Public Employees | April 2025

Weingarten on tariffs, tax cuts for billionaires, and attacks on workers

The Trump administration has announced the highest and most wide-ranging tariffs—taxes on the goods we buy—since President Herbert Hoover’s Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, which made the Great Depression worse. Trump’s tariffs apply to all of our nation’s trading partners. And the chaos has come quickly: higher prices for Americans, stock markets gyrating wildly, business confidence at the lowest level since the 2008 financial crisis, and respected economists who only months ago were celebrating the strength of the economy now warning that a recession is likely. What explains this self-destructive attack on our economy? Read this AFT Voices post by AFT President Randi Weingarten and Damon Silvers, director of policy and special counsel at the AFL-CIO, for understanding and a way forward.

Silencing the libraries

For AFT members who work as librarians, the Trump administration’s attack on public libraries hits home. Libraries are community centers and lifelines. Americans think of them as so essential that they’re referred to by their labels instead of their official names, and the meaning is understood: “I’m going to the library.” That is why it’s so baffling that libraries are under threat, says In the Public Interest, a nonprofit group and AFT ally. But then, the so-called Department of Government Efficiency doesn’t understand the word “public.” And what DOGE is doing has nothing to do with the “e” of its title: efficiency. As for the bigger picture of how DOGE is taking a chainsaw to our public services, ITPI takes a look here.

A special book club event with Ali Velshi

Join AFT President Randi Weingarten and MSNBC’s Ali Velshi for the May meeting of the AFT Book Club, featuring his new book Small Acts of Courage: A Legacy of Endurance and the Fight for Democracy. In this conversation on May 18 at 6 p.m. EDT, Velshi will share how everyone can have an outsized impact on democracy and civil society. This book club event is a call to action. Sign up today.

Protecting our patients and communities

So far, President Donald Trump has been all the things those who voted against him feared, and he’s done few, if any, of the things to improve people’s lives that those who voted for him hoped he would do. As his tariffs create turmoil, his henchman Elon Musk slashes programs that help veterans, the sick, the hungry, the poor, older Americans and the disabled. Healthcare workers will be left to deal with the consequences. So, our union is stepping up. We are fighting back in the courts, sharing what we understand to be the best science, and we’ll be rallying again this Thursday, May 1. Join us! Find an event at MayDayStrong.org. And learn more in the spring edition of AFT Health Care.

Higher education under attack

President Donald Trump has declared war on America’s colleges and universities, demanding they bow to his demands on what they can teach and whom they can admit or hire. The president’s illegal and autocratic actions are tantamount to a war on knowledge intended to make colleges bend the knee to his ideology, chill free speech and stifle learning. In her latest column, AFT President Randi Weingarten debunks the lie that Trump’s punitive behavior toward universities and students has anything to do with antisemitism. Read it here.

Watch: AFT town hall on measles

With measles cases rising, public health officials, healthcare facilities and communities are facing a preventable health crisis. Watch this recent town hall as Dr. Vin Gupta, AFT President Randi Weingarten and Dr. Benjamin Hoffman discuss the outbreak’s impact and what you need to know. This conversation covers why measles cases are increasing, how vaccines and public health measures can curb the spread, and what we can do to stay safe.

PSI: Unions rise as a shield against Trump

As it becomes clear what level of destruction to public services a second Trump presidency means, the labor movement in America has positioned itself as democracy’s strongest, most important and best-organized line of defense against a sweeping authoritarian agenda. In response to the rollout of Project 2025, U.S. labor unions have fought back in the streets, the workplace, the media and the courts. See our resistance through the eyes of our global labor partner, Public Services International.