No friend to working families
"We are deeply concerned about pro-corporate
policies that would drive up costs, put people out of work, endanger people's
lives, and make it harder for working people to get ahead," the
AFL-CIO—which endorsed Biden
last year—said in a statement. "For
unions, this agenda would make it tougher for members to win gains in our next
contracts and stack the deck in favor of CEOs."
Trump has recently tried to distance himself from Project
2025 and appeal to
working-class voters by announcing Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) as his running mate
and inviting International Brotherhood of Teamsters general president Sean
O'Brien's to speak at this week's Republican National Convention—but
progressives and labor advocates are calling "bullshit."
The AFL-CIO guide highlights how Project 2025 would
"be catastrophic for working people," including by:
- Banning unions for public service workers (page 82);
- Firing civil service workers and replacing them with Trump anti-union loyalists (page 80);
- Letting bosses eliminate unions mid-contract (page 603);
- Letting companies stop paying overtime (page 592) and allowing states to opt out of federal overtime and minimum wage laws (page 605);
- Eliminating child labor protections (page 595); and
- Urging Congress to pass Sen. JD Vance's bill to let employers create their own sham company-run unions (page 599).
"In his first term as president, Donald Trump was a disaster for workers and our unions, governing exclusively for the wealthy and well-connected," AFL-CIO president Liz Shuler said in a statement Thursday.
"The Trump Project 2025 Agenda lays out his plan to
turbocharge his anti-worker policies, eliminate or control unions, and
eviscerate labor laws and workers' contracts," she continued. "A
second Trump term would put everything we've fought for—good jobs, fair wages,
healthcare, retirement security, worker safety—on the chopping block.
"This new online tool is an essential part of our
massive voter education campaign to reach every union household with critical
information about the stakes of this election," Shuler added. "Union
voters could be the difference-makers in this election, and the AFL-CIO and
affiliated unions have a plan to mobilize tens of thousands of grassroots
activists across every community to get the message out and vote."
While Trump has dubiously attempted to distance himself
from the far-right Project 2025 by claiming he
knows "nothing" about it or "who is behind it," at least
140 people who worked in his administration helped draft the initiative's
policy document, according to a CNN review.
Furthermore, Trump's campaign has acknowledged that Agenda 47, "the only official
comprehensive and detailed look at what President Trump will do if he returns
to the White House," aligns well with Project 2025. According to a
survey published last
week by the progressive messaging firm Navigator Research, a majority of
Americans believe that Project 2025 represents what Trump stands for.
During his rambling Republican National Convention speech
accepting the GOP nomination Thursday night, Trump—during whose tenure the
offshoring of U.S. jobs increased—said United
Auto Workers president Shawn Fain should lose his job for letting automakers
build factories in countries including Mexico.
"The United Auto Workers ought to be ashamed for
allowing this to happen, and the leader of the United Auto Workers should be
fired immediately and every single autoworker, union and nonunion, should be
voting for Donald Trump, because we're going to bring back car manufacturing
and we're going to bring it back fast," Trump said.
UAW—which endorsed Biden in January—hit back on
social media, calling Trump a
"scab and a billionaire."