Firing workers because they fight for better pay is illegal. That’s what the National Labor Relations Board told the owner of Mom’s Siam, a Thai food restaurant in Richmond’s Carytown district. (There is a second Mom’s Siam in downtown Richmond that is not linked to this story.)
Upon his inauguration on Jan. 20, Trump and his administration immediately began extensive, widespread cuts to the federal workforce.
House Bill 2764 and its equivalent Senate Bill 917 made it through the General Assembly and to the governor’s desk. On March 24, Gov. Glenn Youngkin vetoed them.
On March 4, 2024, Richmond Public Schools terminated Richmond Education Association President Neri Suarez in a move that REA is describing as retaliation for union activities. REA represents the largest bloc of RPS employees, who are organized into seven bargaining units represented by four unions.
On Oct. 18, the USPS and the largest union representing its employees, the National Association of Letter Carriers, came to a tentative agreement on a new contract. The NALC represents some 295,000 active and retired non-rural letter carriers. This was a long time coming. NALC members had been working without a contract since their last collective bargaining agreement expired in May 2023.
On Sept. 12, some 33,000 members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers in California, Washington and Oregon rejected a tentative contract agreement with the troubled aerospace giant and voted to go on strike. At issue: 10 years of wage stagnation and, the major sticking point, the stripping away of workers’ pensions.
At one minute past midnight on Oct. 1, some 50,000 workers represented by the International Longshoremen’s Association went out on strike, bringing 36 ports from Maine to Texas to a virtual standstill. It was their first walkout since 1977.
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