Good afternoon everyone, 

It’s Thursday, March 19, and welcome back to another edition of the Keystone Labor Report. 

US Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pennsylvania) casted the deciding vote to advance US Sen. Markwayne Mullins’ (R-Oklahoma) nomination as Department of Homeland Security Secretary out of committee for a full vote on the US Senate floor. 

Mullins’ nomination, which passed by an 8-7 margin, would have failed because US Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) joined Democrats in voting against his colleague. 

In today’s newsletter, we’re going to give a quick update with the unionization efforts at Penn State University and take a look at one Pennsylvania lawmaker who is rejecting AIPAC donations going forward. 

(AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Well, that didn’t take long. 

Penn State University announced that it will be hosting 35 town hall meetings – likely to spread misinformation about the school’s professors and faculty members forming a union.

This comes a little more than one week after Penn State University President Neeli Bendapudi promised lawmakers on the Pennsylvania House Appropriations Committee that the school wouldn’t use public resources or taxpayer dollars on union-busting activities. 

Nearly 5,700 professors and faculty members with the Penn State Faculty Alliance are expected to vote in an election later this year to decide whether or not they will join Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 668, making it one of the largest public sector union elections in the commonwealth’s history. 

Penn State’s Administration is trying to drive a wedge between faculty members. We are coming together to form a faculty union to improve conditions at Penn State. We are organizing to achieve more – to preserve high-quality education, to support research and discovery,” Andrea Adolph, faculty organizer and Associate Professor of English at Penn State New Kensington, said in a statement. 

We believe news should help people feel informed about their communities and confident when it’s time to make decisions—including at the ballot box. If you value local reporting and want to help keep it accessible to everyone, we hope you’ll consider contributing during our spring grassroots fundraising drive.

(Sean Kitchen / The Keystone)

US House Rep. Chris Deluzio (D-Allegheny) became one of the latest Democrats to publicly reject taking campaign donations from donors and organizations aligned with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), which has become unpopular in the Democratic Party base following the wars in Gaza and Iran. 

This is notable because Deluzio’s district is the most competitive among his Democratic counterparts in the Pennsylvania delegation, and he is rumored to be one of a few Democrats considering to run in Pennsylvania’s Democratic Senate primary in 2028. 

“ I made a decision earlier this cycle to stop taking AIPAC money in the campaign. Just have had some pretty profound disagreements around this Iran war in particular, which I think is foolish. Not one we have to be fighting right now. Disagreements over the years around the Netanyahu government’s conduct in the West Bank, certainly in Gaza, and the super PAC spending we’re seeing in these elections beyond,” Deluzio told Drop Site News.