Folks,
Greetings from Pittsburgh, where I just got back from attending a grant writing workshop hosted by the University of Pittsburgh. (Fingers crossed that we can get some more grants)
YES! Magazine Closes after 30 Years in Business
In a sign of how tough it is for independent journalism, earlier today, YES! Magazine announced that they were going to close after 30 years in business.
“This decision comes after years spent exhausting every possible path to sustainability for YES! including restructuring, scaling back operations, exploring bold new strategies, and calling on our community for support,” wrote the magazine in a statement. “But despite these efforts, slowed giving and reduced philanthropic investment in independent media—particularly media that centers the stories and voices of historically excluded communities—have left us without a viable path forward.”
For more, check out YES! Magazine.
$545 Raised Towards our $6,000 Monthly Goal
Good news, in our first day of fundraising, we raised $545 towards our $6,000 monthly goal. We need your help to impress foundation funders, which will be considering our application this summer.
Donate today to help us raise $6,000. Please, if you can, sign up as a recurring donor today.
First Public Pension Fund Divests from Tesla
Across the United States, the #TeslaTakedown movement has created such negative publicity that its stock price has been cut by nearly half. Now public pensions funds are voting to divest from Tesla.
Yesterday, the Lehigh County, Pa pension fund voted to divest from Tesla.
“Tesla’s earnings are down 71% from a year ago, their auto revenues have dropped 20%, and profitability has taken a sharp dive,” Lehigh County Controller Mark Pinsley said at a public event. “We owe it to our retirees and taxpayers to take a hard look at whether these are wise investments at this time.”
For more on the global movement to divest, check out the substack of Lehigh County Controller Mark Pinsley.
DOL to Stop Offering Childcare & Mental Health Care
Last month, it was reported that20% of the Department of Labor had resigned or been forced out.
Now, the Department of Labor has announced that it will no longer offer childcare. The move is likely designed to force even more employees to leave.
For more, check out Bloomberg.
Hollywood Unions Open to Trump Tariffs On Film & TV
Earlier this week, Trump floated the idea of slapping tariffs on foreign TV & film production. (Currently, film and TV products are tariff-free). With the rise of streaming productions, foreign productions and subtitled films are becoming a lot more popular.
While most unions have opposed the Trump tariffs, both IATSE and SAG-AFTRA indicated that they were open to discussions of tariffs on foreign productions.
“President Trump has correctly recognized that the American film and television industry faces an urgent threat from international competition,” IATSE said in a statement. “Foreign governments have successfully lured film and television productions, and the multitude of jobs they create, away from the United States with aggressive tax incentives and subsidies. Films intended for initial release in the U.S. are increasingly being shot overseas — and American workers and our economy are paying the price.”
For more, check out IATSE’s full statement.
Utah Anti-Union Law Put on Hold
In February, Utah passed a law that outlawed collective bargaining for public employees. Then, public employees gathered 240,000 signatures to issue a ballot referendum on the law.
Under Utah law, any law being challenged by a ballot referendum cannot take effect until voters have a chance to weigh in.
“This deeply unpopular bill would have stripped public workers of our rights,” the Protect Utah Workers coalition said in a statement. “We are one step closer to letting voters, not politicians, decide the future of collective bargaining in Utah.”
For more, check out the Protest Utah Workers coalition.
Big Law Firms Dropping Pro Bono Immigration Work
Finally, the New York Times has a look at why big law firms are dropping pro-bono immigration work in an effort to appease the Trump Administration:
Even though lawyers from the elite law firm had already been working with the public interest groups on drafting another lawsuit, Gibson Dunn said it could not put its name on this latest case, according to five people with direct knowledge of the matter who would speak only on the condition of anonymity because they feared alienating Gibson Dunn.
Lawyers from Gibson Dunn explained that it was afraid of incurring Mr. Trump’s wrath if the firm was associated publicly with a lawsuit that sought to restore legal representation for unaccompanied immigrant children, the five people said. Gibson Dunn is not the only large law firm shying away from immigration litigation.
Since March, Mr. Trump has targeted numerous large law firms with executive orders that would cripple their businesses by barring them from representing clients before the federal government. Many of the big firms have opted to reach deals with the White House to avoid Mr. Trump issuing an executive order against them. Other firms have challenged the orders in court.
Gibson Dunn has not received such an executive order or reached a deal with Mr. Trump.
But Gibson Dunn’s wariness about the recent immigration lawsuit shows that even firms that have not been targeted directly by Mr. Trump are declining to participate in legal work that challenges his agenda.
For more, check out The New York Times.
News & Headlines Elsewhere
- Tariff anxiety being used to reduce workers’ wages
- Florida’s plan to replace migrant workers with child labor hit a big snag
- Columbia University cuts 180 staffers funded by federal grants revoked by Trump administration
- 'Our pension is gone' | Robins Air Force Base workers face uncertain retirement futures
- NJ Transit and train engineers union say strike is imminent as two sides bicker over wages
- “We’re stronger organized, no matter what happens”: Starbucks workers continue union drive under Trump
- Finally, a look at how workers in ancient Egypt and Rome organized strikes
Alright folks, that’s all for today. Keep sending tips, ideas, and comments to melk@paydayreport.com
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See yinz tomorrow,
Melk
