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As the federal government shutdown enters its first full week, President Trump continues to revel in what he sees as an opportunity to execute mass permanent layoffs of federal workers along the lines envisioned by the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025.
Congressional Democrats appear resolute to continue resisting passing the GOP spending plan which will spark massive hikes in healthcare premiums and the loss of healthcare for 15 million Americans.
In the A block we get our global update on the markets from James Henry, Yale Global Justice Fellow, economist, lawyer, and investigative journalist. He was joined by Dr. Joe Wilson, labor historian, union consultant, and biographer of A. Philip Randolph, the iconic civil rights and labor leader. Dr. Wilson reflects on the importance of other US unions standing with the federal union members targeted by Trump.
We discussed the shocking use of Black Hawk helicopters and military assault-like tactics last week on a five-story Chicago apartment building by federal immigration forces as part of what's being called Operation Midway Blitz.
We learn from Jim Henry that the Holtec firm, that’s handling the clean-up of the Indian Point nuclear power plant, won a recent court ruling that it could dump tens of thousands of gallons of radioactive tritium wastewater in the Hudson River despite a state ban on the practice signed into law by Gov. Kathleen Hochul after a major grassroots campaign.
In our B Block, we heard from Israel “Izzy” Melendez, vice-president of 32BJ SEIU, who represents 20,000 Security Officers including the late 46-year-old Aland Etienne. Etienne was shot and killed back in July while he was protecting a Park Avenue office building from a gunman that stormed the building with an assault rifle.
The midday attack also killed 36-year-old NYPD Police Officer Didarul Islam.
Melendez describes how the Aland Etienne Safety and Security Act, now pending in the New York City Council, will address existing public safety gaps by setting more robust industry standards for active-shooter training, wages, benefits, and time off.
In our C Block, we got our Moral Monday dispatch from down south from Rev. Joel Simpson, out of Taylorsville, North Carolina, and Rev. Daryl Dayson, pastor at the South Tryon United Methodist Church in Charlotte. We zeroed in on the human cost of the Trump administration's radical rollback on programs like Medicaid and food stamps to fund massive tax breaks for the wealthiest families and multinational corporations.
Pastors Dayson and Simpson detailed how members of their congregations are often working multiple minimum-wage jobs and struggle to get by.
We finished up with an update on the One Fair Wage Campaign from Saru Jayaraman, president of One Fair Wage. She explained how existing sub-minimum wages that exist for restaurant workers, inmates, and the disabled can be traced back to a scramble to fill the free-labor gap when slavery ended after the Civil War.
While the federal minimum sits at $7.25, there’s not one place in America where a family can survive on that wage that hasn't been raised since Obama was president.
She was joined by Rafi Islam, an organizer with the New York State One Fair Wage Campaign, who shares his experience with the restaurant industry.
