Trump’s moves to derail labor relations stall some local actions

At just over 150 days in, the Trump administration has caused significant upheaval in labor relations, both locally and nationally – most notably at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), which referees relations between employers and workers. 

In an unprecedented move shortly after his inauguration, President Donald Trump fired NLRB board member Gwynne Wilcox – a Democratic Senate appointee. Wilcox’s absence from the five-member board leaves the NLRB without the three-member quorum it needs to function. This means it cannot rule on any labor relations disputes or set any legal case precedent. 

The Trump administration also aimed to eviscerate federal unions when the president decreed in an April executive order that thousands of unionized federal workers don’t have collective bargaining rights. But on Tuesday, a federal judge blocked the order, which affects about two-dozen agencies, ruling that it is likely unlawful. 

However, Trump’s decision to weigh in on the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) contract negotiations last December may have helped the workers win. 

The federal actions to short-circuit labor relations nationally certainly have effects at the state and local level. For instance, one College Park employer, UNIFI Aviation, is trying to capitalize on the national NLRB board’s current nonfunctional state to reverse a vote by its 250 employees to unionize. But there are still concrete labor actions happening in Georgia: Amid a protracted struggle to win a contract, Starbucks Worker’s United (SBWU) is continuing to score both wins and losses around the state.  

Here’s our rundown of significant local labor actions since Trump took office. 

A checkered record for Starbucks unionization 

Since January, Starbucks Workers United (SBWU) has won one union election and lost two in Georgia. In early March, workers at a Cumming store, located at 2320 Atlanta Highway, overwhelmingly voted in favor of unionizing by a tally of 13-3. Like all unionized Starbucks employees, they are represented by SBWU, which is affiliated with Service Employees International Union (SEIU). 

Conversely, baristas at Starbucks stores in Marietta and Lawrenceville have voted against unionizing. In mid-March, workers at a Marietta store, located at 2535 Dallas Highway, narrowly voted 10-7 against joining SBWU. And workers at a Lawrenceville store, located at 1249 Scenic Highway, heavily voted against unionization by a tally of 12-4. 

The Cumming store now joins over 570 locations unionized with SBWU in the protracted struggle to win a contract from Starbucks. That struggle has been going on for over three years – since late 2021, when the first Starbucks store unionized in Buffalo, New York.

In late January, Starbucks and SBWU agreed to bring in a mediator in an attempt to restart stalled contract negotiations. The two sides started the collective bargaining process in September 2022 but derailed over what the NLRB called Starbucks’ “failing and refusing” to bargain with the unionized stores. 

Starbucks refused to negotiate a single contract with the union, insisting on collective bargaining store by store. Starbucks and SBWU resumed negotiations in January 2024 to hammer out a “foundational framework” to govern local contract negotiations, but that process has also stalled.

Since the 2024 negotiations hit an impasse, Starbucks has had a CEO change, SBWU members have overwhelmingly voted to strike if necessary, and the two sides have dropped their lawsuits against each other over unfair labor practices. It remains to be seen whether the mediator will help the two sides agree on a contract. 

“At Starbucks, our success starts and ends with our partners (employees). We respect our partners right to choose, through a fair and democratic process, to be represented by a union or not to be represented by a union, and will continue to work together to make Starbucks the best job in retail,” said a Starbucks spokesperson in a statement to ACC. “Since last April Starbucks and Workers United have held more than nine bargaining sessions over 20 days and three mediation sessions over five days with a federal mediator. We’ve reached over thirty (30) meaningful agreements on hundreds of topics Workers United delegates told us were important to them.”

UNIFI Aviation and the NLRB 

In early February, a block of over 250 bus drivers and dispatchers at UNIFI Aviation in College Park voted resoundingly to unionize by a tally of 147-105. UNIFI Aviation provides security, facility and ground support services to large airlines. The workers at the 3939 Northwest Drive facility voted to join the National Association of Government Employees, but they haven’t yet received their certification of representation from the NLRB. 

That’s because UNIFI Aviation appealed the NLRB’s union certification in early March on the grounds that the vote should have taken place under the governance of the Railway Labor Act and not the National Labor Relations Act, which governs labor relations for most private sector employees.

 The Railway Labor Act, which specifically covers employers in the railroad and airline industries, has far more restrictive and cumbersome rules, in order not to disrupt rail and airline operations. 

UNIFI Aviation also argues that the NLRB Region 10 director in Atlanta didn’t have the authority to certify the election, because the national NLRB board lacked a quorum. Further, UNIFI argues that an NLRB ruling in November 2024 that employers can’t require their employees to attend anti-union meetings – also known as captive audience meetings –  “restricted and severely prejudiced” workers against UNIFI before the February union vote. 

The NLRB has not yet made a decision on the UNIFI appeal, filed over three months ago on March 7, since it lacks a quorum. This delay illustrates how the NLRB has been hamstrung by some early moves from the Trump Administration. 

After Trump fired Wilcox in January, she immediately sued the president and NLRB chair Marvin Kaplan. A federal judge reinstated her in March, ruling that Trump’s action violated the National Labor Relations Act. The Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit affirmed that decision – but in April, the Supreme Court issued a stay that paused the appeals court’s order to reinstate Wilcox. 

Without Wilcox, the bipartisan board has three vacancies – and it’s unclear when the Senate, which appoints the board members, will fill them. It failed to confirm Democratic chair Lauren McFerran for a second term in December, and the fifth slot has been vacant since Republican member John Ring’s term expired in 2022. 

Meanwhile, UNIFI Aviation employees may be in limbo until the NLRB board gains the third member it needs for a quorum.

East Coast dock workers win historic contract 

Following a drawn-out contract dispute last year – and a three-day strike in October –  International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) dock workers on the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts unanimously ratified a master contract with the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX) earlier this year. Nearly 99% of ILA members voted in favor of the six-year contract, which is retroactively effective from Oct. 1, 2024 to Sept. 30, 2030. 

Among the wins for the union, the contract features a 62% wage increase for current ILA dockworkers after years of stagnant wages: That will push up top pay to $63 per hour by 2030, in $5 per hour annual increments. It also includes accelerated wage increases for new ILA workers, a better healthcare plan – and full protections against automation, which had been a major bone of contention.

ILA president Harold Daggett, the union’s chief negotiator, described a hard-fought road to finding common ground with USMX – a group of container carriers and port associations stretching along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts from Maine to Texas. 

“It was a tough contract to negotiate and even took a three-day coast-wide strike in October 2024,” Daggett saidin a February statement. “The ILA stayed strong and unified throughout and successfully won the greatest contract in ILA history and maybe the strongest collective bargaining agreement ever negotiated by any union.”

Daggett credited Trump as instrumental in the deal that was struck. The two met at Mar-a-Lago in December 2024, and Daggett claims that Trump expressed his full support for the union’s pursuit of protections against automation. “[T]hat proved to be a major boost for the ILA in reaching a successful settlement with USMX,” he said in the statement.

The Georgia Ports Authority (GPA), which owns the state’s two ports in Savannah and Brunswick, does not belong to the USMX and thus was not part of the contract negotiations. However, it still shut down the Savannah and Brunswick terminals last October in observance of the ILA strike, because GPA employees, who are non-union, work together with ILA members at these two ports. The ILA members do most of the loading and unloading, while GPA employees operate most of the heavy machinery. 

The local rundown:

Quest Diagnostics Clinical Laboratories

Quest workers in Marietta narrowly voted against unionizing with Teamsters Local 728 by a 7-6 tally. The vote at the 1343 Canton Road facility took place in late May and the results were certified in early June.

AGL Services Company 

A 23-member group of support staff at AGL Services Company – a natural gas delivery subsidiary of Southern Company – overwhelmingly voted to unionize in May. A total of 19  schedulers, customer support and office staff at the 10 Peachtree Place facility in Atlanta voted by 17-2 to unionize with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 1997. 

Hydro Evac

Field swampers, mechanics, and operators at this hydro-excavation company voted to unionize by a tally of 10-2 with the International Union Of Operating Engineers Local 926 in April. Their facility is located just south of Atlanta in McDonough.

Georgia Power Company 

A group of 30 chemical technicians employed by Southern Company subsidiary Georgia Power voted to unionize by a tally of 15-8 in January. The technicians, located at Georgia Power’s Scherer, McDonough, Bowen, Yates, and McIntosh power plants joined International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 84. 

This story has been updated to include comment from Starbucks.