An anti-worker administration

Bob Sheak Sept 12, 2025

The economy is not doing well for the majority

Brad Bannon nails it in his Sept. 10 report: “Jobs are down, prices are up and Trump is in trouble (https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/5494559-trump-broken-promises-inflation). Brad Bannon is a national Democratic strategist and CEO of Bannon Communications Research which polls for Democrats, labor unions and progressive issue groups. He hosts the popular progressive podcast on power, politics and policy, Deadline D.C. with Brad Bannon.

Bannon refers to a new jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics that “paint an astonishingly bleak picture of the Trump economy.” He continues. “The nation created few jobs in August, and BLS added to the grim portrait by taking off the board almost a million jobs that had supposedly been created over the last year.”

And the economy is still affected by inflation. On this, Bannon points out that

“Prices in July were up by 2.7 percent over the year prior, and employers predict a big increase in the cost of health insurance.” A recent national survey of registered voters for The Economist by YouGov.com finds that “Inflation was the problem that the most voters worried about and Republicans were even more concerned about the high cost of living than Democrats.” He adds, “Less than 40 percent of voters approved of Trump’s handling of high prices.” Further, Trump’s “stiff taxes [tariffs] on imports and his deportation of immigrant farm and construction workers have placed a severe burden on hard working and financially hard-pressed American families.”

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Stagflation concerns rise with rising inflation and jobless claims

Andrew Ackerman and Lauren Kaori Gurley report on this issue for the Washington Post (https://washingtonpost.com/business/2025/09/11/august-inflation-trump-tariffs). Andrew covers the way Washington oversees Wall Street. follow on X@amacker. Lauren is the labor reporter for The Washington Post. She previously covered labor and tech for Vice for three years. follow on X@laurenkgurley

Inflation

“Inflation heated up in August at a 2.9 percent annual rate — a faster pace than in June and July as higher housing and food prices weighed on consumers’ wallets, according to the Labor Department.” On a monthly basis, prices rose 0.4 percent — a bit hotter than expectations, according to the agency’s consumer price index. Higher shelter costs was the largest factor in the monthly rise, though food prices also jumped 0.5 percent. The hotter figures are well above a low set in April.

“Earlier this summer, consumer prices began rising across a broader range of goods and services. June data pointed to notable increases in imports such as cosmetics, shoes and toys, as well as medical care. In July, furniture prices — heavily exposed to tariffs — jumped 0.9 percent, while tomato prices, hit by duties on Mexican imports, surged 3.3 percent.”

“Last month, apparel prices rose 0.5 percent and used car and truck prices rose 1 percent. And new vehicle prices ticked higher after four straight months of price declines or no changes.”

Unemployment

“In the labor market, fresh revisions to government data show U.S. employers added far fewer jobs over the summer than initially reported, underscoring a loss of momentum in hiring. The Labor Department said Tuesday that businesses created 911,000 fewer jobs from April 2024 through March 2025 than earlier estimates suggested — evidence the slowdown was already underway even before Trump’s sweeping new tariffs and immigration policies began squeezing business costs.”

“Separately, new applications for weekly unemployment benefits jumped to 263,000 last week, the highest level since October 2021, according to a separate report released Thursday by the Labor Department.”

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Anti-Union

Brad Reed writes on Trump’s attacks on unions for Common Dreams, Sept 01, 2025 (https://commondreams.org/news/trump-labor-day-unions).

“Although US President Donald Trump’s administration likes to boast that he puts ‘American workers first,’ several news reports published on Monday [Sept. 1] document the president’s attacks on the rights of working people and labor unions.”

Reed quotes the longtime labor reporter Steven Greenhouse who explained in The Guardian that “Trump throughout his second term has ‘taken dozens of actions that hurt workers, often by cutting their pay or making their jobs more dangerous.’” He gives these examples.

“Trump’s decision to halt a regulation intended to protect coal miners from lung disease, as well as his decision to strip a million federal workers of their collective bargaining rights.” He quotes Liz Shuler, president of the AFL-CIO,

“‘His attacks on unions are coming fast and furious,’ she said. “He talks a good game of being for working people, but he’s doing the absolute opposite. This is a government that is by, and for, the CEOs and billionaires.”

Reed continues.

“Heidi Shierholz, president of the Economic Policy Institute, similarly told Greenhouse that Trump has been ‘absolutely, brazenly anti-worker,’ and she cited him ripping away an increase in the minimum wage for federal contractors that had been enacted by former President Joe Biden as a prime example.”

“NPR published its own Labor Day report that zeroed in on how the president is ‘decimating” federal employee unions by issuing March and August executive orders stripping them of the power to collectively bargain for better working conditions.’”

He continues. “So far, nine federal agencies have canceled their union contracts as a result of the orders, which are based on a provision in federal law that gives the president the power to terminate collective bargaining at agencies that are primarily involved with national security.

“The Trump administration has embraced a maximalist interpretation of this power and has demanded the end of collective bargaining at departments that aren’t primarily known as national security agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Weather Service.”

“The administration has weakened the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) so that even when workers successfully join or start a union, they may no longer get their grievances heard.” Moreover, the president is now able to fire NLRB administrative judges at will.

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The most anti-union president ever

Harold Meyerson argues that Trump is the most anti-union president ever

(https://prospect.org/labor/2025-09-01-trump-celebrates-labor-day-as-most-anti-union-president). Harold Meyerson is editor at large of The American Prospect.

Here are excerpts.

Donald Trump “chose to celebrate this year’s Labor Day by announcing last Thursday his unilateral abrogation of the federal government’s contracts with the unions that represent the scientists, engineers, and other staffers at NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (which includes the National Weather Service), the Patent Office, and the International Trade Administration. This follows his earlier contract terminations with the unions that represented 400,000 employees at the Department of Veterans Affairs, as well as those at the Department of Health and Human Services, and other major departments.”

According to a study from the Center for American Progress (CAP), these Trump-imposed contract nullifications have cost 81.8 percent of civilian federal workers their right to collectively bargain—and that study came out before last Thursday’s new round of government fuck-you’s to its workers. The total number of workers whose contracts Trump has trashed now exceeds one million, which comes to approximately one-fifteenth of American workers covered by a union contract. Georgetown University labor historian Joe McCartin terms this ‘by far the largest single action of union busting in American history.’”

“What’s behind Trump’s union busting? At one level, he wants to destroy unions simply because they oppose him; opposition is all it takes for Trump to order a hit. At a deeper level, unions are a voice from below, and their autonomy poses a threat to autocrats. Even enfeebled unions have the potential to reawaken and join a battle to thwart despots. It’s no accident that every Western democracy has had—at one time, at least—a powerful union movement; just as it’s no accident that no autocracy—and no aspiring autocrat like Trump—can tolerate one. A core part of Hitler’s seizure of total power was the utter destruction of the German labor movement.”

“That said, labor has retained and even enhanced one form of strength: Today, in this populist age, unions are the only American institution whose popularity has been steadily rising, winning 68 percent approval ratings in Gallup’s polling. The gap between that level of approval and the 6 percent unionized share of private-sector workers, however, illustrates how completely the rickety remains of labor law have failed to enable a pro-labor workforce to go union—despite the best, though short-lived, efforts of Biden’s NLRB, and even before the havoc that second-term Trump has inflicted on unions. The 2026 elections may afford unions an opportunity to arrest some of Trump’s attacks; the 2028 elections, an opportunity to reverse them. Even then, the road to re-establishing workers’ rights will be steep.

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Concluding thoughts

In short, as documented, Trump has little concern for ordinary workers or the unions representing a minority of these workers. This is one important aspect of an unfolding autocracy.

Donald Trump demonstrates over and over again how he wants to transform the federal government away from one that reflects the Constitution and the law to one that he can lawlessly dominate – to be a “king” or “dictator.” If he is successful,

workers will become even less secure than now, with lower wages and job benefits, and with the demise of ever-more restraints on Trump’s power. For further information on such a future, check out Thomas B. Edsall’s column, “What Can’t Trump wreck? (https://nytimes.com/2025/09/09/opinion/trump-maga-government-future.html).

Trump’s anti-worker policies and their effects

Bob Sheak, March 15, 2025

Trump’s views on workers are not new

Lawrence Wittner, Professor of History Emeritus at SUNY/Albany who has written extensively on peace movements, foreign policy, and economic inequality, considers Trump’s record on American workers (https://commondreams.org/opinion/trump-working-class). The title of his article, published on May 21, 2024, says it all: “Trump Didn’t Lift Up the Working Class. He Stepped on Its Neck.” Here’s some of what he writes.

“Although Donald Trump, as president, proclaimed in his 2020 State of the Union address that he had produced a “blue-collar boom” in workers’ wages, the reality was quite different. Using his control of the executive branch of the U.S. government, Trump repeatedly undermined the wages of American workers by blocking raises and imposing wage reductions.

“Only the preceding year, Trump derailed vital wage legislation. In July 2019―with the pathetically low federal minimum wage stuck at $7.25 per hour for a decade and some 13 million workers holding two or more jobs to support their families―the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives passed the Raise the Wage Act. If enacted, the legislation would have gradually increased the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour over a six-year period. But, instead of supporting the legislation or proposing an alternative, the Trump White House announced that, if the Senate passed the House bill, Trump would veto it.

“Consequently, the measure died in the Republican-controlled Senate. According to the AFL-CIO, the legislation would have raised the pay of 40 million American workers.

Wittner continues.

Also in 2019, “Trump’s Department of Labor succeeded in rolling back planned wage increases for millions of workers by restricting eligibility for overtime pay. In 2016, the last year of the Obama administration, the Labor Department had issued a rule substantially raising the income level below which workers were paid time and a half for work done beyond 40 hours per week. But the Trump Labor Department, seizing on a delay in implementation occasioned by a judicial decision, lowered the level by more than $20,000, thus depriving 8.2 million American workers of the right to overtime pay secured under Obama.

“In August 2018, Trump canceled a scheduled 2 percent pay raise for millions of civilian federal employees, leading to criticism even from some Republicans. This action, plus other administration assaults on the rights of public employees, led to a massive flight of workers from government service. By the fall of 2019, there were 45,000 vacancies in the Department of Veterans Affairs alone. To fill these vacancies, the Trump administration hired large numbers of temp workers at low wages and with minimal benefits.

“Yet another administration policy that undercut workers’ wages emerged with the Trump Labor Department’s issuance of a “joint-employer” rule. The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 had been fashioned to ensure that businesses using staffing companies or subcontractors would be accountable for complying with basic workplace protections. Even so, the Trump administration’s joint-employer rule substantially limited liability for wage and hour violations, thereby making it harder for workers to hold all parties accountable. As a result, U.S. workers lost an estimated $1 billion annually thanks to subcontracting or wage theft by employers.

“Of course, not all Trump administration attempts at holding down wages succeeded. In 2017, the Trump Labor Department proposed that employers could simply pocket workers’ tips, as long as the workers were paid the minimum wage. Economists estimated that this policy would lead to the loss of $5.8 billion per year in tips for workers, 80 percent of whom were women. But after the discovery that Trump’s Secretary of Labor had gone to great lengths to hide his department’s findings about how harmful the new policy would be, Congress stepped in and amended the Fair Labor Standards Act to prohibit employers from seizing the tips of their employees.

“Another Trump administration failure occurred in connection with reducing the wages of farmworkers, some of the most exploited, lowest-paid workers in the United States. In mid-2019, the Labor Department proposed a new regulation that would change the rules of the H-2A visa program, used by agricultural employers to hire migrant farmworkers for seasonal work―for example, by President Trump’s wineries. As one of the rules changes would lower wage rates for H-2A farmworkers and, consequently, for their U.S. counterparts, the United Farm Workers challenged it in federal court and, ultimately, prevailed.”

Ten of Trump’s more recent, pre-reelection, anti-worker statements

Steven Greenhouse, a journalist and author focusing on labor and the workplace,
delves into this issue (https://theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/oct/23/trumpanti-worker-union-statements).

Greenhouse writes, “Many people failed to realize that Donald Trump has a long, ugly history of making anti-worker and anti-union statements. He has at times insulted workers, saying their wages are too high, saying their work is so easy that a child can do it.” He also “sought to sabotage labor by saying union members shouldn’t pay their dues and successful union leaders should be fired.”

Greenhouse identifies “Trump’s 10 most shocking anti-worker and anti-union statements.” Here are a few examples. (1) “Trump actually said that the wages of US workers are ‘too high’…even though corporate profits and the stock market were booming at the time.” (2) “Trump praised the idea of firing workers who are on strike, even though that is illegal under federal law.” (3) “Trump insulted the nation’s factory workers by saying their jobs are such a cinch that children can do them. By saying that, he showed he has very little understanding of blue-collar jobs and how hard, exhausting and sometimes dangerous they are.” (4) “Before he became president, he was notorious for paying construction contractors and workers late and for refusing to pay them the amount he had promised to pay; sometimes he would pay tens of thousands of dollars less than he was contracted to pay. Hundreds of contractors and workers had sued Trump after he failed to pay them or after he insisted on paying them far less than what the contract called for.”

A Union documents Trump’s Anti-Worker Record

CWA [Communication Workers of America] also looks at Trump’s anti-worker record (https://cwa-union.org/trumps-anti-worker-record).

The union makes this point: “At every turn Donald Trump has made increasing the power of corporations over working people his top priority. The list of the damage done to working people by the Trump Administration is long.” Here are a few examples.

“Trump packed the courts with anti-labor judges who have made the entire public sector ‘right to work for less’ in an attempt to financially weaken unions by increasing the number of freeloaders.

“Trump stacked the National Labor Relations Board with anti-union appointees who side with employers in contract disputes and support companies who delay and stall union elections, misclassify workers to take away their freedom to join a union, and silence workers.

“Trump made it easier for employers to fire or penalize workers who speak up for better pay and working conditions or exercise the right to strike.

“Trump changed the rules about who qualifies for overtime pay, making more than 8 million workers ineligible and costing them over $1 billion per year in lost wages.

“Trump reduced the number of OSHA inspectors so that there are now fewer than at any time in history, and weakened penalties for companies that fail to report violations.”

Trump rips up the Government’s agreement with its workers

Harold Meyerson, editor at large of The American Prospect, considers some of the actions taken by Trump and his administration, plus Musk, on government workers
(https://prospect.org/labor/2025-03-10-trump-rips-up-governments-agreement-with-workers).

“Airport security screeners had a contract, signed just last year. On Friday [March 7, 2025], Trump trashed it.” “…Donald Trump’s homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, told the roughly 45,000 airport security screeners (of both passengers and their luggage) who work for the Transportation Security Administration that it would no longer honor its contract with their union, which the government signed last year and was to be in effect until 2031. That contract gave the nation’s airport screeners the right to parental, sick, and bereavement leave, and also raised their wages to levels comparable to the wages of other federal employees with similar jobs.

Meyerson continues. “One of the ostensible reasons Homeland Security gave for its going back on its word is that the 193 security screeners are on leave to the union to represent the screeners when they have issues on the job. The vast majority of those union reps work in the field, covering the 430 U.S. airports where federal screeners are employed. Somehow, having 193 worker representatives covering work issues at 430 vitally important worksites doesn’t strike me as excessive, much less grounds for unilaterally abrogating a contract that the government is legally obligated to honor.”

There is more.

“There are two regulatory bodies charged with adjudicating disputes between federal employees and the government: the Federal Labor Relations Authority and the Merit Systems Protection Board. Not coincidentally, however, Trump has fired Democratic members of both those boards, effectively leaving them incapable of ruling on any cases brought before them. These boards, like the National Labor Relations Board, were established by Congress to have members serving for fixed terms who can’t be terminated mid-term by a president save for misconduct, which hasn’t been alleged in any such Trump firings. For that reason, one federal district judge temporarily reinstated one such member earlier last week, just as another reinstated Gwynne Wilcox, an NLRB member whom Trump had fired, to her seat on that board.”

Meyerson adds, “Today, the rate of unionization is so low—just below 10 percent among all workers and just below 6 percent among private-sector workers—that there’s not much room for it to descend any lower. Ironically, unions’ approval rating, at a little more than 70 percent, hasn’t been this high since the 1960s, and towers above the approval ratings of corporations, the government, and Donald Trump. Employers’ determination to crush unionization drives, however, is also at a near all-time high, with Amazon and other companies now in court contesting the constitutionality of the 90-year-old National Labor Relations Act.”

Bernie Sanders on pending legislation that cuts or eliminates programs that address the needs of workers

The CR [continuing resolution] Would Cut Taxes for Billionaires and Slash Funding for the Working Class

Bernie Sanders, Counter Punch, March 14, 2025
(https://counterpunch.org/2025/03/14/the-cr-would-cut-taxes-for-billionaires-and-slash-funding-for-the-working-class). Here’s some of what Sanders writes.

“Today, at a time when we have more income and wealth inequality than we have ever had in the history of this country, 60% of our people are living paycheck to paycheck.”

“So given that reality, what does this bill do? The bill written by right-wing extremists in the House of Representatives without any bipartisan discussion at all.

“What does this bill do? Well, let me count the ways that it makes their financial struggles of working people even more difficult than they are today. And it does all of that to lay the groundwork for massive tax breaks for Elon Musk and the billionaire class.”

Here are a few of Sanders’ examples.

“…some 22% of seniors in this country are trying to survive on $15,000 a year or less. Half of our seniors are trying to survive on $30,000 or less. So what does the Trump/Musk administration do to address the terrible economic pressures on seniors all over America? Well, they have a brilliant idea: they illegally fire thousands of workers at the Social Security Administration, with plans to cut that staff in half.”

“In America today, 30,000 people die each year waiting to receive their Social Security disability benefits because of a grossly understaffed and under-resourced Social Security Administration.”

“When you have the President lying about millions of people who are 150 or 200 years of age receiving Social Security benefits – a total lie – everybody should understand what’s going on. Trump and Musk are laying the groundwork for the dismantling of the most successful federal program in history, a program that keeps over 27 million Americans out of poverty. And, by the way, over 99% of the more than 70 million Social Security checks that go out each month are going to people who earned those benefits.”

The continuing resolution passed in the House is also “an attack on the veterans of our nation – the men and women who put their lives on the line defending our country.

“While we made some progress under the Biden administration in improving veterans’ health care, the truth is that the VA has remained significantly understaffed. In the fourth quarter of 2024, there were 36,000 vacancies at the VA.

“We needed 2,400 more doctors, 6,300 more registered nurses, 3,400 more schedulers, 1,800 more social workers, and 1,200 more custodians. So what has the “Trump administration and Mr. Musk done to address this very serious workforce shortage?

“Their answer is that they are threatening to dismantle the VA by firing 83,000 employees. In other words, you have a shortage today, and their solution to the shortage is to fire 83,000 workers.

“Not only does the CR do nothing to stop that, but it cuts more than $20 billion in funding needed to provide care for veterans exposed to burn pits, Agent Orange, and other toxic substances next year.”

“Just the other day, they fired half of the staff at the Department of Education. That means that it will be far harder to administer the Title I program that helps 26 million low-income kids get the education they need and pays the salaries of some 180,000 public school teachers throughout the country.”

“Well, at a time when our primary health care system is completely broken, when we don’t have enough doctors or nurses or mental health counselors, this proposal cuts community health center funding by 3.2%, cuts the National Health Service Corps by over 5% and cuts funding for Teaching Health Centers — a program which helps train doctors in rural and underserved areas — by almost 13%.
In the midst of a horrific primary health care crisis in Vermont and all over rural America, this proposal will make it that much harder for people to get the health care they desperately need.”

“But it’s not just health care. Everyone in this country from Vermont to Los Angeles understands we have a major housing crisis. And it’s not just all the homelessness we are seeing. Over 20 million of our people spend more than 50% of their limited income on housing.

“How in God’s name do you pay for anything else? How do you buy food? How do you take care of health care if you’re spending 50% or more for your housing.

So how does this CR address the housing crisis? It cuts rental assistance for low-income families in America by $700 million, which could lead to more than 32,000 families in our country being evicted from their homes. Well, that is a heck of a solution to the housing crisis.”

“And on top of all this, the administration is already indicating that they will simply ignore the provisions of the spending bill they don’t like.”

“And let’s be clear: the House CR and the Trump administration are doing everything they can to lay the groundwork for more tax breaks for billionaires paid for by massive cuts to Medicaid, nutrition assistance, housing and education.

“So you’re looking at a 1-2 punch: a very bad CR and then a reconciliation bill coming down which will be the final kick in the teeth for the American people.

“This legislation that the Republicans are working on, the reconciliation bill, will cut taxes for billionaires and the top 1% by $1.1 trillion over the next decade.”

“According to a recent study, if all of Trump’s so-called ‘America First’ policies are enacted, the bottom 95% of Americans will see their taxes go up, while the richest 5% in our country will see their taxes go down. Way down.

The reconciliation bill which Republicans are working on right now “would also cut Medicaid by $880 billion.

“Tax breaks for billionaires. Throwing low-income kids off health care. Decimating nursing homes all over America, because nursing homes receive two-thirds of their funding from Medicaid. Making it harder for community health centers to survive, who provide health care to 32 million Americans because 43% of their revenue comes from Medicaid.

Further, the reconciliation bill proposes to cut $230 billion from nutrition. Today, nearly one out of five children in America rely on federal nutrition programs to keep them from going hungry.

There is no world, no universe, no religion that would not believe that that is grossly immoral and unacceptable. You don’t give tax breaks to the rich and take food away from hungry children.

The firing of thousands of government workers

Chris Walker reports in an article for Truthout on March 13, 2025 on how “Trump Baselessly Suggests Fired Federal Workers Were Incompetent at Their Jobs”
(https://truthout.org/articles/trump-baselessly-suggests-fired-federal-workers-were-incompetent-at-their-jobs). Chris Walker is a news writer at Truthout, and is based out of Madison, Wisconsin. Focusing on both national and local topics since the early 2000s, he has produced thousands of articles.

Walker writes, “Contrary to the administration’s view, ‘a multi-year survey finds that those working at federal jobs tend to be among the hardest working in the country.

“Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday, President Donald Trump expressed little remorse over his administration’s firing of thousands of government workers through Elon Musk’s so-called ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ (DOGE), baselessly suggesting that the people who have been fired thus far were incompetent at their jobs.

“Trump offered no evidence to back up his claims. The president’s words contradict what data about federal workers has shown — that they are oftentimes more productive than their private sector counterparts.”

Evidence belies what Trump says.

“According to data recently examined by The Washington Post, federal workers, on average, are much more hardworking than the president gives them credit for.

“The Post examined data from the American Community Survey, which looked at 13 million workers’ habits over the past decade and found that federal workers are more productive than any other class of worker.

“The survey then broke down different types of federal workers, and still found that those working in the public sector tended to work beyond the typical 40-hour work week.

“Workers within the armed services worked 48.4 hours per week, the survey found, while postal service workers performed around 41.6 hours per week. All other civil servants worked the same amount, 41.6 hours weekly.”

“The survey also found that a higher proportion of federal workers tended to work at least 40 hours per week. Among those in the military, 94 percent worked that long or longer; among postal workers, the rate was over 87 percent, and among all other federal workers, it was over 91 percent, well above the 74.4 percent of private sector workers who tended to work over a 40-hour week.”

Mass Firings of Federal Workers Were Done Illegally, Two Judges Rule

Anita Hamilton considers this development in an article for Barron’s, March 14, 2025
(https://barrons.com/articles/federal-workers-reinstate-court-california-ruling-40c2b920).

“Most federal workers who lost their jobs as part of the Trump administration’s move to shrink the federal workforce are poised to get rehired. On Thursday, two federal judges ruled that the mass firings were conducted illegally and workers must be reinstated.

“The orders affect employees at nearly 20 agencies, comprising the vast majority of the 30,000 workers still in their probationary periods who were dismissed in February.

“The first ruling, from Judge William Alsup in Northern California district court, found that the firings at six agencies—including the Agriculture, Defense, Energy, Interior, Treasury, and Veterans Affairs departments—were illegal because the Office of Personnel Management didn’t have the authority to direct them.

“In the second ruling, which came late Thursday night, Judge James Bredar of Maryland district court said layoffs of probationary workers across 18 agencies were conducted without proper notice. ‘There were no individualized assessments of employees. They were all just fired. Collectively,’ Bredar wrote in a memorandum accompanying his temporary restraining order.

“These big government layoffs were actually ‘Reductions in Force’ or ‘RIFs.’ And, because they were ‘RIFs,’ they had to be preceded by notice to the state that would be impacted,” he wrote.

“Deadlines for reinstating workers are either immediate in the Northern California court ruling or by March 17 in the Maryland court ruling. The rulings are preliminary and could change once a final decision is made. Both judges were appointed by Democratic presidents: Barack Obama appointed Bredar and Bill Clinton appointed Alsup.”

“Previous efforts have had mixed results, with most reinstatements only temporary. Thousands of Department of Agriculture workers terminated in February were reinstated March 12 after they were granted a 45-day stay by the federal agency that reviews employee complaints. They will receive all back pay, and the department “will work quickly to develop a phased plan for return-to-duty,” according to a USDA statement.”

“There has been an onslaught of lawsuits pushing back on Trump’s executive actions, with more than 100 filed since Inauguration Day. On Thursday, 21 attorneys general—most from the same states that filed suit over probationary worker firings—filed a new suit over mass firings at the Education Department.”

Trump Set to Whack US Working Class With Historic $2,000 Tax Hike

Dean Baker, co-founder and the senior economist of the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), considers another aspect of Trump’s actions related to taxes and workers (https://commondreams.org/opinion/trump-tax-hike-working-class). The article was published on March 4.

“The waiting is almost over, Donald Trump is about to hit America’s workers with the largest tax increase they have ever seen. Trump’s taxes on imports (tariffs) from Canada, Mexico, and China will cost people in the United States somewhere around $260 billion a year or around $2,000 a household.

“This is far larger than any tax increase we’ve seen in the last half-century, and unlike tax increases put in place by Clinton and Obama, it will primarily hit low and middle-income households.”

Trump Is Sending the Economy in the Wrong Direction

Christian E. Weller and Emily Gee report on this in an article for the American Progress, March 9. 2025 (https://americanprogress.org/article/trump-is-sending-the-economy-in-the-wrong-direction).

“The Trump administration appears to be sending the U.S. economy into a period of slower growth and higher inflation. In the past few weeks, the administration enacted steep tariffs on a wide range of imports from America’s top trading partners and threatened more; has laid off tens of thousands of federal government workers; and has frozen payments already appropriated by Congress for farms, Head Start facilities, economic development programs, and more.

“The administration’s sudden moves have raised uncertainty about what will happen next. What programs will they cut—and by how much? What regulations will the administration enforce or roll back? Will critical government services that help everyday Americans cease to function? The Economic Policy Uncertainty Index—maintained by researchers at Stanford, the University of Chicago, and Northwestern University—was 161.9 percent higher in February 2025 than a year earlier. Massive uncertainty makes it harder for households and businesses to plan, invest, and spend. Put differently, even President Donald Trump’s threats to further undermine Americans’ economic security can hurt both economic growth and the stock market.

“Over Trump’s first two months in office, some aspects of the economic outlook for typical Americans have become clearer, even as policy uncertainty escalates. At the urging of President Trump, Congress approved plans to make deep cuts to Medicaid and food assistance programs to fund tax giveaways for wealthy households. And, over the past few weeks—amid the chaos of federal funding freezes and layoffs—the stock market has become more volatile, directly impacting the savings of millions of American households.”

Trump’s tariffs

Weller and Gee continue. “The Trump administration’s tariffs on Mexico and Canada are expected to put upward pressure on prices and sticky inflation. The 25 percent taxes on goods coming from the United States’ biggest trade partners will raise costs for American businesses and households. Production costs will rise as firms pay more for energy, agricultural products, and intermediate goods such as car parts.

“American consumers pay for higher tariffs—not foreign countries, as Trump has claimed. Indeed, the Federal Reserve’s Federal Open Market Committee—which makes interest rate decisions—observed in January that “firms would attempt to pass on to consumers higher input costs arising from potential tariffs.” Some major retail chains have already said they are poised to hike prices, passing on all or some of these higher costs to American consumers.”

A recession?

“The Conference Board’s U.S. Consumer Confidence measure—a prominent indicator of consumers’ outlook for the economy—dropped “sharply” in February, falling “below the threshold of 80 that usually signals a recession ahead.”

“Conference Board senior economist Stephanie Guichard noted that “comments on the current Administration and its policies dominated the responses” in the survey.
Consumer confidence is not just about vibes, to use recent vernacular. Consumer confidence has fallen substantially in 2025. The University of Michigan’s index of consumer sentiment stood at 64.7 in February 2025, the lowest reading of the composite index since November 2023. Consumer sentiment dropped 12.6 percent from December 2024—the index’s last peak—to February 2025, largely driven by consumer expectations of tariff-induced price increases.”

The labor market is softening

Weller and Gee: “The U.S. economy added 151,000 jobs in February, marking the 50th consecutive month of job growth. While the overall unemployment rate remains low by historical standards—at 4.1 percent—it increased for white men; for workers without a high school diploma; and for those with a college degree. The number of people who worked part time because their hours were reduced or they were unable to find full-time work jumped by 460,000 in February. These data points were consistent with other signals of a weakening labor market with less favorable conditions for workers. For example, the labor-leverage ratio—a measure of quits to layoffs and an indicator of workers’ ability to secure better jobs—has been trending down.”

“While it is still too early for the full effect of federal layoffs to show up in employment data, unemployment claims rose nationally and were up sharply in the District of Columbia in late February.”

“A volatile policy landscape can be a harsh climate for business, making it difficult for companies to forecast returns on investment and assume contracts will be fulfilled. Such uncertainty has increased since Trump was elected in November 2024. As one measure, the Economic Policy Uncertainty Index stood at 234 in February 2025, its highest reading since December 2020. This newly, highly unstable and uncertain policy environment is bad for business. Periods with above average increases in policy uncertainty have also been associated with slower industrial production growth—a reflection of less investment and other economic activity.”

Concluding thoughts

Donald Trump and his close adviser, Elon Musk, want to transform the federal government from one that reflects the Constitution and the law to one that they can lawlessly dominate. The largescale firing of government workers is one example of how they hope to accomplish this. If they are successful, the federal workforce would become smaller than it is, workers would have little security, and loyalty to Trump and Musk would become essential for jobholders. We would be left with an increasingly privatized workforce, lower wages and benefits, the loss or diminution of services, higher levels of inequality, and the demise of constitutional restraints on Trump’s power.

The paradox of the white male working class

Bob Sheak, March 12, 2024

Introduction

One of the paradoxes of the U.S. political system is how an anti-democratic Trump can win the support of sections of the white male working class, despite Biden’s relatively strong economic policies in support of this class. The present post explores this paradox.

It may not make that much of a difference in the November presidential elections how these workers vote, but their vote totals are still significant because of the number of white male working class people. And it is worrisome that they are presently a major Trump constituency and have been influenced by his MAGA rhetoric, with its anti-immigrant, racist, anti-democratic, and pro-gun, rants as well as his strongman image. If the trends of the last few decades continue, whether Trump wins in November or not, their support of Trump appears, unfortunately, to be unwavering.

Biden’s State of the Union speech

In his State of the Union speech on March 7, President Biden spent some time lauding his record on jobs, on infrastructure and high-tech, and on a strong overall economy (https://whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2024/03/08/remarks-by-president-biden-in-state-of-the-union-address-3).

Here are some relevant excerpts.

“Folks, I inherited an economy that was on the brink. Now, our economy is literally the envy of the world.

“Fifteen million new jobs in just three years. A record. A record. (Applause.)

“Unemployment at 50-year lows. (Applause.)

“A record 16 million Americans are starting small businesses, and each one is a literal act of hope, with historic job growth and small-business growth for Black and Hispanics and Asian Americans. Eight hundred thousand new manufacturing jobs in America and counting. (Applause.)

The President continued.

“Where is it written we can’t be the manufacturing capital of the world? We are and we will. (Applause.)”

“On my watch, federal projects that you fund — like helping build American roads, bridges, and highways — will be made with American products and built by American workers — (applause) — creating good-paying American jobs. (Applause.)

“And thanks to our CHIPS and Science Act — (applause) — the United States is investing more in research and development than ever before. During the pandemic, a shortage of semiconductors, chips that drove up the price of everything from cell phones to automobiles — and, by the way, we invented those chips right here in America.

“Well, instead of having to import them, instead of — private companies are now investing billions of dollars to build new chip factories here in America — (applause) — creating tens of thousands of jobs, many of those jobs paying $100,000 a year and don’t require a college degree. (Applause.)

“In fact, my policies have attracted $650 billion in private-sector investment in clean energy, advanced manufacturing, creating tens of thousands of jobs here in America. (Applause.)

“And thanks — and thanks to our Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, 46,000 new projects have been announced all across your communities.”

An example of Biden’s proposed pro-worker legislation

Biden’s administration showed its pro-worker, pro-union stance early in his presidency.

At a presidential press briefing on March 9, 2021, President Biden introduced the
“Protecting the Right to Organize” (PRO) Act of 2021, strongly encouraging the
House to take up and pass the legislation and stating that it would be a major
step, if and when approved, “in dramatically enhancing the power of workers to
organize and collectively bargain for better wages, benefits, and working
conditions” (https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases-2021/03/09/statement-by-the-president-joe-biden-on-the-house-taking-up-the-pro-act).

You can access the full proposal at https://joebiden.com/empowerworkers.

Biden believes that the conditions and prospects of ordinary workers starts with
rebuilding unions. He states: “The middle class built this country, and unions
built the middle class. Unions give workers a stronger voice to increase wages,
improve the quality of jobs and protect job security, protect against racial
and all other forms of discrimination and sexual harassment, and protect
workers’ health, safety, and benefits in the workplace. Unions lift up
workers, both union and non-union. They are critical to strengthening our
economic competitiveness.”

And there are almost “60 million Americans [who] would join a union if they get a
chance, but too many employers and states prevent them from doing so through
anti-union attacks.” There is the precedent of strong action by the federal
government in support of unionization, that is, the National Labor Relations
Act, passed in 1935 despite unified business opposition. The president pointed
out that the NLRA “said that we should encourage unions. The PRO Act
would take critical steps to help restore this intent.”

U.S. House of Representatives passes Pro Act

Don Gonyea reports on NPR that on March 13, 2021, House Democrats approved
the Pro Act by a 224-206 vote, “with five Republicans joining Democrats in
favor of it.” Union leaders supported it. The Senate did not (https://www.npr.org/2021/03/09/975259434/house-democrats-pass-bill-that-would-protect-worker-organizing-efforts).

Gonyea lists five provisions of the Pro Act.

“1. So-called right-to-work laws in more
than two dozen states allow workers in union-represented workplaces to
opt out of the union, and not pay union dues. At the same time, such workers
are still covered under the wage and benefits provisions of the union contract.
The PRO Act would allow unions to override such laws and collect dues from
those who opt out, in order to cover the cost of collective bargaining and
administration of the contract.

“2. Employer interference and influence in union elections would be forbidden.
Company-sponsored meetings — with mandatory attendance — are often used to
lobby against a union organizing drive. Such meetings would be illegal.
Additionally, employees would be able to cast a ballot in union organizing
elections at a location away from company property.

“3. Often, even successful union organizing drives fail to result in an agreement
on a first contract between labor and management. The PRO Act would remedy that by allowing newly certified unions to seek arbitration and mediation to settle
such impasses in negotiations.

“4. The law would prevent an employer from using its employee’s immigration statusagainst them when determining the termsof their employment.

“5. It would establish monetary penalties for companies and executives that violate
workers’ rights. Corporate directors and other officers of the company could
also be held liable.”

Richard Trumka, the president of the AFL-CIO, described the
Pro Act as a potential “game changer,” saying it would a major step in
correcting the “wages and wealth inequality, opportunity and inequality of
power.”

Biden’s record has little influence

Despite this record, Biden remains slightly behind Trump in recent polls, though they are hardly definitive since we are still many months away from the November presidential election. At the same time, white working-class workers are one of the groups that have been unrelenting and increasingly in support of Trump and his MAGA movement. We explore why this is so.

#1 – Recent polls

Rebecca Picciotto considers some of the recent polls (https://cnbc.com/2024/03/04/biden-may-be-losing-his-favorability-advantage-over-trump-new-polls-suggest.html).

“In four separate surveys released over the weekend by The New York Times/Siena College, Fox News, The Wall Street Journal and CBS News/YouGov, Trump’s lead ranged from two points to five points among registered voters.

“The Fox News and Wall Street Journal surveys both showed Trump with a two point lead over Biden, 49-47 and 47-45, respectively. This was within their 2.5% margins of error.

“In the CBS News/YouGov poll, Trump led by four points, 52-48, outside the poll’s 2.8% margin of error.

“The Times/Siena survey showed a slightly larger lead for Trump of five points, 48-43, also outside the poll’s 3.5% error margin.

“Taken together, they paint a picture of a race that is extremely tight, but one where Trump’s advantage is solidifying.

“In addition to the hypothetical matchup lead, the surveys also hinted at a deeper shift in voter perceptions of two men who have been campaigning against one another on and off for the past five years: They suggest Biden may be losing is long-held likability edge over Trump.”

“Across all four polls, Trump had a higher favorability rating than Biden did with respondents, although some were within the surveys’ margins of error.”

“Biden has been fighting tooth and nail to convince voters that the economy’s post-Covid recovery is the result of his economic agenda, which aides have dubbed Bidenomics. But voters, still feeling the inflationary squeeze on their budgets, have yet to give Biden credit for the objectively strong economy, even as they get more optimistic about its trajectory.”

#2 -The pervasiveness of low-wage jobs

Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II, leader of the Poor Peoples’ Campaign, offers “the true state of the union,” published in The Nation on March 7, 2024 (https://thenation.com/article/society/the-true-state-of-the-union). Here’s some of what he writes.

“No one can say that we haven’t seen good and important progress in the state of our union over the past four years. But we would betray the work of the people who’ve struggled to make that possible if we did not tell the truth about the injustices that continue to plague us.

“The true state of the union is not limited to one administration; it reflects the systemic reality that nearly a third of the workforce—52 million Americans—work for less than $15 an hour. Poverty wages, combined with a steep increase in cost of living, have left 135 million of our neighbors poor or low-income, even as unemployment is at a record low. This doesn’t simply mean that some of us are struggling to get by or learning to ‘do without’ luxuries we’d prefer. Poverty is the fourth-leading cause of death—more deadly than obesity, diabetes, or firearms. Low wages are killing people, but Congress has not acted to raise the minimum wage since 2009. We face a crisis of poverty; we know what could fix it, but our political leaders have failed to act.”

Barber continues.

“Poor and low-wage voters in the US today make up a third of the electorate; they are almost 40 percent of eligible voters in every swing state. As a group, these voters have historically participated at a rate 20 percent lower than their wealthier neighbors. If they were to fully engage, they are the single largest group of swing voters in the country.”

“America’s growing inequality over the past four decades has made us increasingly vulnerable to extremist attempts to divide the nation. When people know from their everyday experience that things aren’t working, it’s easy to play on our worst fears and pit Americans against one another. But at a moment when nearly half of the country is poor or low-income, it’s also possible for everyone who’s been left out and rejected to come together as a powerful force for transformative change. Since 2018, I have been working with the Poor People’s Campaign to mobilize a moral fusion movement of people from every race, religion, and region to change the narrative about what is possible in our public life. On March 2, thousands of us gathered at 32 statehouses and in the District of Columbia to declare that our votes are demands for a Third Reconstruction. We are launching 40 weeks of action in our communities to mobilize 15 million poor and low-income voters for this November’s election. Our political representatives have failed to act, but we are taking direct action to change the balance of power and right the ship of state. No captain can save a ship on his own; to make it through this storm, we need all hands on deck.”

#3 – Corporate anti-worker policies

Steve Early, a union rep for 30 years, addresses this issue in his review of two new books, Wall Street’s War on Workers: How Mass Layoffs and Greed Are Destroying the Working Class and What to Do About It, (Chelsea Green, 2024) by Les Leopold and Corporate Bullsh*t: Exposing the Lies and Half Truths that Protect, Power, and Wealth in America, (New Press, 2023) by Donald Cohen, Nick Hanauer, and Joan Walsh

(https://labornotes.org/blogs/2024/02/27/book-reviews-fighting-wall-streets-war-workers-and-corporate-bs-protects-it).

Here are excerpts from one of the books, “Corporate Bullsh*t.”

“When workers try to win collective bargaining rights, employers conduct propaganda campaigns to spread every imaginable falsehood about the union. Once forced into negotiations, management shows up at the bargaining table with a new line of BS about not being able to afford union wage demands or agree to a grievance procedure. And in the legislative-political arena, corporate interests have long used disinformation to thwart labor campaigns.”

“Don Cohen, co-author of Corporate Bullsh*t: Exposing the Lies and Half Truths that Protect, Power, and Wealth in America, is a former Los Angeles Labor Council staffer who now helps government workers around the country oppose privatization. His collaborators are Joan Walsh, a Nation correspondent, and Nick Hanauer, a wealthy Seattle entrepreneur who has become a critic of income inequality.”

“…Corporate Bullsh*t debunks all the modern-day arguments against job safety and health laws, national health insurance, equitable taxation, climate change legislation, and business regulation, in any form.

“Plutocrats in any era employ politicians from both major parties as their shills and mouthpieces. So Corporate Bullsh*t also dissects the alarmist claims made, now and in the past, by business-backed legislators opposed to stronger legal protections for workers and consumers, homeowners and tenants, or the environment. Corporate America still attempts to discredit even the most modest liberal reforms as failed ‘socialist’ schemes imported from abroad.

In what the authors call our ‘post-fact’ society, the ‘truth purveyed by the wealthy and powerful prevails far too much of the time.’ They warn that corporate elites and their allies have ‘perfected a rhetorical style that relies on deception, fear, and demonizing their opponents.’ The result is a loss of public confidence not only in government, but also in the electoral process itself—and even in essential working-class institutions like unions.”

#4 – The war on workers continued

The title of Les Leopold’s new book says it all: Wall Street’s War on Workers: How Mass Layoffs and Greed are Destroying the Working Class and What To Do About It (publ 2024). The evidence is clear. The percentage of white workers voting for Democratic presidential candidates has fallen from 52.3% for Carter in 1976 to 36.2% for Biden in 2020 (p. 19).

Leopold focuses on “mass layoffs,” “defined by the Bureau of Labor Statistic as fifty or more workers losing their jobs at a single company during a five-week period” (p. 4). According to the BLS, “more than 30 million of us have experienced mass layoffs” and “even more have felt the pain and suffering as our family members lost jobs” (p. 6). This is occurring because corporate elites prefer buying back the stock in their companies to raise the price of these stocks and stock bonuses. This accrues to the benefit of top management and stockholders, to the stripping of productive assets in these corporations, and to the dismissal of workers. One consequence: “Working people – especially rural white working people in the border states as well as in the North and Midwest – are walking away from the Democratic Party, their historic champion. And if nothing is done to provide more stable employment, they may walk away from democracy as well” (pp. 6-7).

Leopold defines “white working class as those who identify themselves as white, are in the bottom two-thirds of the income distribution, and have less than a four-year college degree” (p. 7). There “are about 52.8 million workers in the white working-class” (p. 42).

Here is more from Leopold’s book

“From 2010 to 2019, an astronomical $6.3 trillion went into stock buybacks, largely benefiting the rich” (p.35). The gap between top CEOs and their average worker has now reached 800 to 1 (p. 76). Corporate debt has risen, ballooning in the 1970s “and accelerating “as the deregulatory policies of the Reagan/Bush/Clinton years kicked into high gear” (p.103).

“In the early 1980s, corporate raiders (today called private equity and hedge fund managers) set about buying up company after company using borrowed money” (p. 105). They often use cheap contingent or even prison labor when they can (pp 110-112).

#5 – Why workers are turning away from Democratic Party?

Lainey Newman and Theda Skocpol analyze this question in their book, Rust Belt Union Blues: Why Working Class Voters are Turning Away from the Democratic Party (publ. 2023). In addressing the question, they focus on two unions in western Pennsylvania, The United Steel Workers (USW) and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW). Here the focus is on the USW, which has suffered major job losses in western Pennsylvania – and elsewhere.

The steel mills have suffered from trade policies that encourage companies to invest abroad to take advantage of low-wage and unregulated labor, and have done their best domestically to avoid or curtail unions, cut wages and benefits, and paid new workers lower wages and few benefits than other workers. But they have done more than that. US Steel eliminated its support of social and recreational activities for workers. Without such activities and when faced with an authoritarian corporate bureaucracy, workers are now turning to other sources of identification and participation, which have political effects.

Workers have shifted from support of the Democratic Party to the Republican Party. Newman and Skocpol put it this way. “Whereas in the mid-twentieth century unions with many locals tied to workplaces and surrounding neighborhoods provided the underlying structure that made taken-for-granted social and political loyalties plausible, today the old ties and structures are mostly dissolved. They have been replaced by gun clubs that now serve as a communal hub, functioning both as gathering places and as centers where displaced white men can assert physical dominance and familial superiority,” and by mega-churches that focus on right-wing cultural issues. They write: “Activities that local union halls once hosted in industrial communities now may happen at gun clubs or in conservative churches that similarly structure social life for many workers’ families” (p.232). Trump and the Republicans have been the political beneficiaries.

#6 – Despite the risks of unemployment, strikes increased in 2023

Cecelia Smith-Schoenwalder reports on Dec. 28, 2023, for U.S. News on why there were so many strikes in 2023 (https://usnews.com/why-were-there-so-many-strikes-in-2023-and-what-does-it-mean-for-2024).

“More than half a million workers staged nearly 400 strikes during the first 11 months of 2023, according to Cornell University’s Labor Action Tracker.

“‘I think it’s fair to say that, relative to the rest of the 21st century, this is quite a big uptick,’ says Johnnie Kallas, the project director of the tracker.”

“Many union contracts happened to be up in 2023. But it was more than just that. Workers felt empowered by other highly visible and successful strikes (or threats to strike) and a tight labor market, emboldening them to ask for higher pay and other benefits as inflation claimed more money from their pockets.

“‘It really is the first contract many of these unionized workers are negotiating since the beginning of the pandemic, and I think a ton has changed since the beginning of the pandemic’ Kallas says.

“It’s especially true for health care workers who were in the front lines of the pandemic and who may also be dealing with feelings of burnout and seeking better working conditions. Kaiser Permanente workers, for example, walked off the job in October in the largest strike of health care workers in U.S. history.

“‘Then you combine that with pay increases that certainly pretty much anywhere haven’t kept up with inflation over the past few years, and you have a situation where workers are – in a lot of ways, rightfully so – demanding much more in these current contract negotiations,’ Kallas says.

“To be sure, the level of strike activity – while high relative to the 21st century – is significantly lower than it has been in the past. In the 1970s, about 5,000 work stoppages involved more than 2 million workers each year on average.

“Now, Kallas says that employers are ‘much more resistant to both union organizing and strikes than maybe they were in the mid 20th century.’

And it shows. The rate of union membership has declined from 20% in 1983 to 10% last year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Still, unions have the backing of President Joe Biden and potentially most of the public.

“According to a Reuters/Ipsos poll published in September, the majority of Americans regardless of party affiliations say that labor unions have improved the quality of life for working Americans. They also expressed support for the United Auto Workers strike and the Writers Guild of America strike.

“I think the alliance of the public and the labor movement has a potential to influence these dynamics even more in 2024 than we saw in 2023,” says Sharon Block, a professor at Harvard Law School and the executive director of the Center for Labor and a Just Economy.

“The moves, however, come with risks. While the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 protects most workers’ rights to strike for better working practices or wages, striking workers can potentially be permanently replaced at their workplace.”

#7 – What can be done to buttress Biden’s re-election?

Leopold has some answers. He refers to what an equitable and democratic solution would be for workers generally and one that might attract more voters who are white, male, and with less than a college education, writing:

“For democracy to endure, our nation must provide stable livelihoods for working people. Stock buybacks must be eliminated. Corporate raiders must be removed from boards of directors and replaced by employees and their representatives. Workers should be free to join labor unions without corporate interference. And the federal government needs to create jobs as it did through the New Deal programs and the Marshall Plan. That is what it will take to revive communities and regions that have been left behind, from industrial and coal-mining counties to depressed urban areas” (p. 10).

Leopold also supports four reforms proposed by Professor William Lazonick: (1) end stock buybacks; (2) “prohibit shareholder activists from serving on boards of directors; (3) “Change the way top corporate officers are paid”; and (4) “Place worker and public representatives on the board of directors” (pp. 164-165). Then he offers additional ideas on reform.

Follow North Dakota’s example and create public banks.
Make sure that contingent and gig workers are “considered employees and receive all the benefits enjoyed by regular employees.”
“Limit corporate debt”
“Prevent Corporate-Focused Trade Deals”
Create “a Marshall Plan for Victims of Mass Layoffs”
“Make Unionization Easier and Simpler” (pp. 166-172)

Concluding thoughts

The reform proposals offered by Leopold and Lazonick would make a world of difference if passed by the U.S Congress. But Biden and the Democrats won’t go that far. Still, they have an agenda that is pro-worker, pro-union, and pro-democracy. The question is whether some of the white male working-class can be swayed to support Biden over Trump. They can, but it will take luck, imagination, education, wise use of the media, continuous improvement in the economy, and vigorous election campaigns. If successful, they might curtail the trend of white male workers supporting Trump’s authoritarian MAGA plans.

At the same time, of course, Trump and his supporters represent a powerful political force. Biden faces a Trump-led Republican Party that can use procedural rules in the House (the votes of Republican MAGA extremists) and Senate (e.g., the filibuster) that make it hard to get a budget passed, let alone advancing workers’ rights. And they face corporate boards and executives who would spend vast sums to lobby and advertise against any such reforms, strip companies of assets, use strikebreakers, and move or threaten to move facilities to other places.

If Trump and the right-wing forces that support him prevail in 2024, we can expect
that an increasing proportion of the US population will find themselves
economically insecure, marginalized, and/or poor. They will continue to be
without union representation, and burdened with inadequate employment options,
with jobs that pay low wages, provide no benefits or affordable benefits (e.g.,
health insurance; pensions), and provide little or no job security. In these circumstances, right-wing ideology would have trumped secure and equitable employment.