UPDATES: ICE targets workplaces, AI threatening jobs, and the attacks on the federal workforce
JUNE 21, 2025 | TEAM COWORKER
In this edition of the Lunch Break Labor News, we have updates on workplaces being targeted with devastating ICE raids, the continued assault on federal workers in 2025, and the latest insidious impacts of AI on workers.
Amidst mass protests, pervasive economic uncertainty, and an administration threatening the safety and livelihoods of so many, workers are feeling the brunt of these challenging times. Workers are suffering from poor working conditions, staff shortages, hour cuts, and massive layoffs. Here are some of the most important updates for workers right now:
ICE Targets the Workplace
The Trump administration’s mass deportations policy has turned workplaces nationwide into a primary target for ICE raids.
Mass protests against ICE erupted in Los Angeles earlier this month after ICE agents targeted workers in a Home Depot parking lot and a local clothing manufacturer in the LA area. Under a regime spreading terror through immigrant communities and setting unconscionable daily ICE quotas, immigrants are under threat across the country — from LA to a meatpacking plant in Omaha, Nebraska (where ICE carried out the state’s largest worksite raid ever) to a construction site in Tallahassee, FL, and beyond.
Immigrant workers deserve the same workplace protections, fair pay, and justice as all other workers. These raids are crushing for workers, families, and communities.
The Continued Attacks on the Federal Workforce
The White House’s mass firings and widespread cuts have caused chaos for federal workers at critical agencies like the Social Security Administration, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Veterans Affairs, and many others.
Workers at the Social Security Administration are struggling to keep up after cuts forced thousands to leave their jobs. The VA faces 80,000 job cuts. Laid off workers at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau were told to clear out their offices at the end of May as “mass firings loom.”
Workers are even being fired due to these deep cuts, rehired due to federal court cases, and could be fired again. All as the White House attempts to make the federal workforce loyal to the president, rather than qualified.
AI and Workers
AI’s explosion remains a serious threat to workers — in America and abroad, as a replacement for jobs and a tool for surveillance that employers use against their employees.
Axios recently reported on a projected “white-collar bloodbath” at the hands of AI. Heads of the companies who profit from the rise of AI say their technology could halve the number of entry-level white collar jobs in under five years and spike unemployment.
Meanwhile, smaller companies have been exporting their AI tech overseas to help corporations surveil their workers. Coworker covered this in our new report, Little Tech Goes Global: The Expansion of AI and Workplace Surveillance.
Summer Heat and Workplace Protections
Workers dying from the heat has been a serious issue in recent years — including postal workers, workers on construction sites, and many others.
Last year, the federal government proposed a first of its kind regulation to protect workers from the heat. Now, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is tasked with reviewing and deciding whether or not to implement the rule. Questions abound about whether the Trump administration will allow this workplace protection rule to take effect. This rule would save lives, especially as summer arrives.
Our Take
Mass firings, ICE raids in the workplace, life-threatening working conditions, and AI’s impact on the future have workers grappling with a dire outlook. And the challenges are only growing.
Rich corporations and political elites are doing everything in their power to thwart the power of working people. But workers are responding — they’re coming together to demand better working conditions, pay, and livelihoods. By uniting to organize, advocate, and demand policies that safeguard their interests, workers can overcome a corporate regime only in it to profit.
Workers are fighting for their rights and they won’t stop now — especially not now.