Trump Has Put a Target on SEIU, and the Labor Movement Is Fighting Back

[Omaha Steve]

The arrest of labor leader David Huerta in Los Angeles has put unions on the leading edge of resistance to mounting authoritarianism.
Luis Feliz Leon June 10, 2025

As federal agents strapped on their tactical gear and picked up rifles to sweep workplaces, parking lots and streets in Los Angeles, workers and residents mounted what is shaping up into the boldest organized defiance to the Trump administration yet. And when a state labor leader observing the raids got swept up in the brutal immigration crackdown, it sparked nationwide action by labor unions against federal raids, detentions and deportations.

When agents showed up at downtown garment factories on Friday and a Home Depot parking lot in the working-class suburb of Paramount on Saturday, everyday people’s anger at the Trump administration’s agents of repression boiled over into confrontation. Protesters hurled their bodies in front of armored vehicles and vans to stop ICE from spiriting away their loved ones and community members. The federal response was swift and asymmetrical. Federal agents in military gear fired flash-bang grenades against protesters who had thrown eggs or other objects, or just followed alongside federal vehicles. In Paramount, the air thrummed thickly rancid from tear gas and grenades.

Alongside the tight-knit working-class communities of factory workers, retail workers and day laborers that stood against ICE, volunteers from across the city were roused to action by the Los Angeles Rapid Response Network (LARRN), a communication hub to respond in real time to deportation threats. Among them was David Huerta, president of Service Employees International Union (SEIU) United Service Workers West. Huerta was arrested and tackled to the ground, resulting in an injury, ​“while exercising his First Amendment right to observe and document law enforcement activity” at a workplace raid on Friday, according to a SEIU California statement. The government alleged that Huerta had been ​“interfering with federal officers” by blocking their vehicles and detained him over the weekend.

The authoritarian crackdown escalated as President Trump federalized 2,100 National Guard troops over the objections of Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom. By Monday, the administration announced it would deploy 700 Marines. The Los Angeles Police Department arrested more than 100 protesters and shot several journalists with so-called ​“less lethal weapons.” Immigrants who reported to routine check-ins at the federal courthouse in Little Tokyo were detained in its basement and conference rooms, with young children reportedly among those deprived of food and water.

FULL story: https://inthesetimes.com/article/david-huerta-seiu-protests-raids-authoritarianism

[Deuxcents]

1. Unlike the time a president went after the air controllers, every union in the country should call for solidarity

And call their members to make a stand..halt everything for at least a day.