In today’s News and Commentary, Trump’s labor secretary steps down, New York City doormen agree to a tentative deal, and UNITE HERE Local 11 files an NLRB complaint over ICE concerns at the FIFA World Cup.

Lori Chavez-DeRemer, President Trump’s Secretary of Labor, officially stepped down late on Monday. The resignation comes following a months-long investigation by Labor Department Inspector General Anthony D’Esposito, who in January began looking into numerous allegations about Ms. Chavez-DeRemer, including having an extramarital affair with a member of her security team and faking official events in order to fund her personal travel plans. A former Oregon Congresswoman, Chavez-DeRemer was initially backed by Teamsters President Sean O’Brien to be nominated for Secretary of Labor. She spent a large portion of her time in office on a cross-country tour called “America at Work”, for which some of the travel was under investigation. Chavez-DeRemer oversaw the Department of Labor losing 14 percent of its staff due to the Trump Administration’s budget cuts. She will be replaced in the interim by Deputy Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling.

In New York City, doormen and building owners have reached a potential agreement to avoid a strike. 32BJ SEIU, which represents 34,000 doormen, porters, and maintenance workers in New York, has been negotiating with the Realty Advisory Board on Labor Relations (RAB) over wage and benefit increases. There has not been a doormen strike since 1991, and ultimately both sides expressed an interest in maintaining “labor peace”. The proposed deal will see the typical employee’s pay rise from $62,000 a year to over $71,000 a year by 2030. Mayor Zohran Mamdani was vocal in his support of the union last week when he called New York a “union town” at an SEIU rally. The vote for the tentative contract will be finalized on May 28.

UNITE HERE Local 11 filed a complaint with the NLRB against FIFA and Kroenke Sports & Entertainment, accusing both parties of failing to restrict access to ICE agents at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, CA ahead of this summer’s World Cup. Over 2,000 workers at the stadium are represented by the union, including cooks, servers, and bartenders. The filing claims that the stadium’s operators, Legends Global, as an agent of FIFA and Kroenke Sports, violated the NLRA in their refusal to commit to ICE restrictions, saying that the fear of ICE agents has “substantially chilled” the exercise of employees’ Section 7 rights. The complaint follows recent strike threats by UNITE HERE after the contract between the union and Legends Global expired. While restrictions on ICE access is a priority, the union is also demanding that FIFA prohibit the use of AI at the arena, and that FIFA use a portion of the profits from the World Cup to support local affordable housing. With SoFi Stadium set to host the opening game for the U.S. Men’s National Team in June, the union finds itself in a strong bargaining position.