AFL-CIO Guide Shows How Trump Agenda Would Be ‘Catastrophic’ for Workers

“A second Trump term would put everything we’ve fought for—good jobs, fair wages, healthcare, retirement security, worker safety—on the chopping block,” said AFL-CIO president Liz Shuler.

By BRETT WILKINS

The U.S.’ largest labor union federation on July 18 launched a comprehensive new online guide detailing how Project 2025—the far-right initiative to boost the power of the presidency and purge the federal civil service—would threaten worker rights and well-being under a second administration of former Republican President Donald Trump.

“We are deeply concerned about pro-corporate policies that would drive up costs, put people out of work, endanger people’s lives, and make it harder for working people to get ahead,” the AFL-CIO—which endorsed Biden last year—said in a statement. “For unions, this agenda would make it tougher for members to win gains in our next contracts and stack the deck in favor of CEOs.”

Trump has recently tried to distance himself from Project 2025 and appeal to working-class voters by announcing Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) as his running mate and inviting International Brotherhood of Teamsters general president Sean O’Brien’s to speak at the Republican National Convention—but progressives and labor advocates are calling “bullsh*t.”

The AFL-CIO guide highlights how Project 2025 would “be catastrophic for working people,” including by:

• Banning unions for public service workers (page 82);

• Firing civil service workers and replacing them with Trump anti-union loyalists (page 80);

• Letting bosses eliminate unions mid-contract (page 603);

• Letting companies stop paying overtime (page 592) and allowing states to opt out of federal overtime and minimum wage laws (page 605);

• Eliminating child labor protections (page 595); and

• Urging Congress to pass Sen. JD Vance’s bill to let employers create their own sham company-run unions (page 599).

“In his first term as president, Donald Trump was a disaster for workers and our unions, governing exclusively for the wealthy and well-connected,” AFL-CIO president Liz Shuler said in a statement Thursday.

“The Trump Project 2025 Agenda lays out his plan to turbocharge his anti-worker policies, eliminate or control unions, and eviscerate labor laws and workers’ contracts,” she continued. “A second Trump term would put everything we’ve fought for—good jobs, fair wages, healthcare, retirement security, worker safety—on the chopping block.

“This new online tool is an essential part of our massive voter education campaign to reach every union household with critical information about the stakes of this election,” Shuler added. “Union voters could be the difference-makers in this election, and the AFL-CIO and affiliated unions have a plan to mobilize tens of thousands of grassroots activists across every community to get the message out and vote.”

While Trump has dubiously attempted to distance himself from the far-right Project 2025 by claiming he knows “nothing” about it or “who is behind it,” at least 140 people who worked in his administration helped draft the initiative’s policy document, according to a CNN review.

Furthermore, Trump’s campaign has acknowledged that Agenda 47, “the only official comprehensive and detailed look at what President Trump will do if he returns to the White House,” aligns well with Project 2025. According to a survey published last week by the progressive messaging firm Navigator Research, a majority of Americans believe that Project 2025 represents what Trump stands for.

During his rambling Republican National Convention speech accepting the GOP nomination July 18, Trump—during whose tenure the offshoring of U.S. jobs increased—said United Auto Workers president Shawn Fain should lose his job for letting automakers build factories in countries including Mexico.

“The United Auto Workers ought to be ashamed for allowing this to happen, and the leader of the United Auto Workers should be fired immediately and every single autoworker, union and nonunion, should be voting for Donald Trump, because we’re going to bring back car manufacturing and we’re going to bring it back fast,” Trump said.

UAW—which endorsed Biden in January—hit back on social media, calling Trump a “scab and a billionaire.”

Brett Wilkins is a staff writer for Common Dreams, where this originally appeared.

From The Progressive Populist, August 15, 2024

Populist.com