Kari Thompson

Environmental groups and unions representing construction workers found common ground this summer over President Trump’s blocking of offshore wind projects.

The Revolution Wind offshore turbine farm off the coast of Rhode Island is 80 percent complete, but its fate remains uncertain after the Department of Interior issued a stop-work order on August 22.

“The full thing was finally getting put together, and having it stopped like that was out of nowhere,” said Antonio Gianfrancesco, a Laborer from Local 271 who has been working the project for more than two years.

Trump’s War on Wind: Tens of Thousands of Jobs Destroyed, Unions Say

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A group of people in hi-viz vests and hardhats walk by huge turbine components

Union workers who make diesel locomotives at a plant in Pennsylvania are pushing ahead with their campaign to manufacture more green-powered locomotives.

The workers aim to clean up diesel railroad pollution while also revitalizing their locomotive engine manufacturing plant in Erie. But they’re facing roadblocks, and the recent federal chaos has added to the uncertainty. In the meantime, workers are making direct changes to clean up their jobsite.

Locomotive Builders Forge Green Rail Project

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A rally with 30 or so people with a mixture of colorful signs, including Painters Union and a “We Want Good Jobs and Health Environments” banner

As the Trump administration sows chaos, it is only intensifying global heating—and the storms, heat waves, and fires that come with it—while gutting the safety nets that should support working people in times of crisis.

If the “cost of living” is angering and dividing folks now, imagine what compounding climate disasters will do to food, water, energy, and housing costs.

We have to keep our eyes on the prize: an economy that sustains workers and their families, and allows us the free time to enjoy the wealth and communities we create.

Fight the Boss, Build a Green Future

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Workers join the top piece of a giant wind turbine to the bottom. They are tiny against its hugeness.

After 46 days on the picket line, nurses walked back into eight Providence hospitals across Oregon in good spirits after ratifying a new contract with their employer February 26. Their effort was bolstered by striking doctors, nurse practitioners, and other hospitalists at Providence St. Vincent’s, and doctors, nurses, and midwives at the Providence Women’s Clinics.

Oregon Nurses End 46-Day Strike with Pay and Staffing Agreements

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Six smiling people with green and blue strike signs stand under a tent in the snow.

Oregon Nurses Reject Proposal, Keep Striking

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Kari Thompson

Nurses across Oregon remain on strike at Providence Health and Services more than a month after they first walked out. Members at all eight hospitals rejected a tentative agreement by more than 80 percent when it was put to a vote in early February.

The union says the hospital continues to bargain in bad faith and has not made enough movement on workers’ priorities.

Don’t Panic—Organize!

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Author(s): 
Kari Thompson

The Trump administration has swept into office with a volley of attacks: Gutting programs that acknowledge race and gender inequality. Freezing funding for a wide swath of programs (though that order has already been rescinded). New work rules. Immigration raids. Replacing career civil servants with political lackeys. A mass email inviting federal employees to resign.

The firehose of bad ideas over the past week is alarming and overwhelming. It’s never been more important for organizers to remember: workers do have power.

Declaring that understaffing had them “running on empty,” 5,000 nurses, doctors, midwives, and nurse practitioners walked off the job January 10 in an open-ended strike at Providence Health and Services, the dominant hospital chain in the Pacific Northwest.

The strikers work at eight hospitals plus women’s health clinics across Oregon. They’re demanding proper staffing, affordable health insurance, and competitive pay that can attract and retain seasoned workers.

Nurses and Doctors Are on Strike at Eight Oregon Hospitals

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Six people, dressed for a chilly day, holding ONA "Nurses on Strike" picket signs, shout or sing against a gray Oregon sky alongside a road. One man holds the leash of a dog. Most people in the photo appear to be white women.

It is the largest successful union election in recent memory: 10,000 nurses will be joining the Teamsters. They work for hospital conglomerate Corewell Health at eight hospitals and one outpatient facility, all in southeast Michigan.

“We’re so excited we can hardly stand it,” said Katherine Wallace, a nurse at the hospital in Troy, who has been a core part of the campaign since October 2023.

The union won the November election with 63 percent, with more than 85 percent voting. The union committee is Nurses for Nurses, part of Teamsters Joint Council 43.

Michigan Nurses Win the Largest Union Election in Years

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A dozen nurses with Teamsters signs face the camera, looking excited.

Eight hundred workers near Toronto have won the first Walmart warehouse union in Canada or the U.S.

“Honestly I was pretty nervous at first because I didn’t want to lose my job,” said 29-year employee Rodolfo Pilozo, a member of “Team Red,” the organizing committee behind the September victory.

The Walmart distribution center is in Mississauga, Ontario, an hour from the western New York border. Workers there began organizing last December to join Unifor, Canada’s largest private-sector union.

Walmart Warehouse Workers Win First Union in Canada

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A worker holds a flyer in the air. His hat reads: "Vote Unifor"