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ICE Officers Told to be “Camera Ready”
As Trump engages in high-profile mass deportation raids, ICE officers are now being told to be “camera-ready” in case TV cameras show up to the raids. From CNN:
While it is a common safety practice for agents conducting arrests to wear insignias clearly identifying themselves as law enforcement, even agents on the perimeter of operations conducted across the nation have been specifically instructed by their leadership to wear raid jackets in view of media attention, sources said.
On Sunday, federal agencies released numerous photos on social media of agents in tactical gear conducting purported immigration arrests.
TV talk show host Dr. Phil McGraw announced on social media he was “embedded” with an Immigration and Customs Enforcement team in Chicago as operations began. McGraw released video showing him interviewing the Trump administration’s new “border czar,” Tom Homan, at what was described as an ICE command center.
Inviting a celebrity guest to the Chicago operations was frustrating to Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, a Democrat, who told CNN’s Jim Acosta his office has not received any notice about the arrests despite working with federal law enforcement in the past.
142 UE Members Laid Off in Immigration Purge
In Lincoln, Nebraska, 142 UE members, who were federal contractors providing immigration support services, were laid off. The workers were given no severance.
"It's insulting," union president Dawn Meyer told KETV. "It's degrading. Basically, we're not even important enough to be recycled."
Alarmism Only Helps the Boss
Finally, labor historian Eric Blanc has a look at how labor alarmism only helps the boss:
In the same way that labor organizers need to dispel the widespread perception that workers don’t have any union protections in “right to work” states, we urgently need to counter the idea that workers suddenly have no federally protected organizing rights. The AFL-CIO’s official statement yesterday is not accurate or helpful in its claim that Trump “has effectively shut down the National Labor Relations Board’s operations, leaving the workers it defends on their own in the face of union-busting and retaliation.” Rather than call on workers to defeat Trump’s attacks by deepening their workplace organizing both inside and outside the board process, the statement only meekly suggests that the AFL-CIO expects Wilcox to get reinstated via court challenges.
We need a clear sign from union leaders right now that the labor movement is not only prepared to fight back hard against all of Trump’s attacks, but that it is also ready to go on the offensive to win economic dignity for all workers. Labor can’t survive Trumpism by keeping its head down. To the contrary: unions have the opening and responsibility to fill the political vacuum created by the Democratic Party’s disarray. Through large-scale workplace resistance, strikes, and ambitious organizing campaigns, unions can take their rightful place as the best defenders of working people and political democracy.
We need union leaders who can, for example, point to the historic union win of Philadelphia Whole Foods workers on Monday to widely say: “This is the path forward. Don’t despair. Whether you’re in the civil service, an auto plant, a local cafe, or in construction, you have power by collectively banding together with your co-workers — and by joining a movement that understands that an injury to one is an injury to all. It’s time to fight back. And we’re prepared to organize with you every step of the way.”
Faced with Trump’s moves to undermine labor rights, every union drive now becomes a de facto confrontation with the new regime. It’s through scaling up bottom-up workplace battles — by finally tapping labor’s $38 billion war chest in funds — that we can best expose the new administration as a corrupt tool of and for the billionaire class.
For more, check out Eric Blanc’s Labor Politics.
News & Headlines Elsewhere
- Senate Republicans cast a wary eye on Trump's nominee for labor secretary
- Trump’s immigration crackdown will affect disaster recovery
- Seattle vote on “social housing” could break the stranglehold of private landlords
- Norfolk Southern and East Palestine announce $22 million settlement after 2023 derailment
- Elon Musk’s Doge accused of ‘illegal’ job posting by federal workers’ union
- Finally, the labor movement is mourning the death of Jay Mazur, the longtime president of the Ladies Garment Workers Union.
Alright folks, that’s all for today. Keep sending tips, story ideas, comments and complaints to melk@paydayreport.com
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Melk
