It’s Friday, and we have five labor-related stories that you might not have heard yet:
🚚📦 The Teamsters’ heavy-handed UPS mess keeps going
We’ve been watching how the Teamsters’ 2023 contract battle with UPS increased the logistics company’s labor costs to such a degree that layoffs were sadly predictable. And of course, Sean O’Brien has not only been pointing the finger at UPS for the layoffs but has also concocted fiction about the related driver buyout plan.
To update the situation: UPS has reportedly laid off 48,000 workers over the past year, and the Wall Street Journal’s editorial board hopped aboard the subject back while calling out the “Bad Teamsters Bargain With UPS.” That editorial leads with a grumpy-looking photo of O’Brien, who penned his own fiery editorial the last time the Wall Street Journal called him out over the Teamsters credit card.
Naturally, O’Brien has once again retorted with his own op-ed to what he calls “a favorite Journal pastime: attacking me by name” while denying that his heavy-handed tactics have anything to do with layoffs.
🧠🤖 Watch where you click with AI
This isn’t exactly employment-related news, but those who are using AI for work will want to take note. As it turns out, the soaring popularity of AI is also making LLMs an increasingly popular destination for hackers to launch “increasingly sophisticated attacks.”
The Hacker News detailed how ChatGPT’s new Atlas browser is vulnerable to prompt injection attacks, which can effectively jailbreak the browser while embedding a malicious URL within a web address. In the process, such an attacker uses ChatGPT’s own built-in tools against a user while directing them toward phishing pages.
Equally scary: This attack mechanism can also tap into unsuspecting users’ Google Drives if they’re connected to ChatGPT.
However, these attacks aren’t exclusive to ChatGPT. Perplexity Comet and Opera Neon have also been wrestling with prompt injection attacks, so be careful out there.
💊🚑 Elder care’s grim outlook is only projected to worsen
Earlier this year, we warned that Trump’s executive orders could exacerbate labor shortages in healthcare while also fueling union activity. We also predicted that this could hit elder care particularly hard, given that CNAs provide most of the care for patients in at-home settings. To make matters more difficult, CNAs are chronically in short supply and tend to be first-generation immigrants.
This week, an Axios investigative report revealed that in-home elder care’s costs rose in 2025 by 10%, or three times the rate of the overall Consumer Price Index. And yes, organizing is heavily afoot for these workers. In early October, home health care workers in Michigan voted to unionize by the thousands with SEIU, and we can expect that trend to accelerate further.
📢🪧 Union organizing’s strange spot amid the shutdown
Union petition filings are currently suspended, but Big Labor continues its attempt to break new ground.
A few examples from this week:
✔️ At the Sundance Institute, workers announced intent to join CWA, and the non-profit’s management chose to voluntarily recognize the union within hours of the request.
✔️ At the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, workers are organizing with AFSCME following union contract ratifications at nearby Philly cultural institutions, including Please Touch Museum, Philadelphia Art Museum, and Penn Museum.
✔️ Near Sacramento, CA, workers at Elk Grove’s Sky River Casino have been pushing to unionize with UNITE HERE since 2023. A complicated issue related to a 2017 agreement has delayed a determination on whether an election must be held at the casino that opened in 2022. From here, a court will interpret the agreement in light of various other complications on labor law within the context of tribal sovereignty. Sounds complicated!
🔌🚗 Shawn Fain’s tariff love is backfiring
UAW chief Shawn Fain memorably opposed Donald Trump during the 2024 presidential race, which made it all the more surprising when Fain embraced the role of tariff cheerleader. Now, those tariffs are a key reason why vehicle sales have slowed, which isn’t good news for auto workers.
Amid a sea of Fortune 500 layoff news this week, GM announced that they are cutting thousands of jobs in Ohio, Tennessee, and Michigan. The automaker explained that these layoffs are happening due to both tariffs and a slower-than-expected EV adoption, which is also partially down to Trump nixing the $7,500 EV tax credit, so we’ll see if Fain’s newfound support of the current president will bite him back.
This week, Fain has been distracted while trumpeting how UAW members authorized a strike at Volkswagen’s Chattanooga plant.
Fain will be holding a Town Hall meeting on Facebook Live this Wednesday, November 5, at 6:00 p.m. ET. He’ll be discussing plans to fix broken trade deals, the contract situation at Volkswagen, the state of the Big Three, and more.
