In today’s news and commentary, a resurgence in salting among young activists, Michigan nurses go on strike, and states explore policies to support workers experiencing menopause. 

Many unions have historically sprung up as the result of workers organizing their own workplaces. Young people drawing on that tradition have driven a resurgence in salting, or the practice of working a job in order to organize that workplace. While some young organizers and activists have become salts after hearing about the idea through word of mouth, others have been drawn into the labor movement, and salting in particular, via more formal pathways like the Inside Organizer School and the Southern Worker Assembly’s Rank and File Program. The renewed interest in salting as a way to increase unionization comes as young people face an especially difficult labor market. It also comes as young people and workers recognize how building union power across a variety of workplaces and with new organizing tactics also strengthens democracy and social movements more broadly. 

Meanwhile in Michigan, over 10,000 nurses represented by the Teamsters voted to authorize a strike at nine Corewell Health hospital campuses in the eastern part of the state. The nurses voted to unionize in November 2024 despite an aggressive union-busting campaign and have been seeking a contract with better staffing ratios, wages, and workplace safety standards since June 2025. The strike authorization vote, which received over 90% support, comes as over 650 Teamsters nurses at nearby Henry Ford Genesys Hospital have continued a strike for over six months. If the Corewell nurses do go on strike, it would be the latest in multiple nurses’ organizing efforts across the country that have demanded safer hospital conditions and better wages over the past year. 

Lastly, multiple states are now considering policy changes that would support workers undergoing menopause. In 2025, Rhode Island became the first state to add workplace protections and accommodations for workers experiencing menopause. Similar bills are now pending in California, Illinois, New York, and Virginia. Virginia’s proposals also include a provision that would require state-regulated health plans to cover health treatments prescribed for menopause. Although some advocates note that existing federal law, like the ADA and Title 7, should already provide some menopause-related protections, the state laws seek to make those protections explicit and provide additional benefits.