After a year-long fight, labor's challenges remain in 2026

Following the 43-day government shutdown last year, the January 30 end of that temporary deal may be an early dispute affecting working people. A couple of unions reportedly were so anxious to end the shutdown, they pressured Democrats to end their holdout. The American Federation of Government Employees and, indirectly, UNITE-HERE via its Culinary Union in Nevada lobbied Dems or didn’t use their clout to stand firm to address expiring health-care subsidies. In contrast, unions also representing some federal workers, including the Service Employees and the International Federation of Professional and Technical Employees, held firm.

Besides the shutdown, the Trump administration’s more dramatic budget rescissions, mass layoffs, termination of labor rights for a million other federal workers, and the ongoing roundup of immigrant workers (potentially eliminating 6 million jobs, according to the Economic Policy Institute) set the nasty tone for 2025, when even the NLRB was effectively neutered with no quorum (only recently returned to full strength with the appointments of anti-union members).

It was a time of “unrelenting attacks on working people,” said AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler. “This has been the most hostile administration to workers in our lifetimes.”

Nevertheless, Starbucks workers continued to battle for bargaining, newspapers such as the New York Daily News unionized, Philadelphia teachers settled difficult negotiations, dockworkers on both coasts reached a contract after a short strike, the United Food & Commercial Workers ratified contracts at chains in California, and 21,000 University of California workers ratified a deal following 16 months of bargaining and four brief work stoppages.

 

The year ahead will be busy.

The highest profile union challenges will be the Major League Baseball Players Association, whose Collective Bargaining Agreement will expire Dec. 1; the Screen Actors Guild/American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (scheduled to bargain Feb. 9-March 6 with contract expiration June 30); the Directors Guild (with contract talks launching May 11 before their contract also ends June 30); and the Writers Guild of America (set to start negotiating March 16 prior to contract expiration May 1).

In alphabetical order, here’s a rundown of other unions’ activities in 2026:

* American Federation of Teachers: On Aug. 15, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Graduate Employees’ Organization (AFT Local 6300) contract will expire, and at Brown University, 1,000 graduate student workers (Graduate Labor Organization, AFT) have a contract up June 30.

* Communications Workers of America: AT&T Mobility’s contract with 9,000 CWA members expires next month; The contract for 20,000 Verizon workers on the east coast expires Aug. 1 – also involving the …

* International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, which also represents 12,000 members in Los Angeles, where their contract expires June 30.

* International Brotherhood of Teamsters: 3,500 members at DHL have a March 31 expiration.

* National Association of Letter Carriers: With their contract ending in May, 200,000 members have to follow a previous contract imposed by a mediator.

* National Nurses United: Veterans Affairs members total about 96,000, and their current agreement ends in May; another 24,000 members at Kaiser in California have a contract expiring in August.

* New York city workers (some affiliated with AFSCME): 300,000 municipal workers’ contracts are up this year.

* Service Employees International Union: 96,000 workers at the State of California will talk before their June 30 expiration; in Oregon 2,000 educators and staff across eight community colleges and 3,000 other staff represented by Local 503 will bargain at seven state universities. In health care, the contract for 80,000 nurses and other health-care workers at New York’s League of Voluntary Hospitals will expire Sept. 30; and the New York Metro Residential contract covering 34,000 doorpeople, porters and handypersons who maintain and clean thousands of  New York Metro Residential contract, covering 34,000 doorpeople, porters, supers, and handypersons who maintain and clean thousands of New York City homes is up in April.

* United Auto Workers: 2,500 members at Nexteer will be bargaining, as will 29,000 academic student employees (Local 4811) at the University of California, where the contract is up Dec/ 31; 4,300 workers are still organizing at Volkswagen’s Tennessee plant.

* United Food & Commercial Workers: In February, a contract covering 30,000 Food & Commercial Workers at New England grocery giant Stop & Shop is set to expire; the unions also faces bargaining for 19,500 UFCW members across 123 Fry’s stores (owned by Kroger), for 20,000 Ohio Kroger workers, and for 14,000 members at Kroger in Michigan

* United Steelworkers: Oil refinery contracts expire Jan. 31 for 30,000 members, as do pacts at Alcoa for 4,400 workers May 15; 25,000 others at US Steel and Cleveland Cliffs face a Sept. 1 expiration; and 6,400 others at Bridgestone-Firestone and Goodyear will be negotiating.