In the latest on Democrats’ ongoing machinations to maneuver their “big, bold” budget blueprint through the legislative labyrinth, President Biden and congressional leaders are reportedly approaching consensus on the contours of the package, discarding several of its more transformative and redistributive aspects in the process.

In a meeting on Tuesday, Biden disclosed to members of the House Progressive Caucus that his proposal to provide free community college and extend the expanded child tax credit would likely be stripped from the final bill, an attempt to cabin its soaring cost so as to assuage the anxieties of centrist lawmakers in the Democratic caucus.

Even so, Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), chair of the Progressive Caucus, emerged from the meeting expressing optimism about “getting to an agreement on a really transformational bill that will fundamentally lift people up.”

As hospitals in New York rapidly consolidate — reflecting a broader national trend — a small network of private medical systems has increasingly come to dominate the state’s healthcare sector. These conglomerates exploit their market power to raise prices and drive up healthcare costs. Several major unions, collectively representing hundreds of thousands of New York’s medical workers, recently established a coalition to lobby for legislative action to hamper the consolidations and curtail the predatory pricing they enable. “We’re launching this campaign because the days of our members being held hostage here in New York by predatory hospital pricing is coming to an end,” asserted SEIU 32BJ’s president.

Labor unions have intensified their organizing operations in the South in recent months, seeking to leverage the purported nationwide labor shortage to secure a foothold in a historically antilabor region. In Tennessee, trade groups have responded by attempting to enshrine the state’s “right-to-work” law into the constitution. The legislature approved an amendment to do so in April, which will be submitted to voters as a referendum in November 2021.

Leaders of the push insist that allowing workers to refuse to financially contribute to the union that represents them has “been one of the most important factors” driving the “economic growth of Tennessee.” This overlooks the inconvenient reality that the state’s wages — consistent with the general trend in right-to-work jurisdictions — remain substantially below national averages.

In organizing news, thousands of professors and faculty at the University of Pittsburgh overwhelming voted to unionize with USW, the culmination of years of sustained organizing efforts. The sweeping triumph may presage an organizing surge at the university; as I detailed four weeks ago, university staff — that is, employees other than faculty or grad students — recently initiated a union drive at all five campuses in the Pitt network.