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Yesterday's announcement that Microsoft will be laying off more than 10,000 workers, like similar recent announcements at other companies, highlights the growing need for tech workers to organize and lock in meaningful worker protections.
Representatives from CWA have been in touch with Microsoft, and the company recognizes its obligation to bargain over any proposed layoffs of CWA members at ZeniMax. Members of the ZeniMax worker bargaining committee will be developing proposals that reflect their needs and provide alternatives to layoffs.
Working with Microsoft over the past year we have developed a blueprint for companies that want to take the high road when workers choose to form unions. We are optimistic that the collective bargaining process at ZeniMax will provide a similar opportunity to chart a new path in tech, with innovative, worker-developed alternatives to the boom-bust cycle of layoffs in the tech industry that have had devastating consequences for tens of thousands of tech workers and their families.
Communication Workers of America (CWA) is America's largest communications & media union. CWA members work in telecommunications and information technology, the airline industry, news media, broadcast and cable television, education, health care, public service and education, law enforcement, manufacturing and other fields.
"It is time for us to focus on what really matters: unrigging this economy, making sure we reclaim our democracy—and it starts right now," Mejia said as the race officially remained too close to call.
This is a developing story... Please check back for updates...
Progressive organizer Analilia Mejia emerged late Thursday as the leader of a crowded Democratic primary race for a vacant US House seat representing New Jersey's 11th Congressional District, potentially notching a stunning upset in a contest that saw outside groups—including one linked to AIPAC—spend millions.
The bulk of that money came from the United Democracy Project (UDP), a billionaire-funded pro-Israel group that spent big to defeat former Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-NJ) in favor of its preferred candidate, Tahesha Way. The investment appears to have backfired in embarrassing fashion: Way is currently sitting in a distant third place, while UDP's attacks on Malinowski—regarded as a pro-Israel Democrat during his time in Congress—appear to have harmed him enough to propel Mejia, who has called Israel's assault on Gaza a genocide.
While the primary race is officially too close to call, some analysts said they expect Mejia to win after the remaining ballots are counted. As of this writing, Mejia—whose campaign was backed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), and other prominent progressives—is holding to a 486-vote lead.
"New Jersey, I am so excited to say that we have delivered people-powered victory," Mejia, a supporter of Medicare for All and other progressive policy ambitions, said in a video posted to social media shortly after midnight. "It is time for us to focus on what really matters: unrigging this economy, making sure we reclaim our democracy—and it starts right now."
My message to New Jersey voters. pic.twitter.com/8u8EBy02f7
— Analilia Mejia for NJ (@AnaliliaForNJ) February 6, 2026
The New Jersey Working Families Party, which endorsed and supported Mejia, said in a statement that "while every vote must still be counted, Analilia Mejia’s performance is historic."
"Analilia shocked the New Jersey political establishment and did what so many people said she couldn’t,” said Antoinette Miles, the organization's state director. “Voters are hungry for working-class leaders, and tonight they showed it.”
Prominent outlets, including Decision Desk HQ, were forced to retract their earlier projections of a Malinowski win after the progressive candidate took the lead. Mejia rubbed it in by posting to X the famous photo of Harry Truman holding up a copy of the Chicago Daily Tribune that featured the erroneous banner headline, "Dewey Defeats Truman."
The winner of the 11th Congressional District primary and April 16 general election will fill the remainder of New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill's congressional term, which expires in January 2027.
Progressives who backed Mejia's campaign attributed her late surge to persistent organizing and a last-ditch advertising push. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) noted that while Mejia "was outspent by millions," strategic spending by progressive PACs helped boost her campaign in the final days of the primary.
"When there’s a real organizer running, we don’t need to match $ for $—we just need to be in the ring," Jayapal wrote on social media late Thursday.
Observers also marveled at AIPAC's blundering intervention in the race. UDP's ads against Malinowski did not mention Israel; rather, one of the spots condemned the former congressman for voting in 2019 to fund President Donald Trump's "deportation force," possibly pushing voters toward the candidate who has called for the abolition of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
"ICE is not reformable nor fixable, and New Jerseyans know this," Mejia said last month. "We need members of Congress who are willing to stand up to authoritarianism and terror. The same old blue just won’t cut it."
"Our government should be accountable to the people, not the whims of a power-hungry executive," said one Common Cause campaigner.
Less than a week after a court filing revealed that President Donald Trump is suing his own Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service for $10 billion over the leak of his tax returns during his first term, former federal officials and watchdog groups on Thursday called out his attempt to abuse "powerful tools for holding government accountable."
The legal group Democracy Forward filed a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of Common Cause, the Project On Government Oversight, ex-IRS Commissioner John Koskinen, former National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson, and Kathryn Keneally and Gilbert Rothenberg, who both held leadership roles in the US Department of Justice's Tax Division.
"This case is extraordinary because the president controls both sides of the litigation, which raises the prospect of collusive litigation tactics," states the amicus brief. "Collusive litigation threatens the integrity of the judicial process by risking the court's entanglement in an illegitimate proceeding. And although the complaint has significant defects—it was filed too late, against the wrong party, and for an unsupported and excessive sum of damages—the conflicts of interest make it uncertain whether the Department of Justice will zealously defend the public fisc in the same way that it has against other plaintiffs claiming damages for related events."
"To maintain the integrity of the judicial process in the face of these highly irregular circumstances, the court should consider exercising its inherent judicial authority to proactively manage this case from the outset," argued the former officials and groups, known as amici. Specifically, they said:
"To treat this case like business as usual," the coalition declared, "would threaten the integrity of the justice system and the important taxpayer and privacy protections at the heart of this case."
In a statement about the new filing in the Southern District of Florida, Abigail Bellows, Common Cause's senior policy director for anti-corruption and accountability, stressed that "we are watching a president attempt to bully the IRS into giving him billions of our taxpayer dollars."
"Our government should be accountable to the people, not the whims of a power-hungry executive," Bellows said. "We urge the court to take steps to promote judicial integrity and protect the public interest."
President Trump has made $4 billion since his second inauguration. And now, he's suing the Treasury Department and IRS for $10 billion more in "damages."So we're filing a brief urging the court to reject President Trump’s scheme and protect taxpayers.
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— Democracy Forward (@democracyforward.org) February 5, 2026 at 5:37 PM
In addition to representing the amici in this case, Democracy Forward has launched various other lawsuits against Trump and his administration, which have faced sweeping allegations of corruption since the president returned to power a year ago.
According to an analysis published by the New York Times editorial board last month, on the one-year anniversary of his second inauguration, Trump and his family enriched themselves to the tune of at least $1.4 billion during the first year of his second term—largely through investment in cryptocurrencies, though he's also secured settlements from tech and media companies.
Various other members of the second Trump administration have also been accused of corruption and conflicts of interest, and as the Times separately revealed in December, many rich and powerful contributors Trump's post-election fundraising haul have received corporate-friendly regulatory changes, dropped enforcement cases, government contracts, and even pardons.
"The president's corruption continues, this time in an attempt to take $10 billion dollars of the taxpayers' money, which threatens to make a mockery out of our justice system," said Democracy Forward president and CEO Skye Perryman. "Not only does the president's baseless case have significant legal defects, but there are colossal conflicts of interest at play."
"We thank these experts for raising these serious concerns about how President Trump is seeking to further illegally line his own pockets at the public’s expense and our brief urges the court to exercise its power to ensure the matter is not one-sided."
Organizers say they're "mobilizing thousands from over 100 countries in a coordinated, nonviolent response to genocide, siege, mass starvation, and the destruction of civilian life in Gaza."
Organizers of the Global Sumud Flotilla—the largest-ever activist effort to break Israel's blockade of Gaza by sea—said Thursday that they will launch a new and bigger mission next month to deliver humanitarian aid to the Palestinian exclave, whose people have suffered from 28 months of genocidal Israeli war and siege.
Global Sumud Flotilla called its spring 2026 mission, which is scheduled to depart from Barcelona on March 29, "a historic escalation in civilian-led maritime action to break the illegal blockade of Gaza."
"We are sailing again this year. This time, we're sailing with more boats, and more activists... and we are determined to break this illegal siege on Gaza and show the world that the peace talks are not really peace talks, but the further colonization of Palestinian territories," organizer Yasmin Acar told South African Broadcasting Corporation News Radio. "We will not stop until the siege is broken."
Global Sumud Flotilla said: "A primary focus of the 2026 mission is the deployment of a specialized medical fleet. Carrying more than 1,000 healthcare professionals and stocked with lifesaving medicines and equipment, this fleet aims to stabilize Gaza's healthcare system and support the efforts of local medical teams who have endured two years of genocide."
Like most of Gaza, the strip's healthcare infrastructure is in ruins after deliberate targeting of medical facilities and workers by Israeli forces.
Mandla Mandela, grandson of South African anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela and a past flotilla participant, called the new effort "cause... for those that want to rise and stand for justice and dignity for all."
Last summer, dozens of boats carrying hundreds of activists from over 40 nations took part in the last Global Sumud Flotilla—sumud means “perseverance” in Arabic—as it attempted to run Israel’s naval blockade and deliver desperately needed humanitarian aid including food, medicines, and baby formula to the starving people of Gaza amid Israel's genocidal war and siege on the people of the coastal strip.
Israeli forces intercepted and seized the flotilla vessels in international waters in early October, arresting all aboard the boats and temporarily jailing them in Israel, where some including Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg said they were physically and psychologically abused by their captors.
The Freedom Flotilla Coalition has made numerous attempts to break Israel's blockade by sea, all of which ended in more or less the same way. In 2010, Israeli forces raided one of the first convoys carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza by sea. The Israeli attackers killed nine volunteers aboard the MV Mavi Marmara, including Turkish-American teenager Furkan Doğan.
“We may not have reached Gaza physically," flotilla activist Susan Abdallah told Al Jazeera Thursday, but "we have reached the people in Gaza."
"They know that we care, that we will not stop at anything until we actually break the siege," she added.