Common Ground workers began fighting against mistreatment at work and ended up winning a union and ownership of the business.

The post How Common Ground Cafe workers won a union and a cafe appeared first on EWOC.

As Musk rampages through the federal government, the attacks on the NLRB are almost unmentioned but represent a major challenge for organizers.

The post We can still organize and win under a weakened NLRB appeared first on EWOC.

On Wednesday, January 29th, 2025, Connecticut DSA’s Labor Working Group gathered at New Britain’s “Assembly Room” for their first Labor Happy Hour of the year. The Assembly Room looks more upscale at the outset with a chic white façade and a 20s style bar, but the prices are much more modest. Fitting for the working-class muckraker who wants to be ethical while still enjoying life’s comforts.

Thorn West: Issue No. 226

City Politics

• As many criticize the city’s lack of wildfire preparedness in advance of the Santa Ana winds, Mayor Karen Bass has today fired LAFD chief Kristin Crowley. The LA Times covers the firing in the context of a “sense of disarray that has enveloped City Hall.”

• Children’s Hospital Los Angeles stopped offering several forms of gender-affirming care, in response to a Trump administration executive order threatening the funding of any medical institution that provided this care to transgendered youths. The hospital has now partially reversed that decision, following weekly protests.

Housing Rights

• The LA City Council postponed voting on a motion that would offer eviction protections to Angelenos economically impacted by the wildfires. It will revisit the issue in March. A similar measure did pass at the County Board of Supervisors. That motion applies countywide, but only protects those who specifically lost work. Tenants in Maui, devastated by wildfires in 2023, suffered a variety of cascading displacements, despite the passage of stronger tenant protections than LA is considering.

• The California FAIR Plan, a state-administered fund that provides fire insurance to property owners in high-risk areas, has run out of money in the aftermath of the wildfires. This triggers a condition that allows the fund to collect an additional $1 billion from insurers. Half of this cost may be passed onto consumers, with the state’s approval.

Education

• This week, a Los Angeles Unified School District policy went into effect that bans student phone use during school hours.

• The Trump administration’s terrorization of immigrant communities is depressing school attendance, per CalMatters.

Police Violence and Community Resistance

• A member of the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department Civilian Oversight Commission has resigned, amid a conflict pitting the oversight body against county attorneys, LASD, and the State Attorney General’s office.

• In San Francisco, an effort to bolster recruitment to the Police Department has failed, as a growing percentage of cadets are dropping out of the police academy.

Transportation

• A long-awaited discussion about how Los Angeles will implement Measure HLA was delayed; the City Council’s Transportation Committee has been drawn into the efforts to block an affordable housing development, and ran out of time.

• The Trump administration has signaled that it will sabotage a California high speed rail project. At Union Station, a press conference by the U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy was shouted down by project advocates.

The post County Passes Some Eviction Protections in Response to Wildfires + Mayor Fires LAFD Chief appeared first on The Thorn West.

Trump's and Musk's cut to federal agencies are facing resistance from the workers within. We spoke with two of them.

The post Federal Workers Are Fighting Back Against DOGE Attacks appeared first on EWOC.