Congressional District 7 candidate Adelita Grijalva and Arizona Senator Mark Kelly speak at a roundtable event focusing on issues facing labor unions in Tucson, Arizona, on Tuesday, April 22, 2025.
Labor unions representing government contractors are finding it harder to represent their members working on military bases under the Trump administration.
Paul Shepherd, a leader for the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, said his members are experiencing more difficulty accessing bases for meetings and safety inspections, including at Davis Monthan Air Force Base.
“We take our role of protecting our members' health, safety and their working conditions very seriously. And when we can't access the membership, it creates a problem and raises the questions on, why are we being prevented from making sure that everybody’s just doing what they agreed?” he said.
According to Shepherd, a key part of many collective bargaining agreements is visitation rights, which includes the ability to respond to complaints from employees at their workplace.
Since the election, Shepherd said members trying to conduct base visits have experienced new restrictions, like requirements to get visits pre-approved, long waits at the entrance, or having their access cards revoked entirely.
As many as 90% of the union’s members are military veterans, according to Shepherd. Their members work jobs that range from pilot instructors to healthcare workers at the base’s hospital. And, he said less oversight means more risk.
“If you knew that highway patrol was not going to be on the freeway this weekend, what would that look like? The laws are still there. But if nobody’s going to be there to enforce them, likelihood is companies are going to start taking advantage of these hard working Arizonans and military veterans that are doing these jobs,” he said.
Arizona Senator Mark Kelly said anti-union sentiment “has a trickle-down effect” at a roundtable with congressional candidate Adelita Grijalva Tuesday.
“It’s something I’m going to look into, and try to fix,” he said.
Grijalva and Kelly called on the Trump administration to roll back his tariffs and take a new tack in negotiating trade, especially on China, which now faces a tariff of 145%.
“We've heard from literally every union here on how the tariffs are going to impact them and how not holding onto binding contracts is going to be hurting all of our working families,” said Grijalva.
Representatives for other Southern Arizona labor organizations, such as the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, United Food and Commercial Workers Local 99, the Tucson Education Association, and Communications Workers of America also attended the roundtable.
Several announced endorsements for Grijalva’s congressional bid the same day, and expressed unified concern for worker’s rights.
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