Construction Bosses Are Using Elaborate Schemes to Harm Workers

This article is a joint publication of Workday Magazine and The American Prospect. In 2020, Alejandro was working a construction job in the Madison, Wisconsin, metro area, doing texture, painting, and drywall on residential homes, when his boss asked him to do something strange. The boss gave Alejandro a check, and told him to go to a local bakery to cash it. He was then instructed to use that cash to pay himself and his co-worker for their labor. Alejandro, who arrived in the U.S. from Mexico in 2019 and is now 29, was unfamiliar with employment practices in this country and did as he was told, paying himself $800 every two weeks.

“One Job Should Be Enough”: How 9,000 Grocery Workers Are Banding Together in Minnesota

Monica Duque never knows how many hours she is going to get in a given week. She works at the Jerry’s Cub Foods on East Lake Street at the front of the store, helping customers, overseeing cashiering, and running online shopping. She finds out her hours, she explains, “when the schedule is posted on Friday, for the week after next.” 

“There is no consistency,” says the 24 year old, which makes it hard to save money, or plan much for the future. She makes a little over $20 an hour, and even being cut 10 hours in a week can have a big impact on her finances. “I can do morning one day then night shift the next day.

How Healthcare Workers Are Defending Their Transgender Patients from Trump’s Attacks

In the five years Quinn has worked as a licensed counselor, they have seen the astonishing positive impact that gender-affirming care can have on young patients’ lives. “You talk to these kids, and they can have such complicated experiences with depression and social anxiety, and then you start providing hormones and gender-affirming care, and you see this dramatic difference in how they are able to engage with the world,” explained Quinn, who is going by a pseudonym. “It’s so clear that this is what helps our trans young people to be contributing to society and fully themselves, to meet expected life milestones in ways that are healthy, and connect with community in good ways.”

Because Quinn’s clinic relies on federal funding, it is in the crosshairs of the Trump administration’s attempts to cut off access to gender-affirming healthcare for people under the age of 19. Quinn and their coworkers are worried about the future, but they’re determined not to reduce any services. 

In the wake of the executive orders threatening to cut federal funding to programs providing gender affirming care, the clinic did make some changes to its public-facing communications. “We were asked to take our pronouns out of our signature box, and information about our gender-affirming support groups and care was taken off the website,” said Quinn, who requested I not identify the location, name, or type of clinic out of fear of retribution.

Cómo puede el movimiento laboral luchar contra la agenda de deportaciones masivas de Trump

Este es un momento aterrador para los trabajadores inmigrantes. El presidente electo Donald Trump hizo campaña con el lema “deportaciones masivas ahora” y nombró a un equipo de extremistas anti-inmigrantes. La dirigencia del Partido Demócrata se ha inclinado hacia la derecha en este tema, adoptando la retórica de Trump sobre “asegurar la frontera” y las políticas republicanas fundamentales. Un proyecto de ley que apuntaría a personas indocumentadas para deportación si son simplemente acusadas, no condenadas, de delitos no violentos como el hurto en tiendas fue aprobado en la Cámara de Representantes con apoyo bipartidista. Está avanzando en el Senado, donde sólo ocho demócratas se opusieron a su avance.

How Labor Can Fight Back Against Trump’s Mass Deportation Agenda

This article is a joint publication of Workday Magazine and Labor Notes. This is a frightening time for immigrant workers. President-elect Donald Trump ran on the slogan “mass deportations now,” and has appointed a team of anti-immigrant hardliners. The leadership of the Democratic Party has lurched to the right on this issue, adopting Trump’s rhetoric about “securing the border,” and embracing core Republican policies. 

A bill that would target undocumented people for deportations if they are merely accused—not convicted—of nonviolent crimes like shoplifting passed in the House with bipartisan support. It’s moving forward in the Senate where only eight Democrats opposed its advance.