Listen: Amy Arundell Makes Her Case to Lead the UFT

Amy Arundell wants to succeed Michael Mulgrew as president of the United Federation of Teachers.

By Bob Hennelly

On Friday, lawyers for Mahmoud Khalil—the Columbia University peace activist and Green Card holder who was arrested by ICE and sent to Louisiana—were in federal court in Newark, New Jersey without any charges being filed. Khalil’s wife, Noor Abdallah, who is due to give birth next month, was also in court. Outside, several hundred protestors turned out to support the Khalil family. 

We share our reporter's notebook. We also talk with Amy Arundell about her bid to grab the UFT leadership away from current President Michael Mulgrew.

Meanwhile, across the country and here in our region, protests against the Trump/Musk junta continue to grow with Tesla dealerships drawing particular ire from the public as momentum builds to a national day of protest on April 5. 

The administration’s full court press to carry out the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 agenda by defunding agencies like the U.S. Department of Education is sewing chaos for local, county and state budget makers. 

Trump also continues to escalate his all-out attack on the federal civil service and the unions that represent them declaring in executive orders and in legal filings that existing collective bargaining agreements undermine national security.

But the American Federation of Government Employees has seen tens of thousands of new members sign up.

Last week, a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel backed up a California judge's ruling that the Trump administration had to rehire tens of thousands of probationary workers that it summarily fired often despite stellar performance reviews.

AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler said the Trump actions were the "very definition of union-busting" that stripped the "fundamental right to unionize and collectively bargain from workers across more than 30 agencies.

"To every single American who cares about the fundamental freedom of all workers, now is the time to be even louder," Shuler wrote. "The labor movement is not about to let Trump and an unelected billionaire destroy what we’ve fought for generations to build. We will fight this outrageous attack on our members with every fiber of our collective being."

Listen to the entire show below:

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