JB Pritzker Steps Up

And the NYC Council vows to raise grocery delivery wages

News and Views

• After facing the wrath of organized labor earlier this year when he vetoed legislation that would have protected warehouse workers, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker just signed two union-backed bills at an event held by the state AFL-CIO. The bills will protect the state’s workers Trump rolls back as federal protections – including by requiring the state Labor Department to replace any federal worker safety standards that are repealed. Organizing works!

• The New York City Council is promising to override Mayor Eric Adams’ vetoes of measures to raise the wages of the city’s more than 20,000 grocery delivery workers.

• Also in the Big Apple, Labor Notes reports on Columbia University replacing unionized graduate students with non-union adjuncts to teach the school’s core curriculum.

• Julie Su, former President Joe Biden’s Labor Secretary, takes a big-picture look at the Trump administration’s assaults on unions. “The Trump administration has stripped workers of their unions at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). At 430,000 workers, this is by far the single biggest employer-imposed contract abrogation in American history,” Su writes.

• The Nation talks to Chris Smalls about his July journey on the Freedom Flotilla – an effort to bring aid to the Gaza Strip that was thwarted by Israel’s military.

• Air Canada continues to cancel flights ahead of a planned flight attendant strike this weekend. The work stoppage is likely to cause the airline to cancel hundreds of flights this weekend.

• Teamsters for a Democratic Union discusses the power of the right to strike over deadlocked grievances — a contract provision that has empowered the union to force UPS to resolve grievances.