Year In Review: Trump’s 2025 Record on Employee Rights

If you care about labor and employment law issues, you should down a stiff drink and then contemplate this incomplete list of Trump’s destruction of those rights during the first ten months of his second term:

Employment discrimination

Trump revoked Executive Order 11246, issued by Pres. Lyndon Johnson in 1965, which prohibits employment discrimination by federal government contractors.

He instructed the Department of Justice to ensure that federal contractors and other private parties do not promote Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (“DEI”) programs, without defining just what is a DEI program.

Elimination of DEI programs has resulted in a decline in the hiring of employees of color and of women, and it has increased the incidence of discrimination and bias in the workplace.

He issued several executive orders claiming that there are only two genders and targeting trans people for unequal treatment in a variety of areas, including in the military, in prisons and in passports.

He removed two commissioners and the general counsel of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) without cause.

The EEOC, under its new leadership, has dismissed all of its discrimination cases alleging bias against trans people, removed a rule that said that abortion-related restrictions constitute pregnancy discrimination, and has filed cases involving employees’ religious observances, with a particular focus on “eradicating anti-Christian bias.”

The EEOC has dismissed cases alleging disparate-impact discrimination, that is, where a facially neutral practice has a disproportionately adverse effect on a protected class of employees.

The EEOC has claimed that programs designed to train, mentor or sponsor employees because of their sex, race or national origin are discriminatory.

U.S. Department of Labor

Trump reduced the minimum wage for employees of federal contractors.

The U.S. Department of Labor (“USDOL”) has proposed abolishing more than 60 regulations, including:

Eliminating federal minimum wage and overtime protections for home health care workers.

Providing that disabled employees can be paid a sub-minimum wage, depriving them of the same minimum wages enjoyed by other employees.

Eliminating anti-retaliation protections for migratory farmworkers.

Rescinding a rule that requires employers to provide seat belts in employer-provided transportation for farmworkers.

Rescinding a rule that requires employers to provide adequate lighting at construction sites.

Limiting the scope of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s general safety rule, that applies whenever no specific safety rule is in place.

Stripping Mine Safety and Health Administration district managers of their authority to require mine owners to submit plans for ventilation and to prevent roof collapses in coal mines.

The USDOL has stated that it will not enforce a Biden rule on when a worker is an independent contractor, and has stated that it will revise that rule in a deregulatory direction.

The USDOL has informed an appellate court that it is considering revising a Biden rule that substantially increased coverage of the overtime provisions for salaried employees.

The Trump administration has moved from expansive federal oversight of employment of minors to targeted enforcement and employer-led compliance of federal child labor laws.

Trump has proposed repealing a USDOL policy that restricts 16- and 17-year-old employees from using powered patient lifting devices in nursing homes.

National Labor Relations Board

He removed the general counsel and one of the members of the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”), leaving only two members of that five-member board.

As a result, the Board does not have a quorum and is not able to adjudicate cases, including complaints that employers have committed unfair employment practices.

Trump effectively eliminated the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (“FMCS”), an agency that assisted in assisting employers and labor unions in the collective bargaining process.

Federal Employees’ Rights

Trump fired the chairwoman of the Federal Labor Relations Agency (“FLRA”), an agency that adjudicates disputes between federal agencies and labor unions.

Trump excluded more than 1 million employees in more than 30 federal agencies from union representation.

Trump fired the chair of the Merits Standards Protection Board (“MSPB”), a federal agency that hears appeals of federal employees’ disputes. Combined with the resignation of another member, that action deprived the MSPB of a quorum for more than eight months.

MSPB hearing officers, their numbers trimmed by budget cuts, are dealing with an overwhelming number of appeals, resulting in delays in resolving their cases.

Trump revoked the federal labor-management forum program, which had enabled federal agencies and their employees to collaborate with each other.

Trump attempted to narrow a Biden executive order that had required federal contractors to sign project labor agreements with subcontractors and associated unions.

Trump fired the head of the Office of Special Counsel, an agency that is supposed to protect federal whistleblowers. He then nominated Paul Ingrassia to fill that position.

Ingrassia withdrew his nomination because, incredibly, he told a group of fellow Republicans in a text chain that the MLK, Jr., holiday should be “tossed into the seventh circle of hell” and that he has “a Nazi streak.”

Layoffs of Federal Employees

About 300,000 federal employees have been laid off.

Trump accomplished this by stripping some federal employees of their federal protections, fired probationary employes, urged employees to resign, shut down agencies, implemented reductions in force, and claimed to layoff employees during the shutdown of the federal government.

These layoffs are being contested in the courts, and many have been reversed. The shutdown-related layoffs have been reversed by statute.

Written By Barry Roseman, Secretary of the SU4W Board

Candidate Spotlight: Jon Ossoff

Senior U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff of Georgia is one of the first senate candidates the SU4W PAC supported and is currently being considered for support again as he runs for re-election.

In his last election in 2020, Ossoff, along with junior Sen. Raphael Warnock, set new “firsts” for Georgia, as Ossoff was the first Jewish candidate, and Warnock the first African-American, to be elected to the U.S. Senate from the state. Ossoff, whose race has been called the most expensive in U.S. history, defeated Republican incumbent David Perdue in a January runoff election after no candidate won a majority in the general election. Ossoff’s and Warnock’s victories gave Democrats control of the Senate. At thirty-eight years of age he is currently the youngest senator in office.

Ossoff graduated from Georgetown University‘s Walsh School of Foreign Service with a Bachelor of Science in culture and politics, and earned a Master of Science degree in international political economy from the London School of Economics in 2013. Elements of Ossoff’s background of interest to worker advocates include his serving as intern for civil rights leader and U.S. Representative John Lewis. From 2007 to 2012 he served as legislative assistant for foreign affairs and defense policy for U.S. representative Hank Johnson.

From 2013 to 2021, Ossoff was the managing director and chief executive officer of Insight: The World Investigates (TWI), a London-based investigative television production company that works with reporters to create documentaries about corruption in foreign countries. The firm produced BBC investigations about ISIS war crimes and death squads in East Africa. He invested a previously received inheritance of an unknown amount to the TWI venture.

Ossoff ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 2017. Though he lost, The New York Times reported that he “produced probably the strongest Democratic turnout in an off-year election in at least a decade“, “brought a surprising number of irregular young and nonwhite voters to the polls,” and nearly doubled youth turnout in the 6th district from the 2014 midterm election, in a district where Republicans far outnumber Democrats.

Ossoff won the support of our PAC by his pledge respecting federal judicial appointments, that if elected he would vote to approve only judicial nominees who have stated their openness to and support of the rights of workers; and by his avowals of commitment to endorsing and promoting legislation that broadens or strengthens worker rights. Along with SU4W PAC’s endorsement, in the 2020 race he also won the endorsement of the Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund.

As senator, Ossoff has been active in a variety of areas, but pro-worker legislation has not appeared to be a major focus for him. He initiated the Solar Energy Manufacturing for America Act, which was passed by the senate in 2022, and which held the promise of more manufacturing jobs. It was incorporated into the Infrastructure and Jobs Act. He also sought more control over the U.S. postmaster general in the wake of a mail service meltdown. Earlier this year the Associated Press noted Ossoff’s bipartisan work with Republicans, advancing the interests of Georgia’s farmers and military bases.

Ossoff voted for the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, and has supported legislation that significantly benefited workers along with others, including the Affordable Care Act and the Equality Act, which would prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex, gender identity, and sexual orientation. He has also called for the repeal of “wasteful, anti-competitive special interest subsidies that make it hard for entrepreneurs to raise capital … [and] create jobs … .” He describes his support for the LGBTQ community as “unwavering” and supports comprehensive immigration reform with a path to citizenship for immigrants not currently documented.

In 2022, he blocked a proposed titanium mine in the Okefenokee Swamp after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service warned of severe potential damage to the wildlife refuge. The mine was proposed by Twin Pines Minerals LLC in 2018.

Alongside his votes supporting workers, however, Ossoff’s Senate record also appears to include at least one less-than-supportive item. The United Farm Workers and the S.E.I.U. union report that he joined forces with a Republican, Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, to introduce a bill delaying a five-percent wage increase for H-2A Visa workers for nine months. A March 2022 statement from Tillis announced that Ossoff had joined him in sponsoring the legislation to support farmers. Ossoff, who the unions note also supported legislation raising the federal minimum wage to fifteen dollars, denies favoring wage cuts for farm workers and points out that he has been a champion for paid leave and for the right to join a union. Agriculture represents more than five percent of Georgia’s economy, so it may not be surprising that Ossoff joined in that bill, and it may be that this bipartisan step explains why in one recent poll of voters, Ossoff was supported by some twenty percent of Georgia Republicans.

In the final analysis, living in a democratic system of government calls for pragmatism and compromise. While Ossoff may not prioritize workers’ rights as highly as advocates may wish, his record overall is almost certainly preferable to the Republican candidate (whoever that turns out to be) for the seat.

Written By Paul Merry, SU4W Board Member