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As the administration of President Donald Trump dismantles reforms enacted under Joe Biden, workers and management at a Fort Valley, Georgia, school bus plant are thriving because of the same policies. On Trumps first day in office, he signed an executive order that would freeze future spending under two Biden-era laws: The Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which authorized funding of more than $2 trillion. Under Biden, those grants often went to companies that supported worker unions, according to the Center for American Progress. Several workers at Blue Bird Corp., a school bus manufacturer with 1,500 union employees at its plant in Fort Valley, said that support transformed their workplace. They pointed to better job conditions under a union contract and said that the company has thrived under a grant and contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars thanks to federal support for electric buses. Observers, including former acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su, said that Trumps actions could mean an abrupt end to successful government programs that have already improved the lives of workers across the country and added to companies bottom lines. Were making them school buses. Theyre making a lot of money. At first glance, Blue Birds story looks like its solely about the power of unions to improve a workplace. Like many workers in the Deep South, workers at Blue Bird had tried to organize a union without success since the 1960s. In 2019, they began to gain traction. The majority-Black workforce was fed up with starting wages as low as $13 an hour, no official pay scale, and the resulting unpredictabilityand rarityof raises. The factory roof leaked, and some parts of the job, like working with hazardous pressure systems, felt unsafe, they said. Whats more, the policy for time off was opaque: The company would give personal leave to who they want to, not when people might really need it, said Dee Thomas, a 12-year veteran of Blue Bird who serves as USW Local 697s executive vice president. Blue Bird officials declined repeated requests by Capital & Main for comment. Workers began talking among themselves about a union. One member knew someone who was in the United Steelworkers union, and soon employees were talking to union organizers, meeting in parks, local churches and public libraries. Blue Bird Corp. employee Dee Thomas [Photo: courtesy United Steelworkers] In 2022, workers heard that Blue Birdone of the countrys only bus manufacturers with electric vehicle expertisetold investors they expected to bring in at least $1 billion in federal incentives encouraging public school districts to switch to electric school buses. They wanted a fair share of the proceeds they were helping the company make. Were making them school buses, Thomas said. Theyre making a lot of money. When the union campaign went public in early 2023, Blue Bird fought it, workers said. The United Steelworkers union filed unfair labor practice complaints with the National Labor Relations Board, alleging that managers threatened to close the plant if workers voted for a union, surveilled employees as they talked with union organizers, and urged workers to vote against the union in mandatory employee meetings. (After the union election, the charges were withdrawn.) Guidelines under a grant from the Environmental Protection Agency helped the union organizing campaign, said Alex Perkins, a USW organizer and current staff representative for the Blue Bird union. The EPAs Clean School Bus Program, funded by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, required union neutrality at companies, banning them from using government funding to support or oppose union organizing activity. Activists said they reminded Blue Bird executives that the federal money theyd bragged to investors about might not be granted to union busters. In response, the company tempered its opposition, Perkins said. In early May 2023, Blue Bird workers voted 697 to 435 to authorize the United Steelworkers union to represent them. A boost from Biden The victory was only a first step: The union needed to negotiate a contract with the company before workers jobs would actually improve. Some of Blue Birds potential customers, as well as federal grants, gave preference to companies that committed to good faith contract negotiations with workers. Su, who was acting secretary of labor at the time, had made quick contract agreements a priority for the Department of Labor. Most employers, on the other hand, drag out initial contract talks, and most first contracts take more than 500 daysmore than 16 monthsto be ratified, according to a recent Bloomberg Law study. There is no penalty for employers who drag out negotiations or even fail to sign a contract. Nearly one-third of all unions that win an election do not have a contract within three years, with more than a quarter never getting a contract at all. Workers werent sure how Blue Bird would respond to negotiations, so they resolved to show the company that treating workers well could help its bottom line. In August 2023, with contract negotiations at Blue Bird in pocess, Melinda Newhouse, assistant to the United Steelworkers international president, called in to a Los Angeles Unified School District public school board meeting about its pending $80 million contract for 180 electric school buses. When public investment is made, it should be done in a way that takes into account more than just the bottom line, Newhouse told the meeting, referring to Blue Birds new union. The district, bound by law to accept the lowest responsible bid, chose Blue Bird. The companys then-CEO, Phil Horlock, called it the largest single order ever of EV school buses. The same summer, the Biden administration threw some weight behind union workplaces. When the Department of Energy issued its call for proposals for Domestic Manufacturing Conversion Grants, funded by the Inflation Reduction Act, it said that automotive applicants had to describe how their project would benefit their community with high-quality jobs and support for collective bargaining agreements. If Blue Bird wanted to expand production, a union could help it get grants to do so. As contract negotiations entered their 10th month, Su visited Blue Bird. A longtime labor activist before joining the government, Su had made it her mission to urge companies to adopt contracts within one year. Too often workers who choose a union face significant delays in getting a first contract, Su told Capital & Main. And that delay is not accidental. In Fort Valley, Su urged Blue Bird executives and workers alike to ratify a contract before the first anniversary of the successful union vote. To their credit, Blue Bird took it on, Su said. Management checked in with her regularly about the progress of bargaining, which Su saw as a strong sign of their good faith and collaboration, she added. Workers came to feel that Blue Bird was collaborating with them, too. We worked together, the company and the union, said Perkins, who was also on the bargaining committee. In May 2024, just shy of the one-year deadline, Blue Bird and the union agreed to a three-year contract that went into effect the following July. The agreement raised the lowest-paid workers wage to around $22 an hour, standardized the retirement plan, established a profit-sharing agreement and created a health and safety committee with trained staff. It also formalized the collaboration that had evolved between Blue Bird and workers over the course of negotiations and established regular meetings among worker representatives, management and the CEO to discuss concerns in the workplace and ideas for improvement. A union relationship is a partnership, Horlock said at the official signing of the union agreement. [Secretary Su] explained that to me, and Im grateful we listened and we did it. We got it done. The same month the union contract went into effect, Blue Bird got a Domestic Manufacturing Conversion Grant worth nearly $80 million to expand electric bus productionand with it, union jobs. In the companys grant application, Blue Bird highlighted its efforts to work jointly with the United Steelworkers and touted its commitment to good faith negotiations with the union. USW also sent a letter of support with the application outlining how the company and union would work together. Today, workers say the union has made their jobs better with raises, improved safety and lower turnover. Public records suggested that the unionization effort has continued to pay off for Blue Bird, too. During the first quarter of 2025, Blue Bird reported near record quarterly profits, Horlock said in the companys February earnings call. Horlock attributed the companys performance to its investments to upgrade facilities, develop new products and continu[ing] to enhance the plant working environment for employees. Horlock stepped down as CEO in February but remains on the board of directors. Blue Birds experience under Biden-era policies provides a prime example of how companies can actually benefit from unions once they stop fighting them, said Arthur Wheaton, director of labor studies at Cornell Universitys School of Industrial and Labor Relations. There are a lot of common interests between the union and the company, he said. The union can benefit the company by giving management workers insights, gained from firsthand experience on how to solve problems, he added. And, as with the Steelworkers, many unions have connections with elected officials who can shape policy to create additional jobs and more stable employment. It only helps the Steelworkers to have Blue Bird get more funding, Wheaton said. All of that reflects the Biden administrations strategic and intentional support of unions, said Ian Elder, national director at Jobs to Move America, an advocacy organization that works to lift labor standards. The previous administration was enacting a form of industrial policy [with] an intention to cultivate industries that create good, sustainable careers while addressing climate change, protecting the environment, and protecting communities from environmental harm, Elder added. Funding freeze Today, Blue Bird and its workers enjoy a kind of success thats likely to become rare as the Trump administration ends the kinds of policies that made Blue Birds collaboration possible. The contract at Blue Bird was a seed of the kind of change that is possible, Su said. That is even more important than ever now, when we have an administration that speaks about being pro-worker, but does things that are horribly anti-worker. Indeed, Trumps sweeping funding freeze hit the Clean School Bus Program and its provisions rewarding good faith contract negotiations leaving its remaining $2 million in funding unspent. The EPA has made no announcement of new funding, though existing awards are still being paid out. Meanwhile, the Trump administration has issued orders to begin eliminating new emissions standards that favor electric vehicles, consumer subsidies for buying them and federal funding to support their development. In a similar vein, the Domestic Manufacturing Conversion Grants that paid off for Blue Bird have been spent, with no additional funding or a program to replace it in sight. Sus replacement as secretary of labor, Lori Chavez-DeRemer, was initially lauded as a pro-worker Republican, but she has yet to promote policies in support of unions. Although Chavez-DeRemer has posed for multiple photo ops with workers, she has also recanted her support for the PRO Act, the pro-union bill backed by the Biden administration, and declared her support for right-to-work legislation that is widely understood to be anti-union. She also endorsed a Trump agenda that includes effectively canceling project labor agreements with unions for federal construction work; eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives; and removing union inputfrom registered apprenticeship programs. The Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Energy and Department of Labor did not return requests for comment. Meanwhile, the Blue Bird unions officers remain optimistic that their collaboration with the company will survive Trumps changes. There are nearly two years left on their current contractenough time, they think, to prove to Blue Bird that companies and workers do better when they work together. The culture is changing at Blue Bird, Thomas said, pointing to their ongoing advice to management and other contract wins. Management will be changing as well. . . . They are going to get it right. Kalena Thomhave, Capital & Main This piece was originally published by Capital & Main.
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E-Commerce
We may be the last generation of CEOs to lead fully human workforces. That isnt a futuristic prediction; its a reality already taking shape inside businesses today. AI agents, once imagined as distant possibilities, are stepping confidently into our organizations. These systems are capable of autonomously handling tasks across departments, making decisions, and learning over time. By 2028, 33% of enterprise software applications will include agentic AI, up from less than 1% in 2024, enabling 15% of day-to-day work decisions to be made autonomously, according to Gartner. And given the current pace of adoption, even that may prove to be a conservative estimate. This shift isn’t just technologicalit’s operational and cultural Its not about replacing humans; its about augmenting them. Were entering a new operating model, one where human users and AI agents work together in tandem to drive outcomes with speed, intelligence, and scale. In this model, AI agents become active participants in the workforce, not passive tools. Already, forward-thinking organizations are hiring digital talent. They are assigning agents to workflows, integrating them into teams, and relying on them to create value alongside their human counterparts. The implications for leadership are profound. AI agents are not simply software add-ons; they are redefining how we design our business processes and collaborate on our daily work. Theyre collaborators in the broadest sense, and like any collaborator, they benefit from thoughtful integration and clear frameworks. Rethinking leadership in this new environment From what weve observed, organizations may benefit from shifting how they think about their workforce. Digital talent, like human talent, performs best when it has structure, support, and clear purpose. Some companies are already considering how to onboard digital agents, define their roles, measure their performance, and create environments where human and artificial intelligence complement one another. One notable strength of digital talent is its scalability. Once aligned, AI agents can be rapidly deployed across geographies and business functions. They operate continuously, adjust to real-time data, and remain consistent in execution. When deployed intentionally, this can open new doors to agility and resilience. Another shift weve seen is in how human capacity is being reallocated. As repetitive, manual tasks are passed to AI agents, employees are freed to focus on higher-value work: strategy, creativity, complex problem-solving. This unlocks not just efficiencybut also engagement. In a world where innovation is a differentiator, enabling people to do what only people can do becomes a strategic advantage. Designing teams for collaboration As we reimagine our workforces, its helpful to revisit how organizations can structure teamsnot just by department or title, but also by responsibility and collaboration model. Some leadership teams are now exploring how to define where human insight leads and where AI provides leverage. Questions about decision-making rights, accountability, and success metrics are being reframed to reflect the blended nature of todays teams. Naturally, with new capabilities come new responsibilities. Ethics, transparency, and governance cannot be treated as afterthoughts, but rather embedded from the beginning. Many organizations are exploring how to train digital agents responsibly, define behavioral expectations, and ensure these systems reflect their values. Setting the tone here, through clear policies and thoughtful design, can help build the kind of trust we aim to foster in any team. A common mistake There is, however, one common mistake I see many organizations making. They are applying AI agents to outdated processes, hoping to speed them up. But efficiency is not the same as transformation. If you automate a broken process, you only get broken resultsfaster. The real opportunity is not in acceleration. Its in reinvention. This moment calls for a process-first mindset. Its advisable to step back and ask ourselves the fundamental question: If we were designing this workflow today, knowing we had AI agents on our team from day one, how would we build it? That kind of thinking leads to a very different kind of organization. Sales, customer service, and operations In sales, AI agents can now qualify leads in real time, orchestrate outreach based on behavioral signals, and surface personalized insights for sales reps at the exact right moment. This creates a rhythm where reps focus less on handoffs and more on outcomes. In customer service, were seeing companies move beyond bots and into intelligent agent networks that proactively resolve issues, understand sentiment, and escalate complex problems with full context. The experience is faster, more empathetic, and more efficient. In operations, AI agents are making proactive decisions by managing supply chain variables, predicting demand shifts, and optimizing resources in ways that used to require layers of manual coordination. These arent hypothetical scenarios. Theyre real, and theyre redefining how companies deliver value. This is where the most exciting breakthroughs will happen. Not because we used AI to do what we already do faster, but because we gave ourselves permission to reimagine how the work could be done better. It starts with a mindset As CEOs, we are not just responsible for growth. We are responsible for building organizations that are intelligent by design. That means being intentional about how we integrate digital talent. It means leading the shift from legacy processes to modern, fluid systems that reflect how people and machines work best together. It also means embracing the cultural shift. The best outcomes will come from teams that are curious, experimental, and empowered. Leaders should encourage their teams to question assumptions, rethink workflows, and explore new possibilities. The organizations that do this well will be the ones that stay ahead. The blended workforce is already here. AI agents are changing how work gets done. They are reshaping roles, challenging hierarchies, and inviting us to reconsider what leadership looks like. This transformation doesnt start with technology; it starts with mindset. It starts with a CEO who understands that the future of the workforce is collaborative, intelligent, and profoundly human in its ambition. The future wont be fully human, but it will be more human-centered. It will be defined by those willing to lead with purpose, with courage, and with a commitment to building something better for both people and machines.
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E-Commerce
The nonprofit world is caught in a perfect storm, and many organizations are fundamentally misreading the moment. For decades, nonprofits ran on a static and reliable playbook: Chase government grants, court institutional donors, send the obligatory newsletter, and host the annual gala with open bars and cover bands. It was a comfortable model that did not require active audience engagement. Organizations could simply rely on the steady flow of federal funding and foundation checks. Then lightning struck. Twice. The Trump administration’s DOGE team landed like a wrecking ball on the nonprofit sector, freezing grants and ultimately turning the once-reliable federal funding spigot into a game of Russian roulette. This policy had near instantaneous effects: At least 14,000 nonprofit jobs were lost two months after inauguration day. Yet the DOGE disruption only amplified a shift that was already underway. As nonprofits were suddenly losing institutional funding, audience behavior underwent its own revolution: People started donating through their phones at unprecedented rates, began engaging with video content at increasing rates, and developed expectations for digital engagement that most nonprofits weren’t remotely prepared to meet. Combined, these rapid transitions pose an extinction-level event for nonprofits clinging to outdated models. But there’s a counterintuitive opportunity buried in this crisis: The same forces threatening nonprofit existence might actually be liberating them from decades of institutional dependency. The key is knowing how to pivot. Here are three core strategies. Lean into digital experiences The 205% surge in mobile donations is a critical signal that audiences want to engage differently. When 51% of your supporters are visiting your website through their phones and your digital presence feels like it was designed for a desktop in 2010, you’re actively driving away support. It is important to note that the byproduct of this strategy is not simply a mobile-optimized website that delivers static information. Wildlife Insights from WWF demonstrates this strategy well. This platform allows anyone to upload wildlife photos directly from mobile devices, then uses AI to automatically identify species and aggregate data from around the world. By making conservation accessible through smartphones, they’ve created a community where citizen scientists can contribute meaningful data from anywhere, transforming how wildlife monitoring happens at scale. In other words, much more than a brochure. Use data to drive engagement The most forward-thinking nonprofits are converting audience insights into growth drivers for online engagement. It is no longer good enough to get traffic to a site. A modern, successful organization follows a different strategy that converts attention into behavior. This process is unleashing a new wave of innovative feature development that is changing the perception of what nonprofits do with and for their audience. Digital innovation does not require next-generation technology, just an intelligent distribution plan. The Marshall Project Inside delivers criminal justice news to over 223,000 incarcerated individuals through a video series specifically designed for the 60% of prisoners with low literacy levels. By using audience data to shape content format, they became the only major news outlet making this level of investment to reach this underserved community. Create subscription revenue streams The final conversion in this process transforms audience engagement into monthly subscription revenue. This matters in the new era when government funding can evaporate with the stroke of a pen. Organizations building these structures are creating immunity against political whiplash. The pioneer of this strategy is Charity: Water, which launched The Spring, an online community of recurring donors, radical transparency, and undeniable impact. This strategy alone has raised over $320 million. This transformation isn’t just about survival, it’s about discovering what nonprofits become when they’re built on audience relationships instead of institutional approval. The organizations making this pivot now won’t just outlast the current political chaos; they’ll emerge stronger, more sustainable, and more connected to their missions than ever before.
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