{"id":389271,"date":"2025-09-01T13:11:13","date_gmt":"2025-09-01T13:11:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/389271\/"},"modified":"2025-09-01T13:11:13","modified_gmt":"2025-09-01T13:11:13","slug":"hes-brazenly-anti-worker-us-marks-the-first-labor-day-under-trump-2-0-trump-administration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/389271\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018He\u2019s brazenly anti-worker\u2019: US marks the first Labor Day under Trump 2.0 | Trump administration"},"content":{"rendered":"

For this Labor Day, the Donald Trump administration<\/a> has draped an enormous banner outside the US labor department with his portrait and the words \u201cAmerican Workers First.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump was elected on promises, since repeatedly pledged, that he would fight for workers and forgotten Americans. But many labor advocates say that Trump has consistently put corporate interests first in his second term as he has taken dozens of actions that hurt workers, often by cutting their pay or making their jobs more dangerous.<\/p>\n

Despite his vow to help coal miners, Trump halted enforcement of a regulation<\/a> that protects miners from a debilitating, often deadly lung disease. He fired the chair of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), leaving the US\u2019s top labor watchdog without a quorum to protect workers from corporations\u2019 illegal anti-union tactics. Angering labor leaders, Trump stripped one million federal workers<\/a> of their right to bargain collectively and tore up their union contracts.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a big betrayal,\u201d Liz Shuler, president of the AFL-CIO, the main US labor federation, said. \u201cWe knew it would be bad, but we had no idea how rapidly he would be doing these things. He is stripping away regulations that protect workers. His attacks on unions are coming fast and furious. He talks a good game of being for working people, but he\u2019s doing the absolute opposite.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a government that is by, and for, the CEOs and billionaires,\u201d Shuler added.<\/p>\n

Trump has hurt construction workers by shutting down major wind turbine projects and ending Biden-era subsidies that encourage the construction of factories that make renewable-energy products<\/a>. In moves that will harm some of the nation\u2019s most vulnerable workers, the Trump administration has proposed ending minimum wage and overtime protections<\/a> for 3.7 million home-care and domestic workers. It has also killed a Biden plan to prevent<\/a> employers from paying disabled workers less than the $7.25-an-hour federal minimum wage.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a huge disconnect between Trump\u2019s pro-worker rhetoric and the policies he\u2019s putting in place. The gulf is enormous,\u201d said Heidi Shierholz, president of the Economic Policy Institute, a progressive thinktank. \u201cIn his second term, he\u2019s been absolutely, brazenly anti-worker.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI keep thinking about his taking away the Biden-era increase in the minimum wage for federal contractors. It\u2019s unbelievably brazen,\u201d Shierholz continued. (Trump ended the requirement<\/a> that federal contractors pay their workers at least $17.75 an hour.) \u201cThe minimum wage is incredibly popular. He just took away the minimum wage from hundreds of thousands of workers. That blew my mind.\u201d As a result, many full-time workers will see their pay drop by more than $9,200 a year<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The administration disputes all these criticisms. \u201cThe American worker has been left behind by the Democrat party for years, but President Trump has championed an agenda that puts the American worker first,\u201d said Taylor Rogers, White House assistant press secretary.<\/p>\n

Trump has \u201cunleashed an economic boom\u201d, she said. Inflation is cooling, native-born Americans are benefiting from private-sector job gains and blue-collar wages are rising fast. \u201cUnder President Trump\u2019s leadership, Republicans are once again the party of the American worker,\u201d said Rogers.<\/p>\n

Many labor experts say Trump is even more anti-union than Ronald Reagan, often called the most anti-union president of modern times. Reagan fired 11,345 air traffic controllers who went on strike, but the AFL-CIO\u2019s Shuler said that \u201cpales in comparison\u201d to Trump\u2019s ending collective bargaining for 1 million federal workers. \u201cThat\u2019s the largest single act of union-busting in our history,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is worse than Reagan when it comes to his approach to unions,\u201d said Julie Su, who was acting labor secretary under Biden. \u201cWe saw what Reagan did in the 1980s. That began a long decline in unionization. This president wants to make America non-union again. He\u2019s certainly trying to make the government non-union again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shierholz said the \u201cabsolute scale of crushing unions\u201d under Trump is \u201con a whole different scale from what we saw under Reagan. Trump is saying it\u2019s absolutely open season on union folks. He took an absolute chainsaw to the federal workforce. He\u2019s giving the green light to the private sector and local government to do the same.\u201d<\/p>\n

Justin Chen, president of an American Federation of Government Employees council representing 8,000 Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) workers across the US, is angry that Trump halted collective bargaining for EPA employees, voided most of their union contracts and fired probationary workers. \u201cWhatever he said about fighting for workers was a complete lie,\u201d Chen said. \u201cHe treats federal employees with a great deal of disdain, not as civil servants valuable to make our government and economy run.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many labor advocates say Trump\u2019s signature policies, including tariffs and deportations, are hurting US workers. Trump\u2019s tariffs are pushing up prices and slowing economic growth, economists say<\/a>. Trump\u2019s \u201cbig, beautiful\u201d tax cut will harm millions of working families by cutting food assistance and causing many to lose health coverage. As for Trump\u2019s deportation campaign, many workers say it\u2019s undermining their employers\u2019 businesses and forcing them to work harder because they have to do the work of their departed co-workers.<\/p>\n

In her annual State of the Unions address<\/a>, AFL-CIO president Shuler said on Wednesday: \u201cThe state of working people in this country is they\u2019re under attack.\u201d She added: \u201cWe want cheaper groceries, and we get tanks on our streets. We want more affordable healthcare, and we get 16 million Americans about to be kicked off their coverage.\u201d Shuler said unions will hold close to 1,000 rallies<\/a> and other events this Labor Day across the US to kick off a year of mobilization.<\/p>\n

Jenny Smith, a home-care worker in Champaign, Illinois, said Trump\u2019s plan to end overtime and minimum-wage protections for home-care workers shows contempt for struggling, low-wage workers. \u201cTrump doesn\u2019t know what it means to go to work day after day to earn a living,\u201d she said. \u201cIf you take away these wage protections, it will take money out of these workers\u2019 pockets. The majority of these workers are Black, brown and single mothers. You\u2019re taking from their children\u2019s mouths.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith voiced dismay that Trump hasn\u2019t made good on his promise to reduce prices. \u201cI\u2019m very disappointed that prices aren\u2019t going down,\u201d she said. \u201cI just bought a dozen eggs for $6.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added: \u201cI don\u2019t think he cares about us, but he does care about the billionaires.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump has taken numerous steps that will weaken safety protections for workers. He is cutting staffing by 12% at the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (Osha). His administration has proposed eliminating a requirement for adequate lighting<\/a> on construction sites. It is reducing the fines that small businesses pay for violating safety rules. It has proposed blocking the government\u2019s mine-safety district managers from ordering upgrades in mine ventilation and safety. It has slowed action on Biden\u2019s effort to protect workers from high temperatures.<\/p>\n

Trump also froze enforcement of a Biden-era regulation<\/a> that protects miners from silicosis, a serious lung disease.<\/p>\n

\u201cSilicosis has become a major killer among coal miners, but the Trump administration<\/a> is trying to make silicosis great again,\u201d said David Michaels, a professor of public health at George Washington University who headed Osha under Barack Obama. \u201cThe Trump administration has taken several steps that are devastating to the safety and health of the nation\u2019s workers. Osha, which is under-resourced and underpowered, has become significantly smaller as a result of the Trump and Doge [Trump\u2019s unofficial \u2018department of government efficiency\u2019] cuts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Michaels warned that Trump\u2019s cuts to Osha penalties will reduce incentives for companies to ensure safe conditions.<\/p>\n

Administration officials point to the Trump-backed \u201cno tax on tips\u201d and \u201cno tax on overtime\u201d as clearly pro-worker. But Yale\u2019s Budget Lab notes that only 4% of workers<\/a> in the bottom half by income are in tipped jobs, while almost 40% of tipped workers earn so little they don\u2019t pay federal income taxes.<\/p>\n

Moreover, the no-tax-on-overtime provision will reduce income taxes far less than most workers realize. The deduction applies only to the \u201chalf\u201d<\/a> in \u201ctime-and-a-half\u201d overtime pay. If a worker earns $20 an hour and their overtime rate is $30, that worker can deduct only the $10 premium for each overtime hour, not the full $30.<\/p>\n

Shierholz said that if Trump were serious about helping workers, \u201che would raise the minimum wage, make overtime pay double pay and do away with the sub-minimum wage for tipped workers. That would truly help workers, but that\u2019s not what he\u2019s doing. He\u2019s doing as little as possible to help workers, while helping employers.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Trump says his deportations will create job opportunities for US-born workers, Shierholz\u2019s economic institute forecasts that Trump\u2019s effort to deport 1 million immigrants a year will result in 5.9m lost jobs after four years<\/a>: 3.3 million fewer employed immigrants and 2.6 million fewer employed US-born workers. \u201cIf you don\u2019t have immigrant roofers and framers, you\u2019re not building houses, and that means electricians and plumbers lose their jobs,\u201d Shierholz said. \u201cPlus, you lose the consumer spending from those workers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Corey Mahoney, a 35-year-old cargo handler at John F Kennedy international airport in New York, said Trump\u2019s policies have whipsawed workers at his warehouse. \u201cThe tariff situation has slowed down work, and many people lost their jobs,\u201d he said. When Trump ended protected status for many Venezuelans and other immigrants, some of his Venezuelan co-workers left or were deported. \u201cSome of the people I was working with tried to come to work, but they weren\u2019t allowed,\u201d he said. \u201cWe were left with less people, and we had to work twice as hard. It\u2019s unfair.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTrump is in an alternative universe thinking everything is good,\u201d Mahoney said. \u201cHe doesn\u2019t realize that normal people who are just trying to make a living aren\u2019t happy with what he\u2019s doing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For this Labor Day, the Donald Trump administration has draped an enormous banner outside the US labor department…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":389272,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5311],"tags":[49,978,659],"class_list":{"0":"post-389271","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-united-states","9":"tag-us","10":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115129213515807591","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=389271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389271\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/389272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=389271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=389271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=389271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}