Sixteen million workers were represented by unions in 2024. However, there were millions more who would have ed a union but couldn’t. As the Economic Policy Institute observes: “The disconnect between the growing interest in unionization and declining unionization rates can be explained by the fact that there are powerful forces blocking the will of workers: aggressive opposition from employers combined with labor law that is so weak that it doesn’t truly protect workers’ right to organize.” Also, Congress never managed to legislations such as the PRO Act that would have lowered obstacles to organizing and helped increase density, particularly in the private sector.
In the wake of this failure, many Americans turned in a different direction and elected Donald Trump, hoping that he might address things like inflation and the cost of living by bringing down expenses for housing, consumer goods and groceries. Instead of delivering this kind of kitchen table economics, the Trump istration has come in with a shock and awe campaign of executive orders, tariffs and tariff threats, and a blitzkrieg offensive against unionized federal employees who have become enemy No. 1, with the richest man in the world being given free rein to slash and burn whole departments, fire employees on a whim, and undermine and/or eliminate collective bargaining rights. The latest insult to federal workers is an innovative form of union busting buried in the House budget bill that would, as the Huffington Post reports, “force new federal employees to either give up traditional job protections or take a significant cut to their compensation.”
The Trump istration is also trying to paralyze the National Labor Relations Board, ending its efforts to expand workers’ rights, and gutting enforcement of existing labor law when it comes to rogue employers and other powerful corporate actors, shifting the balance of power away from workers and beginning an offensive against workers’ rights to organize that will surely not stop with federal employees.
Despite all the bluster from the White House about how the president’s “big, beautiful bill” would be a boon for working people, the reality is quite the opposite. Labor writer Steven Greenhouse notes in The Guardian that rather than holding up a sign that said “Pro-Worker Priorities,” the Trump istration should have been displaying a “Pro-Billionaire Priorities” banner while promoting it.
As it stands, pretty much everyone outside of Mar-a-Lago would be getting the short end of the stick, as Greenhouse observes: “The Center for American Progress points out that the Trump/Republican budget bill would, if implemented, ‘be the largest transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich in a single law in US history.’ … [T]he budget bill would cut $1.1 [trillion] from food aid, Medicaid and other health programs while lavishing $1.1 [trillion] in tax cuts upon those earning over $500,000. Not only that, the 1 [million] households earning over $1 [million] a year would receive $105 [billion] in tax cuts in 2027 – that’s more than the tax cuts going to the 127 [million] households earning under $100,000. … Trump boasts he is pro-worker, but he is doing absolutely nothing to help with what many workers say are their biggest priorities. … Billionaires can rejoice that Trump is capitulating to them and their priorities, but American workers shouldn’t be fooled into believing that Trump is addressing their needs.”
So much for the president’s head fake about taxing the rich to pay for the bill.
Clearly, this is just the start of what will be an all-out attack on workers. The same conservative think tanks that hate unionized federal workers are also not fans of public sector unions and would love to roll back the New Deal, paving the way for “at will” employment everywhere and less power in the workplace for everyone.
All of this is in the service of pushing more tax cuts for the rich, consolidating economic and political power in the hands of elites, and crushing the opposition to oligarchic rule. The Republicans’ billionaire populism has always been a ruse.
What about the price of eggs and other groceries? Affordable housing? The overall cost of living for working people? The sad truth is not a single dictate in the president’s ongoing bombardment has done anything to ordinary Americans, Trump voters or not. If you happen to be retiring as the market tanks your savings or don’t think your job will survive a recession or tariffs, suck it up. Stinks to be you.
Miller is a local author, professor at San Diego City College and vice president for the American Federation of Teachers, Local 1931. He lives in Golden Hill.
