In today’s News and Commentary, President Trump proposes DOL budget cuts, NLRB rules in favor of cannabis employees’ unionization efforts, and Florida warehouse workers vote unanimously to authorize a strike.

President Trump’s newest budget proposal would slash the DOL’s current $13.3 billion budget by 26 percent, with agencies like OSHA, Wage and Hour, and MSHA each losing tens of millions of dollars. A model of last year’s proposal to cut the budget to $8.8 billion, the 2027 budget proposal includes many of the same controversial provisions which were rejected in the spending bill passed earlier this year, such as eliminating the Job Corps, a program designed to provide vocational training for low-income youth. Most of the reductions would come from the Department’s personnel compensation budget.

On Wednesday, the NLRB ordered cannabis company Curaleaf to recognize and bargain with the United Food and Commercial Workers local in Oxford, Massachusetts. The company defended its refusal to bargain with accusations that the union was improperly certified by an April 2024 election, but the three-member panel rejected the company’s claims as “without merit.” Curaleaf is one of several cannabis companies around the country that have faced sanctions from both the NLRB and state agencies over labor practices. As cannabis employees navigate the uncharted waters of unionizing in a workplace which remains illegal under federal law, state laws have sometimes facilitated organizing, as John wrote about last year. Curaleaf filed suit last year against the New Jersey Cannabis Regulation Commission in efforts to have the state’s labor peace agreement requirements preempted by federal law.

Finally, Teamsters at a United Natural Foods Inc. (UNFI) warehouse in Pompano Beach, Florida voted unanimously this week to authorize a strike if the company does not meet employees’ contract demands. The warehouse’s more than 200 employees voted to join the Teamsters last year, and are among more than 5,000 UNFI employees represented by the Teamsters. UNFI is the primary distributor for Amazon’s Whole Foods grocery chain. In the past year, as Teamsters-affiliated UNFI employees across the South and Midwest began to ratify their first contracts, the union has won a wave of certification elections for the distributor’s warehouse workers and drivers in states ranging from Wisconsin to South Carolina.