These are some noteworthy labor headlines we read this week.

Weekly Labor Reads:

TOP STORY

Unions sue over Trump's efforts to nix federal worker job protections

On Wednesday, unions representing federal workers renewed their lawsuit to block President Trump from stripping tens of thousands ​of government employees of job protections. The lawsuit claims Trump's 2025 executive order creating a new category of at-will federal employees violates federal law and the U.S. Constitution. An estimated 50,000 federal employees will be reclassified under the new "Schedule Policy/Career" category, allowing them to be fired at will and cutting ​off the longstanding merit-based system. The move is a key piece of broader efforts by the Trump administration to shrink ​and reshape the federal workforce.

Reuters 

Daniel Wiessner

FEDERAL UPDATES

Labor Secretary’s Tenure Marked by Frequent Travel and Internal Tumult

The New York Times 

Rebecca Davis O’Brien and Evan Gorelick

LABOR DISPUTES

A potential strike and a season at risk: why the WNBA’s labor battle is nearing its 11th hour



The Guardian

Jordan Robinson

IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT

ICE has spun a massive surveillance web. We talked to people caught in it

NPR

Jude Joffe-Block and Meg Anderson

AUDIO STORIES

Haymarket Originals: Heat the Ground Up



Haymarket

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.

Justice for Janitors History Day

Members of SEIU-USWW gathered at their union hall in May 2011 to share their stories, memories, photographs, clippings and artifacts from the “Justice for Janitors” campaign of the 1980s-00s. Long-time union member Victoria Marquez, pictured here, brought an extensive collection of documents, buttons, t-shirts, and other items. Later, she shared her life story with Andrew Gomez as part of a UCLA Oral History Research Center project. You can listen to and read her story here.

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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.