country. “We know what this administration is doing, so we are saying to Donald Trump and all of his allies: we will not, we will not, scapegoat immigrants.”

Jaime Contreras, an executive vice-president at the SEIU 32BJ, representing workers across the north-eastern United States, said Huerta’s case would serve as a rallying cry for his members and supporters, because “there’s a lot more people that agree with us than agree with them”.

“David for us is … he’s a labor leader, he’s a brother, he’s a union member, he’s a respected leader in California, and we’re here to let him know that he’s not alone,” Contreras said..

“We’re not gonna stand by that,” Contreras declared. “There’s always a next election, so we’re gonna make everybody pay at the voting booth when it comes to election time.”

In New York City, SEIU 32BJ’s president, Manny Pastreich, told union members and protesters: “Everything we hold dear is under attack. Unions, workers, freedom, immigrant communities, healthcare, the constitution, our union brothers and sisters.

“We must fight back. We reject these attacks on our communities and demand the immediate release of our union brother David Huerta,” he said.

Huerta, well-known among Democrats in California given his long record as a union leader in the state, received support from governor, Gavin Newsom and other Democratic officials across the US, including the House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries.

“SEIU refuses to be silent in the face of these horrific attacks on working communities. Standing in solidarity as a movement of working people is not new to us,” said April Verrett, international president of SEIU.

“SEIU protects the rights and dignity of hard-working people, and the safety of workers in the workplace. Imagine what it feels like for thousands of workers around the country to be attacked by masked men with weapons, or to bear witness to their co-workers getting dragged away, knowing their kids may not see them again. We demand David Huerta’s immediate release and an end to these abusive workplace raids.”

In addition to New York and Washington DC, SEIU led or participated in rallies in Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Denver, Harrisburg, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Portland, Oregon, Raleigh-Durham, Sacramento, San Francisco, Seattle and St Paul, Minnesota, to call for Huerta’s release, for the California national guard to stand down and for an end to the ICE raids..

Lee Saunders, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the largest public employee union in the US, also called for Huerta’s release.

“Americans have a constitutional right to free speech. That right was violated when ICE agents violently arrested and injured Huerta as he peacefully observed immigration enforcement activity in his community,” Saunders said. “Huerta was exercising his legal right to speak out and bear witness.”\

Labor Start, 6/10, The Guardian, 6/9, Also see websites and news releases of AFL-CIO, SEIU, CWA, and several others.

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