These are some noteworthy labor headlines we read this week.

Weekend Labor Reads:

Newsom signs bill expanding California labor board oversight of employer disputes, union elections

On Tuesday, Governor Newsom signed a California bill that greatly expands the state’s ability to oversee workplace disputes and union elections. The legislation gives the state authority over matters usually settled by the federal National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), including union elections, charges of workplace retaliation and other disputes between private employers and workers, in the event the NLRB fails to respond. This measure comes at a time when federal labor enforcement has been hampered by President Trump’s cuts. California workers who do not receive a timely response from the federal board can now petition the California Public Employment Relations Board to enforce their rights. President of the California Federation of Labor Unions, Lorena Gonzalez, said the bill is “the most significant labor law reform in nearly a century.” 

Los Angeles Times

Suhauna Hussain and Melody Gutierrez

FEDERAL UPDATES

How the Shutdown Is Affecting Federal Services and Workers

The New York Times

Elena Shao and Lazaro Gamio

FEDERAL UPDATES

Unions sue to block mass firings during shutdown

The Hill

Zach Schonfeld

FEDERAL UPDATES



Federal agencies are rehiring workers and spending more after DOGE's push to cut

NPR

Stephen Fowler, Shannon Bond

and Jenna McLaughlin

HIGHER EDUCATION

What's at stake as USC and LMU push back against untenured faculty unions?

LAist

Julia Barajas

Remember This!

Memory Work Los Angeles is a project of UCLA IRLE. We bring the past to the present to highlight the diverse experiences and perspectives of working people in Southern California, the changing world of work, and the continuing struggle for equality.

Organizing for Change, Changing to Organize (1997)

Produced by the AFL-CIO, this short documentary highlights various unions, workers and organizers making concerted investments in organizing in the 1990s. Speakers comment on what makes an organizing campaign successful and how unions have improved their workplaces. Discover more labor history on the Memory Work website. 

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UCLA's Institute for Research on Labor and Employment (IRLE) advances labor research and education for workplace justice. Through the work of its units – the UCLA Labor Center, the Human Resources Roundtable, the Labor Occupational Safety and Health program (LOSH) and its academic program, UCLA Labor Studies – the Institute forms wide-ranging research and agendas that carry UCLA into the Los Angeles community and beyond.