Donald Trump has been a disaster of a president in many ways. Women’s rights. Foreign affairs. Corruption. Scandal. We could go on and on. But how’s he doing on workers’ rights? Remember, he talked a big game about being pro-worker. Just like everything else, Trump was all talk when it came to protecting workers. As a new editorial in the NY Times lays out, he’s finding every way under the sun to screw working people.
“Mr. Trump said during the 2016 campaign that he supported a $10 federal minimum hourly wage, but since taking office he hasn’t sought any increase in the minimum wage, currently $7.25 an hour. Instead, his administration has tried to limit worker pay. In April, the Labor Department ruled that workers for an unidentified cleaning company, and for similar businesses, were contractors rather than employees and therefore not entitled to be paid a minimum wage or overtime or to have the company pay a portion of their Social Security taxes.”
The editorial goes on to note other ways Trump is failing workers.
– The administration nixed the Obama-era effort to expand eligibility for overtime pay
– Trump’s Labor Dept. began a program in 2018 that allows employers to report their own violations of federal wage laws and to avoid penalties by paying workers the money they are owed. Yeah, great move. I’m sure employers are falling over themselves to report cheating their workers out of wages.
– The Trump Admin is attempting to undo rules that bar employers from discriminating based on sexual orientation. Not a surprise given his discriminatory ban on transgender individuals serving in the military
– When it comes to workers having a voice on the job, this administration has been the most anti-union in recent memory. Trump backed the Janus decision to hobble unions. His NLRB counsel is trying to block gig workers from organizing by saying they are contractors and not employees, despite last year’s CA Supreme Court Dynamex decision that found the opposite to be true. Trump is also attacking fast-food workers and homecare workers and their unions.
– The administration is putting workers’ lives at risk by cutting OSHA inspectors and limiting regulation of corporations on worker safety.
– Trump is attempting to pull federal funds from California’s High-Speed Rail project, killing thousands of jobs.
– And, of course, Trump’s racist rhetoric and anti-immigrant actions have directly harmed many immigrant families in CA and beyond.
In short, this Administration has been a disaster for working people. And it’s our job to make sure workers know just how bad he’s been when they head to the polls next November. See the full editorial here.