Employees at Chicago’s Adler Planetarium are joining Council 31 of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees.

AFSCME represents workers at several other major Chicago museums, including the Museum of Science and Industry, Field Museum, Shedd Aquarium, and the Art Institute of Chicago.

Downstate, dozens of workers at the Champaign Public Library also have filed for representation by AFSCME and plan to negotiate for living wages, better benefits, fair hiring, and opportunities for advancement.

At Northwestern University, doctors, interns and others who organized with SEIU Health Care, almost two years ago, 794-148 have ratified their first union contract with the university’s McGaw Medical Center.

Writers Guild resisting new CBS News boss. Last month, CBS News announced that Bari Weiss, founder of the right-wing Free Press, would be editor-in-chief of CBS News. This is despite Weiss, a favorite of the Trump administration, having no experience in broadcast news. Since Weiss is expected to purge staffers who aren’t Trump “loyalists,” the Writers Guild of America East urged staffers not to cooperate.

Pope meets with Illinois labor leaders. Pope Leo XIV last month hosted union leaders from Chicago and urged labor to advocate for immigrants and welcome minorities into their ranks, even as the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigrants intensified in the pontiff’s hometown.

“While recognizing that appropriate policies are necessary to keep communities safe, I encourage you to continue to advocate for society to respect the human dignity of the most vulnerable,” said Leo, who grew up on the southside of the city.

Chicago Federation of Labor President Bob Reiter was at a private meeting with the pope, who addressed the labor question, pointing to the intolerable living conditions of many industrial workers and arguing for the “establishment of a just social order.”

Judge reinstates Voice of America journalists. A federal judge appointed by President Ronald Reagan last month ordered the Trump administration to reverse layoffs of some 500 remaining workers at Voice of America, the federal organization that provides independent reporting to countries with limited press freedom, such as China, Russia and Iran.

— News briefs courtesy of The Labor Paper: “Like” us Facebook.com/The-Labor-Paper