In today’s news and commentary, Hyundai workers reach a tentative agreement with the company, federal-sector unions sue the Trump Administration over OPM rule changes, and a federal judge dismisses a Texas teachers’ union free speech suit.

Today the Hyundai Motors branch of the Korean Metal Workers’ Union (KMWU) came to a tentative agreement with Hyundai following their first full-day strike in a decade, which Maya covered earlier this week. They had been looking for concessions regarding retirement age, bonus increases, and termination reinstatements. While the deal is still subject to a vote of member approval, it includes a 4.1% base-pay increase, bonuses equal to 400% of base pay, and additional cash bonuses. The company has agreed to hire 500 more technical workers and said it would continue discussions with workers about its potential plan to implement robotic workers and artificial intelligence in its factories in the coming years. 

Meanwhile, federal-sector unions sued the Trump administration for changes to OPM evaluations. The complaint, filed yesterday in the Northern District of California, alleged that OPM exceeded its authority and violated the Civil Service Reform Act, and violated the arbitrary and capricious provision of the APA. The agencies serving as plaintiffs are the American Federation of Government Employees; the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees; the National Federation of Federal Employees; and the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers. Recent rules from the agency allowed employees to be graded on a curve against one another and removed their ability to appeal to an independent authority, instead forcing them to fight improper decisions through internal OPM channels. 

Finally, on Friday a federal judge dismissed a union’s suit alleging that the Texas Education Agency illegally disciplined teachers following Charlie Kirk’s shooting in September of last year. The Commissioner of the Texas Education Agency wrote a letter demanding teachers who made online posts following the shooting were to be reported to the investigative branch. The teachers sued to enjoin the letter as a First Amendment violation, but Judge Alan Albright held that they lacked standing because the letter was not official policy and no adverse action had been taken. He denied their motion for preliminary injunction and dismissed the case.