Trump, GOP Intensify Their War On Workers

It was on brief statement in Trump's endless State of the Union speech and it was widely interpreted as just another shot at derailing the Mueller investigation. But it appears that the reality may be far more extensive than originally understood.

Trump simply stated, "So tonight, I call on the Congress to empower every Cabinet Secretary with the authority to reward good workers -- and to remove Federal employees who undermine the public trust or fail the American people." This wasn't just a lame attempt to allow the DOJ to get rid of Mueller, it was actually a direct attack on the career civil servants who provide the nonpartisan expertise that keeps the government functioning.

The Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act of 1883 eliminated the "spoils system" and required most civil service positions to be awarded on merit rather than due to their political connections or affiliation. It finally allowed for not only some stability and expertise in the exercise of government but also eliminated a huge source of graft and corruption.

If the Trump administration actually attempts to repeal the Pendleton Act, it will mean a return to the corruption and politicization of all parts of government that we had under the spoils system. It would also be a direct attack on the public sector unions as well as another method for Trump to "deconstruct the administrative state". Already the Trump administration has instituted hiring freezes and encouraged early retirements in that effort.

The Republican war on unions has been going on for my entire lifetime. And a revived Supreme Court case may decimate those already shrinking unions once and for all. The case, Janus v. American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, would allow public sector workers who are not members of the union to not be required to contribute to the collective bargaining effort that determines their salaries and work rules. If the Supreme Court rules against the unions, there would be no incentive for workers to join the union as they could still be represented in collective bargaining negotiations without paying for it. And, of course, the unions would lose a significant amount of revenue, reducing their power to expand as well as their already shrinking political clout.

The case was supposed to have been decided in an earlier and similar case in 2016, but the death of Justice Scalia meant that the court split its decision 4-4, essentially staying the execution for the public sector unions. But now the Court will hear the case again and, with Neil Gorsuch permanently in the seat that rightly belongs to Merrick Garland, it is almost certain that the Court will rule against the unions.

It is not much better in the private sector. Yesterday, we learned that the Department of Labor had deep-sixed a report that showed just how much workers would lose from the rollback of an Obama-era rule on tips. That 2011 Obama rule asserted that tips were owned by the workers who earned them. The new Trump rule will allow management to control whether and how the tips will be allocated. According to Bloomberg Law, the new Trump proposal contains "language that permits companies to keep gratuities for themselves, provided they pay workers at least the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour and don’t apply a tip credit that allows them to pay as little as $2.13 per hour, depending on the state".

The Labor Department's analysis estimated that workers could lose billions from the rule change with management potentially pocketing that money instead. (One independent analysis by an outside group showed potential losses of nearly $6 billion.) When senior department officials saw that, they ordered the methodology of the study be revised in order lessen the impact. Eventually, however, the decision was made to eliminate any cost analysis from the proposal Trump put forward in December.

As Bloomberg Law notes, "Agencies and OMB are expected to ensure that all available data are brought to bear during notice-and-comment rulemaking." But this is another governing norm that the Trump administration has obliterated. We have seen it with the Treasury Department's refusal to provide any analysis of the tax cut, the fake and fraudulent public comments on net neutrality, and now with this kiboshed Labor report.

Meanwhile, firms all over the country are openly defying the Norris-LaGuardia Act of 1932 that affirmed that workers should be free to form a union without interference from their employer and outlawing the so-called "yellow dog" contracts that required workers to agree not to join a union as a condition of their employment. And those companies are getting more brazen in their violations of this law in the certainty that the Trump administration will take no steps to restrain them.

The most visible case of this is what is happening at the Los Angeles Times. There, the newsroom voted to form a union and, within days, it appeared that the paper's parent company, Tronc, had gone about establishing an entirely separate "shadow newsroom" under an entirely new entity. In San Francisco, a group of software engineers at a company called Lanetix were fired for their attempt to join a union. And in New York, the billionaire owner of the popular papers DNAInfo and Gothamist simply shut those papers down when the workers voted to join a union. Admittedly, both papers were apparently not making money but had been supported since 2009 by billionaire Joe Ricketts, indicating that he certainly had a willingness to absorb losses. But Ricketts has vehemently opposed unions, writing, "As long as it’s my money that’s paying for everything, I intend to be the one making the decisions about the direction of the business" and later adding "unions promote a corrosive us-against-them dynamic that destroys the esprit de corps businesses need to succeed."

Amidst all this, Republicans are continuing their push to expand right to work laws. There are now 28 states with such laws and there is existing legislation in Congress to make that a federal law. And the recently passed tax bill provide massive incentives for management and capital at the expense of labor and workers.

Richard Trumka, President of the AFL-CIO, was an early supporter of Trump, having apparently fallen for his lies about protecting American jobs and workers. These promises from Trump turned out to be similar to the empty ones he told the illegal non-union workers that he used to build Trump Tower. Now Trumka is feeling betrayed, saying, "Broken promises are bad enough. But President Trump has also used his office to actively hurt working people. He has joined with corporations and their political allies to undermine the right of workers to bargain collectively. He has taken money out of our pockets and made our workplace less safe. He has divided our country, abandoned our values and given cover to racism and other forms of bigotry." Unfortunately for Trumka and his union colleagues, as well as other workers in general, it is only going to get worse with Trump and the GOP on the attack.