3 Ways Workers’ Rights Are on the Chopping Block Under President Trump

Much of the Trump-Vance campaign’s platform was designed to provoke outrage rather than to supply policy details. So, if you’re trying to figure out what to actually expect from the coming second Trump administration, it’s helpful to look at the record of Trump’s first term in office, as well as the individuals and organizations that influenced the 2024 GOP campaign. When it comes to workers’ rights, that record is crystal clear: from attacks on unions and workers’ freedom of speech to rolling back laws that would have boosted paychecks or expanded worker safety protections, Trump has been a disaster.

These are just a few of the major changes in policy that workers can likely expect in the Trump-Vance administration: 

1. Ending proactive government support for the right to form a union. One of the first and easiest moves to expect would be removing Jennifer Abruzzo, who is the General Counsel at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Abruzzo is arguably one of the most effective forces for workers in the Biden administration, and has taken many proactive steps to defend the right to form and join unions. Her office has put checks on bosses surveilling workers, gotten workers rehired when their employer illegally fired them for trying to form a union, and held employers accountable for illegal union-busting — all of which has put her squarely in the crosshairs of the pro-corporate lobby. Billionaire Trump advisor and federal government contractor Elon Musk has even challenged the NLRB’s constitutionality in court, rather than be held accountable for allegedly illegally firing SpaceX employees who tried to raise workplace concerns.

2. Further crackdowns on immigrants in the workplace. Trump and his allies have pledged to re-ignite an aggressive wave of worksite immigration raids, large-scale deportations, and the stripping of temporary work authorization statuses. These actions could economically devastate immigrant workers, the industries they work in, and all those who live and work alongside them. There are 31 million immigrants in the U.S. workforce, representing about 18.6% of all workers in the U.S. in 2023. All workers — U.S.-born, citizens and immigrants alike — lose out when immigrants are targeted at work and put at risk of deportation. Why? Because employers will take advantage of fear over their status to exploit them, pushing down wages and working conditions for everyone.

3. Rolling back pro-worker laws and giving employers more power. Unions boost wages and working conditions for non-union workers as well. Still, not all workers will be able to win union representation — and some, like many farmworkers, are explicitly prohibited from doing so. This is why broad worker protection policies are also important. President Trump’s allies have pushed an anti-regulations crusade that would make workplaces less safe, take away overtime pay, open the door to further rolling back laws against child labor and attack the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s ability to fight back on behalf of workers facing sexual harassment or racial discrimination on the job.