Trump administration has proven no friend to organized labor, from attacking federal unions to paralyzing the National Labor Relations Board
- Written by Jake Rosenfeld, Professor of Sociology, Washington University in St. Louis
During the 2024 election campaign, the Republican Party’s historically fraught relationship with organized labor appeared to be changing[1]. Several influential Republicans reached out to unions, seeking to cement the loyalties of the growing ranks of working-class Americans[2] who have been backing Donald Trump’s presidential runs and voting for other members of his party.
During Trump’s first bid for the White house, the percentage of votes in households where at least one person belongs to a union fell to its lowest level[3] in decades. In 2021, Marco Rubio, a U.S. senator at the time, wrote a USA Today op-ed supporting a unionization drive at an Amazon facility[4]. Sen. Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican, walked a United Auto Workers picket line in 2023[5] in solidarity with striking workers.
As the 2024 GOP presidential nominee, Trump spotlighted International Brotherhood of Teamsters President Sean O’Brien with a prominent speaking slot at the Republican National Convention – rewarding the union for staying neutral in that campaign[6] after endorsing Joe Biden four years earlier.
Yet O'Brien shocked many in the convention crowd by lambasting longtime GOP coalition partners[7] such as the Chamber of Commerce and Business Roundtable for hurting American workers.
Once in office, Trump continued to signal some degree of solidarity with the blue-collar voters who backed him. He chose former Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer, a Teamsters ally[8], to be his second-term labor secretary.
I’m a sociologist who has been researching the U.S. labor movement for over two decades[9]. Given conservatives’ long-standing antipathy[10] toward unions, I was curious whether the GOP’s greater engagement with labor portended any kind of change in its policies.
Fumbled at the starting line
The GOP’s various outreach efforts during the 2024 campaign led University of Chicago law professor Eric Posner, a scholar of declining labor power, to write[11], “Is a pro-labor Republican Party possible?”
More than six months into Trump’s second term, I would say that based on the evidence thus far the answer to Posner’s question is a resounding no.
In late March 2025, Trump issued an executive order stripping hundreds of thousands of federal workers[12] of their collective bargaining rights.
Overnight, twice as many federal employees lost their union protections as there are members of the United Auto Workers[13] union, making the action[14] “the largest and most aggressive single act of union-busting in U.S. history,” according to Georgetown University labor historian Joseph McCartin.
While affected unions have challenged that action and similar subsequent ones in court, the Trump administration is moving onto other agencies[15]. In August, over 400,000 federal employees at the Department of Veterans Affairs and Environmental Protection Agency[16] saw their union contracts terminated and their collective bargaining rights dissolved.
Everett Kelley, the American Federation of Government Employees president, described the attacks[17] on federal workers as a “setback for fundamental rights in America.”
Tariffs, other policies aren’t helping
The Trump administration has pitched its erratic tariff policies as a boon to U.S.manufacturing[19], including in the automotive industry, once the foundation[20] of the U.S. labor movement.
In reality, U.S. car producers are struggling to keep up with rising tariff-related costs of raw materials and parts[21]. The number of factory jobs has fallen to the lowest level[22] since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Even United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain, a supporter of targeted tariffs to buttress the domestic auto industry, criticized the administration’s trade policy[23] in April 2025, saying, “We do not support reckless tariffs on all countries at crazy rates.”
Other administration actions cast as relief for struggling workers are unlikely to deliver as advertised. The “no tax on tips” provision in Trump’s huge tax-and-spending package excludes the nearly 40% of tipped workers[24] whose earnings fall below the federal income tax threshold. Tipped workers make up a tiny share of the low-wage workforce.
Culinary Workers Local 226, a powerful Nevada union[25] representing many tipped workers in Las Vegas and Reno, supported the provision. Yet it blasted the overall package, calling it a “big, horrible bill[26]” for its windfalls to the rich instead of the working class.
Removing the watchdogs
The National Labor Relations Board is responsible for ensuring management and labor adhere to provisions of the National Labor Relations Act[27]. Passed in 1935, that law established workers’ fundamental rights to collective bargaining. The board is responsible for conducting union elections, investigating allegations of unfair labor practices and outright abuses by employers, and enforcing court orders when employers or unions are found to have broken labor laws.
Presidents regularly use vacancies to tilt the ideological balance of the board to a more or less labor-friendly position. Trump, however, went further.
Soon after he was sworn in for a second term, Trump fired the National Labor Relations Board’s[28] general counsel along with board member Gwynne Wilcox, who was only halfway through her five-year term. Wilcox’s dismissal was unprecedented and violated the National Labor Relations Act provision[29] on board personnel changes.
Wilcox’s removal left the body without a quorum, preventing it from responding to appeals or requests for review and allowing employers accused of violating workers’ rights to delay any settlement[30]. The Trump administration has left those important NLRB jobs vacant for months, although it has nominated two management-friendly[31] replacements, both of whom awaited Senate approval in mid-August.
In the meantime, the agency is unable to hear labor disputes[32].
Disempowering the NLRB is a long-standing Republican tactic[33], suggesting more continuity with past GOP attacks on labor than a new era of partnership.
Hawley standing out
To be sure, Republicans don’t all agree with one another on the importance of supporting workers and labor rights. One who has stood out so far is Hawley. The relatively pro-labor Republican senator’s stance led him to partner with Sen. Corey Booker, a New Jersey Democrat, to co-sponsor the Faster Labor Contracts Act[34].
This new bill would force employers to negotiate a contract in a reasonable time frame with employees once they have voted in favor of forming a union.
Hawley also joined with Democrats to reintroduce[35] a bill that would ban dangerous work speed requirements in warehouses. Hawley said, when summarizing his efforts on behalf of working people, “It’s time we deliver for them[36].”
The Missouri senator is not completely alone. Sens. Bernie Moreno[37] of Ohio and Roger Marshall[38] of Kansas, both Republicans, have backed some labor-friendly legislation in the spring and summer of this year.
GOP leaders in Congress are not moving those bills forward so far, likely in part due to pushback from Republicans and their allies outside Congress[39].
And there are limits to Hawley’s labor friendliness. He voted for Trump’s tax-and-spending package, despite publicly airing his misgivings[40] about the harm it may cause his blue-collar constituents.
Meanwhile, his past partners in the more labor-friendly wing of the GOP now occupy prominent administration posts. Yet they have largely fallen silent on union issues – except, in Rubio’s case, to oversee the firing[41] of well over 1,000 State Department employees, many of them members of the American Foreign Service Association union.
Trump labor approach echoes Reagan’s style
Another GOP presidential administration courted segments of the labor movement to divide a key Democratic constituency, only to take actions that weakened unions.
In 1980, for example, Ronald Reagan sought and won[43] the endorsement of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization. A year later, he fired 13,000 striking members of that union.
The Teamsters union also backed Reagan – twice[44]. It endorsed him in 1980 after he pledged during the 1980 campaign not to pursue anti-labor policies. Although he broke his promise, personal outreach[45] from Vice President George H.W. Bush in the lead-up to the 1984 election earned him the Teamsters endorsement a second time.
What seems clear in my view is that whenever the GOP has tried to cast itself as a labor-friendly political party, it has emphasized symbolism over substance, favoring using rhetoric embracing workers who belong to unions versus taking actions to strengthen labor rights.
References
- ^ appeared to be changing (www.nytimes.com)
- ^ growing ranks of working-class Americans (www.brookings.edu)
- ^ fell to its lowest level (onlabor.org)
- ^ supporting a unionization drive at an Amazon facility (www.usatoday.com)
- ^ walked a United Auto Workers picket line in 2023 (www.hawley.senate.gov)
- ^ staying neutral in that campaign (teamster.org)
- ^ lambasting longtime GOP coalition partners (www.nytimes.com)
- ^ Teamsters ally (teamster.org)
- ^ researching the U.S. labor movement for over two decades (jake-rosenfeld.com)
- ^ long-standing antipathy (www.pennpress.org)
- ^ to write (www.project-syndicate.org)
- ^ stripping hundreds of thousands of federal workers (theconversation.com)
- ^ United Auto Workers (www.reuters.com)
- ^ making the action (www.dissentmagazine.org)
- ^ moving onto other agencies (www.nytimes.com)
- ^ Environmental Protection Agency (federalnewsnetwork.com)
- ^ described the attacks (thehill.com)
- ^ Alex Wroblewski/AFP via Getty Images (www.gettyimages.com)
- ^ boon to U.S.manufacturing (apnews.com)
- ^ the foundation (www.cnn.com)
- ^ struggling to keep up with rising tariff-related costs of raw materials and parts (www.wsj.com)
- ^ fallen to the lowest level (www.bloomberg.com)
- ^ criticized the administration’s trade policy (www.nytimes.com)
- ^ 40% of tipped workers (budgetlab.yale.edu)
- ^ powerful Nevada union (apnews.com)
- ^ big, horrible bill (m.culinaryunion226.org)
- ^ National Labor Relations Act (www.nlrb.gov)
- ^ fired the National Labor Relations Board’s (www.npr.org)
- ^ violated the National Labor Relations Act provision (onlabor.org)
- ^ delay any settlement (www.nlrbedge.com)
- ^ nominated two management-friendly (www.reuters.com)
- ^ unable to hear labor disputes (www.employmentlawworldview.com)
- ^ long-standing Republican tactic (www.npr.org)
- ^ Faster Labor Contracts Act (www.booker.senate.gov)
- ^ joined with Democrats to reintroduce (www.hawley.senate.gov)
- ^ It’s time we deliver for them (www.realclearpolitics.com)
- ^ Sens. Bernie Moreno (www.hawley.senate.gov)
- ^ Roger Marshall (www.marshall.senate.gov)
- ^ pushback from Republicans and their allies outside Congress (www.uschamber.com)
- ^ despite publicly airing his misgivings (www.theatlantic.com)
- ^ oversee the firing (federalnewsnetwork.com)
- ^ Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images (www.gettyimages.com)
- ^ Ronald Reagan sought and won (www.nytimes.com)
- ^ Teamsters union also backed Reagan – twice (www.nytimes.com)
- ^ personal outreach (www.nytimes.com)
