In today’s news and commentary, a New York hospital must pay out $275,000 to its nurses’ union, unions sue the Department of Defense for an unlawful memorandum directing the termination of union contracts, and New York City announces a settlement with several companies for violating fair work-week laws.

On Tuesday, the Second Circuit declined to vacate a staffing dispute arbitration award that means the New York and Presbyterian Hospital must pay out $275,000 to its nurses union. The case originated with a union grievance alleging that management had violated the minimum staffing requirements set out in the collective bargaining agreement. The Second Circuit found that the arbitrator “reasonably interpreted” the terms of the agreement and sufficiently justified the award.

Last week, more than twenty union affiliates of the National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE-IAM) and the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland against the Department of Defense over Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s memorandum directing the termination of hundreds of union contracts. The unions argue that Hegseth’s memo violated the Administrative Procedure Act on several grounds, including that the memo and subsequent contract terminations were not based on reasoned decision making required by law and misinterpreted the executive order it claimed to implement. In many cases, the affiliates had held their contracts for more than fifty years before the termination.

Next, on Monday, the Mayor of New York and the New York Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP) announced a combined settlement of more than $2.1 million with Walgreens and other companies for violating New York City’s worker protection laws. DCWP found that Walgreens failed to provide workers with 72 hours’ advance notice of work schedules and required employees to work additional hours without the notice mandated by the NY Fair Workweek Law, resulting in a requirement to pay $1.6 million in restitution to more than 570 workers. Mayor Mamdani warned, “These laws exist because working families deserve stability on the job. If corporations choose to break them, they will pay what they owe.”