Organization of Staff Analysts

06/13/2026

THIS DAY IN LABOR HISTORY - June 13th
"Trouble In The Ranks"

On this day in Labor History the year was 1914. That was the day that the Miner’s Union Day parade was scheduled in Butte, Montana. In spite of the festivities trouble was brewing down in the copper mines.

06/12/2026

How to Get a Labor Rights Bill Through a GOP House
by
Timothy Noah THE NEW REPUBLIC

Fri, June 12, 2026 at 6:00 AM EDT

In Oscar Wilde's 1895 comedy The Importance of Being Earnest, the epigram-spouting Lady Bracknell is told by Jack Worthing, her daughter's suitor, that he's lost both his parents. To this, the lady replies imperiously: "To lose one parent, Mr. Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness." I thought of Lady Bracknell this week on learning that Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson has now let not one but two pro-union bills tiptoe past him to win a House floor vote. Even in a Democratic House, passage within a six-month period of two measures to expand labor rights would be a rarity.

I'd begun to wonder when we'd see a third when I learned that the House Armed Services Committee last week adopted an amendment to this year's defense authorization bill restoring collective-bargaining rights for civilian workers in the Defense Department, and that the same language last year cleared the House as part of that year's defense authorization bill before the Senate stripped it out in House-Senate conference prior to final passage. Clearly the legislative politics surrounding labor rights are shifting in labor's favor.

Having said that, I advise you not to get too excited. The first of these labor bills, introduced by Representative Jared Golden, Democrat of Maine, would restore collective-bargaining rights to all federal workers; like the defense authorization amendment, the Protect America's Workforce Act would reverse a couple of union-busting executive orders from President Donald Trump. But after clearing the House in December, 231–195, it's going nowhere in the Republican Senate. The second labor bill was introduced by Representative Donald Norcross, Democrat of New Jersey (who also sponsored the defense authorization amendment). The Faster Labor Contracts Act would make it easier for newly established union locals to win their first contract. But after passing the House on June 9, 230–193, Norcross's bill faces similarly dismal odds in the Republican Senate.

Even if the Senate managed to pass one or both bills, it wouldn't matter, because the dependably anti-labor Trump (who, bafflingly, increased his share of the working-class vote from 51 percent in 2016 to 56 percent in 2024) would veto it. Norcross's defense authorization amendment, if it clears the House again, will attract less notice, and Trump might not bother to veto an entire Defense bill over a labor provision. But my guess is he won't have to, because the Senate will likely strip it out again before it gets to his desk.

I can't tell you how to get a pro-labor bill through the Senate. But to get one through the House, it seems pretty clear that, so long as Republicans are in the majority, you must avoid the Education and the Workforce Committee. None of the three pro-labor bills under discussion cleared that committee, which is so anti-labor that every time the GOP retakes the House, Republican leaders change its name from "Education and Labor" to "Education and the Workforce" because the very word "labor" disturbs their sleep.

The defense authorization amendment bypassed Education and the Workforce because it lacks jurisdiction over the military. December's bill to restore collective-bargaining rights to all federal workers and this week's bill removing management obstacles to negotiating union contracts both got to the House floor by discharge petition, a parliamentary procedure by which any House member may collect signatures to force a vote on a bill bottled up in committee. Once that member has acquired 218 signatures (i.e., a majority), they can bring the bill to the floor.

Organizing a workplace can be a pyrrhic victory if management refuses to agree to a contract. Bloomberg's Robert Combs calculated in 2022 that it took 465 days on average to negotiate a union contract, and that was when we had a pro-labor National Labor Relations Board. It almost certainly takes longer now. According to the nonprofit Economic Policy Institute, Starbucks baristas in Buffalo have been negotiating a contract for 1,645 days, and Amazon warehouse workers in Staten Island have been at it for 1,532 days.

There isn't much a union can do about such management foot-dragging except file an unfair labor practice complaint with the NLRB, and if a Republican is in the White House, the NLRB won't likely be very responsive. Even under Democratic administrations the NLRB lacks statutory authority to level meaningful penalties. The Faster Labor Contracts Act would amend the 1935 National Labor Relations Act to require that employers begin negotiating a labor contract within 10 days of a union election. If 90 days pass without an agreement, the matter will be referred to a mediator, and if the mediator can't hammer out an agreement within 30 days the matter will be referred to a binding three-person arbitration panel. Getting a bill like that to the House floor was no small accomplishment.

Labor bills aren't the only measures that are moving through the House by discharge petition these days. As Trump's popularity plummets, Johnson is losing control over his caucus, resulting in the House turning into a sort of discharge-petition rager. There have been 23 in this Congress, of which nine have been successful. That's an excellent batting average. One discharge petition was used to compel Trump to release the Jeffrey Epstein files. Another was used to pass a Ukraine aid package. What's unusual about the labor discharge petitions is that they cross an ideological boundary. Republicans don't intrinsically oppose releasing files about child predators or containing Russian aggression. But they do intrinsically oppose labor unions. Now a breakaway Republican faction is challenging that.

Five Republicans signed the discharge petition to bring the Protect America's Workforce Act to the House floor. They were: Representatives Nick LaLota and Michael Lawler of New York; Representatives Brian Fitzpatrick and Robert Bresnahan of Pennsylvania; and Representative Don Bacon of Nebraska. All except Bacon represent blue states. That was a year ago. In March and April, all five signed the discharge petition for the Faster Labor Contracts Act, joined this time by two red-staters: Representatives Max Miller of Ohio and Riley Moore of West Virginia. And in the final vote, these seven Republicans were joined by 13 more. In both last December's bargaining rights bill and this week's union contract bill, 20 House Republicans voted for a pro-union bill. That tells me the December vote was not a fluke. When more than one-third of the Republican House caucus casts pro-union votes, even though few of these members supported labor rights in the past, that's news.

Notably, this latest vote is about something the business lobby cares about a lot more than it does about whether federal workers organize; federal workers don't work for private employers. The Education and the Workforce Committee website (controlled by the Republican majority) posted a list of objections to the Faster Labor Contracts Act from business leaders: "an unconstitutional taking," "a rushed floor vote," "undermines the principle of voluntary agreement," and so on. Meanwhile, the committee's ranking Democrat, Representative Bobby Scott of Virginia, took to the floor to praise the bill for "making the right to organize real, not theoretical."

In the end, it didn't matter what the Education and the Workforce majority thought. The bill cleared the House anyway. Those 20 pro-union Republican votes aren't yet able to make much difference. But they're a sign that labor solidarity is starting to undermine partisan solidarity. Senate Republicans, take heed.

06/12/2026

THIS DAY IN LABOR HISTORY - June 12th
"Chicago, Hog Butcher For The World"

On this day in Labor History the year was 1904. That was the day that 18,000 workers in the Chicago’s stockyards went out on strike. Work in the stockyards was often brutal and dangerous. Thousands of workers toiled in the yards, many of them immigrants from Eastern Europe.

06/12/2026

ANALYSTS RULE!!!! Congratulations to Brother Eric!

Eric Wollman wins City & State’s 2026 state budget poll

The former New York City comptroller’s office staffer correctly predicted a very late budget. Having decades of government experience paid off in City & State’s budget poll.

By Peter Sterne
News & Opinion Editor CITY AND STATE
June 12, 2026 05:00 AM ET

More than 200 people entered City & State’s 2026 state budget poll, but only one came close to guessing the date that the budget finally passed.

Eric Wollman, a former staffer in the New York City comptroller’s office, predicted that the budget would be passed at 1 a.m. on May 26. In the end, the final budget bills passed on the night of May 27 – just one day later, and nearly two months after the April 1 deadline.

How did Wollman come so close? “Well, May 26 is my birthday, so that was an easy one to just pick a date, and I knew it would be fairly late,” Wollman told City & State.

It might not take decades of experience with municipal finance to predict that the state budget would be late yet again, but it doesn’t hurt either. Wollman spent 46 years working for the New York City comptroller’s office, beginning under Harrison Goldin in the 1970s and ending under Scott Stringer. He’s now a special assistant to the chair of the Organization of Staff Analysts, a union representing municipal employees.

Wollman said he followed this year’s budget negotiations closely, though not “microscopically,” and was particularly surprised by the changes to Tier 6 pension reforms that changed the mandatory retirement age for cops. “I’m very pro-union,” he said. “Anything is good for working people and unionists, I support.”

Wollman visited the City & State newsroom this week to collect his prize: a custom City & State New York blanket. He was delighted to receive recognition from City & State, which he’s been reading ever since it launched 20 years ago as the City Hall newspaper.

“I’m a loyal subscriber,” he said. “I was a subscriber at one time – I think, as a city employee, I was comped – but I think it’s a must-read paper, actually.”

“I always am cutting and pasting things that are written (on the site) and commiserating with my former fellow colleagues and political people, so it’s entertaining,” he added. “It’s my version of the sports section.”

06/12/2026

THIS DAY IN LABOR HISTORY - June 11th
"Death Of An Icon"

On this day in Labor History the year was 1969. That was the day that labor leader John L. Lewis died. Born to a Welsh-American Coal mining family in Iowa, Lewis became the leading champion of industrial unionism in the 1930s.

06/10/2026

House Passes Union Contract Bill, Bucking Republican Leaders

Twenty G.O.P lawmakers broke with Speaker Mike Johnson and joined Democrats in backing a bill to amend the National Labor Relations Act.

By Olivia Diaz NY TIMES
Reporting from the Capitol
Published June 9, 2026 Updated June 10, 2026, 10:40 a.m. ET

The House on Tuesday approved a Democratic bill aiming to fast-track contract negotiations between employers and newly created unions, after 20 Republicans defied their leaders to force it to the floor and push it to passage.

The measure, which passed on a 230-to-193 vote, faces a slim chance in the Senate and would be all but certain to be vetoed by President Trump even if it were to reach his desk. Still, the vote was the latest reflection of Speaker Mike Johnson’s weak hold on his narrow majority, whose members have steered around him time and again and teamed with Democrats to win passage of legislation that he has toiled to block.

On Tuesday, a sizable bloc of Republicans, including several from competitive districts who are slogging through tough re-election fights, joined with Democrats to push through a pro-union bill. It would impose an initial 90-day deadline on contract negotiations for new unions and their employers, along with paths to mediation and arbitration if the parties reach an impasse.

Representative Donald Norcross, Democrat of New Jersey and the sponsor of the bill, said he had written it to speed up workplace contract negotiations so that employers could not drag them out in the hopes of undercutting workers’ leverage.

“Union busting is illegal, and it’s wrong and it has been for generations,” Mr. Norcross said. “But with the dirty tactics of indefinite delays, many employers are working relentlessly to kill their employees’ unions.”

While several Republicans supported the legislation from the outset, party leaders declined to act on it. So Mr. Norcross turned to a procedural maneuver known as a discharge petition, which allows lawmakers to circumvent House leaders and force a bill to the floor if a majority of members sign on in support.

Seven G.O.P. lawmakers did so and even more joined Democrats on Tuesday, in voting in favor of the legislation. Among the Republicans who banded together with Democrats to force action on the measure, several are seeking re-election in competitive districts, including Representatives Mike Lawler of New York and Brian Fitzpatrick and Rob Bresnahan Jr., both of Pennsylvania. Another, Representative Don Bacon, who represents a center-leaning district in Nebraska, is retiring.

Some other swing-district Republicans joined them on Tuesday night in backing the bill, including Representatives Derrick Van Orden of Wisconsin and Maria Elvira Salazar of Florida.

Historically, discharge petitions have rarely been successful, but this Congress has been an exception, as Mr. Johnson has been unable to stop Republicans from straying from the party line on a wide variety of issues. Democrats successfully employed the tactic to win passage of legislation directing the Justice Department to release files related to the convicted s*x offender Jeffrey Epstein, which became law, as well as another labor-related bill aimed at overturning Mr. Trump’s executive order stripping federal workers’ union protections, which has stalled in the Senate. Last week, they used it to win approval of a bill with new aid for Ukraine that also would impose new sanctions against Russia, defying both Mr. Johnson and Mr. Trump.

The trend reflects growing frustration among Republicans toward Mr. Johnson and party leaders as the midterm elections loom. Ahead of the vote, Mr. Fitzpatrick wrote on social media that the tactic had succeeded so many times only because Republican leaders were shirking their responsibilities by blocking popular policies.

“A successful discharge petition is clear and direct evidence of a poorly managed House Floor—because it demonstrates that the will of the majority of the People is being thwarted by the privileged few,” he wrote.

The vast majority of House Republicans on Tuesday opposed the bill. Representative Tim Walberg, Republican of Michigan, described the legislation as “a massive expansion of Washington’s power over American workers and job creators.”

“It is the latest attempt to put workers under the thumb of federal bureaucrats,” Mr. Walberg said.

Olivia Diaz is a congressional reporter for The New York Times and part of the 2026-27 Times Fellowship, a program for journalists early in their careers.

06/10/2026

Big Pay Raise for L.A. Stadium Workers Is Latest Win for Unions
Unions score victories, but resurgence in organized labor could be long way off

By Justin Lahart WALL STREET JOURNAL
June 10, 2026 12:01 pm ET

Recent labor actions, including a SoFi Stadium worker pay raise and American Axle strike, signal a surge in union activity.
Public approval for labor unions reached 68% in a Gallup poll last year.
Economists attribute increased union activity to inflation and a tight labor market, but some foresee regulatory headwinds.

Unions are having a moment.

Their latest headline-grabbing win came Tuesday, when workers at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles secured a big raise that pushed wages for the lowest-paid workers to $40 an hour. The deal was reached shortly after workers there voted to authorize a strike, just days before the U.S. national team’s opening World Cup match.
Also Tuesday, the House passed legislation that would force employers to quickly begin bargaining with newly unionized workers.

Elsewhere, nearly 1,000 workers at American Axle’s plant in Three Rivers, Mich., walked off the job this month, stalling production of axles for General Motors’ bestselling pickup trucks. In New York, hotel housekeepers, railroad workers and nurses all notched significant contract wins this year.

Hollywood screenwriters recently approved a new four-year deal. And California teachers have been waging a coordinated statewide campaign, winning new contracts in San Francisco and Los Angeles.
The recent flurry of activity pales in comparison to what unions were accomplishing in their 1950s heyday and the decades following. And few are predicting a return to that era.

But this year’s wins follow a wave of labor actions in 2025, including strikes by nurses, grocery workers, Boeing machinists and Starbucks employees. Cost-of-living concerns, brought on by the flaring up of inflation since the pandemic, have led more union workers to the picket line.

Americans’ views on unions have improved. In a Gallup poll last year, 68% of respondents said they approved of labor unions, up from 52% in 2012. (The low, in 2009, was 48%.) In a separate poll last year, 37% had a positive view of big business, down from 58% in 2012.

Strike activity has picked up, too—in each of the past three years, there have been upward of 30 work stoppages involving 1,000 or more employees, according to the Labor Department, the most since the mid-1990s.

Nor has the action been solely in traditional labor strongholds, such as the Northeast and California. An analysis of Labor Department data from the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, or EPI, found that the South added 214,000 unionized workers last year, compared with 249,000 for the rest of the country.
“It’s not a blip, what’s going on—there is a sort of larger spark,” said EPI President Heidi Shierholz.

Strikes used to be far more common. In the seven-week steel strike of 1952, some 600,000 steelworkers and 1.4 million workers in related industries were idled. The Labor Department recorded 470 work stoppages involving 1,000 or more employees that year—more than 15 times as many as last year. Union membership is also a shadow of what it once was: about a third of U.S. workers in the 1950s, versus 10% last year.

Suresh Naidu, an economist at Columbia University, pointed to a regulatory environment that favors employers—especially since the election of President Trump—and a decline in workplace social networks that can make collective action harder.

The pickup in union activity after the pandemic was driven not just by higher prices but also by an extraordinarily tight labor market—and that phase might be passing, said Michael Strain, an economist at the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute.

The unemployment rate was 4.3% last month, still low by historical standards but up nearly a full point from a multi decade low of 3.4% in 2023. A more competitive economic landscape makes it harder for unions to succeed the way they did in the 1950s, Strain added.

Historically, unionized workers have tended to get paid more than their nonunion peers. Labor Department figures show that over the three years ended in the first quarter, employers’ hourly costs for wages, salaries and other benefits for private-sector union workers rose 14.3%, versus 11% for nonunion workers.

But in the prior three years, the gap ran the other way: 10.5% for union workers versus 13.3%. Many unionized workers were locked into collective bargaining agreements that didn’t anticipate the extraordinary rise in inflation and lacked the cost-of-living adjustments that were far more common in the 1970s and 1980s.
Change in hourly private-industry compensation from a year earlier
Source: Labor Department via St. Louis Fed

Those workers “are willing to take action in order to get what they feel like they deserve that they didn’t receive when they were locked into those contract provisions,” said Johnnie Kallas, a professor at the School of Labor and Employment Relations at the University of Illinois.

A labor-action tracker that Kallas directs—which, unlike the Labor Department’s count, includes strikes involving fewer than 1,000 workers—shows fewer work stoppages in 2025 than in the previous three years, suggesting that cooling inflation and a softer labor market might have taken some of the edge off.

Still, high-profile union wins could fuel further organizing.
And Kallas thinks one thing has genuinely changed: More unions have become less conciliatory at the negotiating table. They are pressing harder until contracts are actually ratified rather than walking out for a few days to make a point, or when they feel like they have run out of options.

“Union leaders and workers are more willing to use strikes as a way to advance gains, as opposed to just an absolute last resort,” he said.

06/10/2026

THIS DAY IN LABOR HISTORY - June 10th
"Paid Prep Work"

On this day in Labor History the year was 1946. That was the day that the US Supreme Court handed down a decision that would have massive implication for American workers. The case was known as Anderson V. Mount Clemens Pottery.

06/09/2026

https://www.inforum.com/news/minnesota/afl-cio-president-aims-to-unionize-2-million-workers-in-5-years

Liz Shuler made the pledge at the labor federation’s national convention in Minneapolis, where leaders of an embattled labor movement look to reverse decades of decline

06/09/2026

THIS DAY IN LABOR HISTORY - June 9th
"McCarthy's Downfall"

On this day in Labor History the year was 1954. That was the day that marked the public downfall of Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy. Senator McCarthy had become the public face of anti-Communist hysteria during the Cold War. He used his position as Senator to make wild accusations against alleged....