Project 2025 and Unions
Trump’s Project 2025 is the 920-page document, written by at least 140 Trump advisers and former (and likely future) leaders in the Trump administration, that spells out what they plan to do during a Trump second term.
We broke it down for you: How would this agenda affect union members and 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. 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.
Navigate the issues below to learn why the agenda detailed in Project 2025 would be catastrophic for working people.
Ability to Organize
Lets Corporations Union-Bust in Secret
The Trump Project 2025 agenda would let big corporations secretly hire union-busting consultants to provide behind-the-scenes help in manipulating and scaring workers who try to organize a union.
Makes It Illegal for Employers to Voluntarily Recognize Unions
The Trump Project 2025 agenda would make it harder for workers to form a union by forcing workplaces to hold secret ballot elections for a union, even when employers recognize that the majority of their employees plainly want one.
Lets Employers Take Away Unions Mid-Contract
The Trump Project 2025 agenda would give union-busting corporations a chance to get rid of a union even while workers are in the middle of a signed union contract.
Lets Employers Retaliate Against Union Organizers
The Trump Project 2025 agenda would make it easier for corporations to discipline or even fire workers for engaging in collective action and organizing.
Lets Employers Create Their Own Sham Company Unions
The Trump Project 2025 agenda would let employers sidestep national labor laws by creating their own phony employee organizations with fake employee committees hand-picked by management.
Workers' Rights
Lets States Gut National Overtime and Minimum Wage Laws—and Lets States Ban Labor Unions
The Trump Project 2025 agenda would allow states to obtain waivers from federal labor laws that protect workers’ paychecks and the right to join a union, putting Americans’ wages and benefits in a race to the bottom.
Lets Employers Stop Paying Overtime
The Trump Project 2025 agenda would do away with overtime pay guarantees and allow employers to instead give employees time off for their overtime work—the employer controls when—resulting in less pay and no new flexibility in schedules.
Repeals Labor and Wage Protections for Workers on Federal Projects
The Trump Project 2025 agenda would repeal the requirements for federally-funded projects to have project labor agreements (PLAs) and pay the prevailing wage in the region, leading to lower pay and more safety risks for workers.
Restricts Unemployment Insurance
The Trump Project 2025 agenda would make it harder for working families to access unemployment benefits.
Privatizes Unemployment Insurance Programs
The Trump Project 2025 agenda would outsource the administration of unemployment programs to “non-public organizations” (a fancy phrase for private companies), causing government workers to lose their jobs and workers to get poor services.
Cuts Assistance to Workers Whose Jobs Were Sent Overseas
The Trump Project 2025 agenda will not fund training and employment services for workers whose jobs are sent overseas from international trade.
Health and Safety
Creates Loopholes That Allow Businesses to Put Worker Safety at Risk
The Trump Project 2025 agenda will let small businesses violate the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA’s) worker safety laws without punishment, no matter what deaths or injuries were caused by their negligence or recklessness.
Eliminates Child Labor Protections
The Trump Project 2025 agenda would eliminate the child labor rules that protect teenagers from working in mines, meatpacking plants and other dangerous workplaces.
Eliminates Reproductive Freedom Nationwide
The Trump Project 2025 agenda will expand upon the Dobbs decision to rob workers of the freedom to make their own health care decisions and make it more difficult to receive health care, including reproductive care.
Increases Medicare Part D Prescription Drug Prices
The Trump Project 2025 agenda would stop the government from negotiating Medicare Part D drug prices, making those prescriptions more expensive.
Slashes Funding for Medicaid
The Trump Project 2025 agenda will cut Medicaid benefits and make it harder for working people to receive health care.
Eliminates the Affordable Care Act
The Trump Project 2025 agenda discusses “health care reform” in depth with policies that would implement Trump’s goal of eliminating the Affordable Care Act (ACA), leaving millions without health care and allowing insurers to bring back pre-existing conditions.
Taxes Worker Benefits
The Trump Project 2025 agenda would tax workers' health care and benefits with policies that go way beyond the "Cadillac Tax."
Government Workers
Ends Public Sector Unions
The Trump Project 2025 agenda would ban all public employee unions.
Fires Civil Service Workers and Replaces Them with Trump Anti-Union Loyalists
Trump will remove civil service protections from federal workers, allowing him to fire civil service workers and staff the government with unqualified loyalists.
Cuts Retirement Benefits for Federal Employees
The Trump Project 2025 agenda will cut retirement benefits for federal workers.
Eliminates the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program
The Trump Project 2025 agenda would eliminate the program that allows teachers, firefighters, social workers and other public service workers to have their student loan debt forgiven after 10 years of public service and 120 qualifying payments on their Direct Loans.
Retirement Security
Guts Retirement Benefits for Federal Employees
The Trump Project 2025 agenda would cut retirement benefits for federal workers.
Civil Rights
Uses a Second Term to Punish Political Enemies
Trump has promised to use the executive branch to punish his opponents, not work for the American people.
Eliminates the Offices of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Every Government Agency
The Trump Project 2025 agenda would eliminate attempts to recruit diverse candidates and support their civil rights.
Stops Workplace Discrimination Data Collection
The Trump Project 2025 agenda would make it illegal for the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commision (EEOC), the federal agency that enforces anti-discrimination laws, to collect data on workplace discrimination, making civil rights discrimination lawsuits impossible to prove.
Makes It Easier for Employers to Discriminate Based on Race and Gender
The Trump Project 2025 agenda eliminates “disparate impact” as a category of discrimination, which would make it easier for employers to discriminate based on people’s race or gender.
Lets Federal Contractors Discriminate Without Oversight
Trump will make it easy for federal contractors to discriminate by ending any oversight over them.
Removes Federal Anti-Discrimination Protections for LGBTQIA+
The Trump Project 2025 agenda will make it easier for employers to discriminate based on gender identity and sexual orientation.
Turns the Department of Justice into a Political Weapon
The Trump Project 2025 agenda states that the Department of Justice should no longer be independent and must follow the President’s policy agenda.
Undermines Gender Equity in the Government
The Trump Project 2025 agenda would eliminate the White House Gender Policy Council, which works across all the federal agencies on issues such as economic security, health, gender-based violence, and STEM education for women and girls.
Consumer Rights
Eliminates the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
The Trump Project 2025 agenda would abolish the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), which has returned $19 billion to people cheated by big banks and financial institutions since its creation after the 2008 financial crisis.
Shields Big Corporations from Antitrust Actions and Lets Them Continue Raising Prices
The Trump Project 2025 agenda would make it harder to bring antitrust actions against giant corporations like Ticketmaster, instead letting them corner a market and raise prices on working people.
Education
Eliminates the Department of Education and Destroys Public Education
The Trump Project 2025 agenda would eliminate the Department of Education and direct public school funding to private school vouchers.
Eliminates Head Start
The Trump Project 2025 agenda would end Head Start, which helps promote school readiness for infants, toddlers and preschoolers from low-income families.
Eliminates Universal Free School Meals Programs
The Trump Project 2025 agenda would direct the Department of Agriculture (USDA) to work with lawmakers to end universal free school meals that provide food security to millions of children.
Eliminates Public Student Loans
The Trump Project 2025 agenda recommends privatizing all student loans, allowing greedy lenders to make even bigger profits off the backs of middle-class and working-class students who need help going to college.
Eliminates Public Broadcasting as We Know It
The Trump Project 2025 agenda would even go after “Sesame Street” and would eliminate PBS and NPR as we know it.
Transportation
Guts State and Local Funding for Public Transportation
The Trump Project 2025 agenda would eliminate or severely cut the Capital Investment Grants (CIG) program, which funds new and expanded rapid rail, commuter rail, light rail, streetcars, bus rapid transit, and ferries. It also cuts transit workers' paychecks.
Allows Private Companies to Dismantle Public Transit
The Trump Project 2025 agenda advocates for eliminating federal subsidies for public transportation and expanding the definition of “public transportation” to include private companies like rideshare services.
Guts State and Local Funding for Transportation Projects
The Trump Project 2025 agenda would eliminate or severely cut the Capital Investment Grants (CIG) program, which funds new and expanded rapid rail, commuter rail, light rail, streetcars, bus rapid transit, and ferries. It also would cut transit workers' paychecks.
Strips Transit Workers of Key Protections
The Trump Project 2025 agenda is harmful for transit workers as it would repeal a section of the Federal Transit Act that has protected the collective bargaining rights and job rights of bus and rail workers for more than 60 years.
Strips Oversight from the Federal Aviation Administration
The Trump Project 2025 agenda calls for removing the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) from the Department of Transportation, along with restructuring its funding model. This plan would significantly reduce the FAA’s capacity to oversee safety regulations and hinder critical research and development, putting the safety of passengers and workers at risk.
Ends Subsidized Flights for Rural Communities
The Trump Project 2025 agenda aims to eliminate the Essential Air Service (EAS) program, which provides subsidies to support flights to 200 small airports in underserved communities. Without this program, many rural and remote areas would lose access to air travel, isolating residents and stifling local economies.
Weakens Pilot Training Standards
The Trump Project 2025 agenda suggests reducing the mandatory flight hours for commercial co-pilots and allowing simulator training hours to count toward these requirements. Lowering these standards would undermine pilot preparedness and compromise flight safety, disregarding the reasons these rules were established in the first place.
Guts Funding for America’s Transportation Needs
The Trump Project 2025 agenda proposes abolishing the Department of Transportation’s discretionary grant programs that help communities meet their specific transportation infrastructure, safety and innovation needs.
Rolls Back Crucial Rail Safety Regulations
The Trump Project 2025 agenda seeks to overturn critical rail safety regulations, such as the federal rule requiring at least two crew members on most freight trains. The agenda also challenges standards for the certification of signal employees and train dispatchers, arguing that these safety measures are excessive and unnecessary.
Suggests Repealing the Jones Act
The Trump Project 2025 agenda proposes seriously repealing or substantially reforming the Jones Act, which requires any cargo moving between U.S. ports to be carried by ships built in America, owned and operated by U.S. citizens, and crewed by American mariners.
Cuts Railcar Inspections
The Trump Project 2025 agenda proposes to extend railcar brake and mechanical inspections by up to 1,000 miles, further undermining public safety in order to line the pockets of Wall Street.
Rolls Back Training and Safety Programs for Rail Workers
The Trump Project 2025 agenda aims to reverse federal rules that require railroads to establish formal programs to certify train dispatchers and signalmen.
Threatens Railroad Track Safety Inspections
The Trump Project 2025 agenda seeks to alter the current federal requirements for railroad track inspections, in favor of relying on technology.
Immigration
Threatens Core Civil Liberties Through Immigration Enforcement
The Trump Project 2025 agenda would call for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers to arrest, detain and deport people they suspect to be immigrants anywhere in the country—without due process and without a warrant, whenever possible—encouraging racial profiling and instilling fear in our communities.
Increases Funding for Mass Immigrant Detention Camps
The Trump Project 2025 agenda would call for significant funding increases from Congress to fund large-scale use of facilities, including tents, with a target to detain 100,000 immigrant workers a day in our communities.
Weaponizes Workplace Immigration Raids
The Trump Project 2025 agenda would call for the use of “Blackies Warrants”—raids at American workplaces that often include blocking the exits and questioning anyone who looks like they could be an immigrant.
Allows Immigration Raids at Schools, Hospitals and Places of Worship
The Trump Project 2025 agenda would repeal the Biden administration’s guidance that ICE should not take an immigration enforcement action at a “protected area” such as a school, hospital, place of worship, playground, social services program, emergency relief shelter or funeral. Rescinding this policy would create a climate of fear that would undermine public health, education and safety for all of us.
Further Threatens Young Workers with DACA
In 2017, Trump ended the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, threatening the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of young workers. Now, the Trump Project 2025 agenda refers to DACA as “unlawful” and would recommend further steps to rescind resources for its implementation.
Ends Temporary Protected Status for Hundreds of Thousands of Workers
The Trump Project 2025 agenda would call for the end of temporary protected status (TPS)—a form of humanitarian relief granted to people from countries embroiled in violent conflict or suffering from a natural disaster so that they will not be returned to harm’s way. This would strip work permits from vital members of our unions and our communities.
Eliminates Protections for Immigrant Children
The Trump Project 2025 agenda would eliminate our country’s humanitarian standards for the treatment of immigrant children in detention, including the length of time children can be detained and the food, water, and medical treatment they receive while detained.
Denies FEMA Funding to Cities and States That Reject Extremist Immigration Policies
The Trump Project 2025 agenda states that cities and states would be disqualified from receiving Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) grants if they did not comply with the Trump administration’s extremist immigration laws. Cities and states also would be required to hand over access to all Department of Motor Vehicles and voter registration databases to the Department of Homeland Security as a condition for FEMA grant eligibility.
Punishes All Student Borrowers in States That Provide In-State Tuition to Undocumented Students
The Trump Project 2025 agenda wouldn’t only deny federal student loans to undocumented students, it would deny student loan access to all students who attend colleges and universities that provide in-state tuition to undocumented students.
Denies Federal Housing Assistance to Anyone with a Mixed-Status Family
The Trump Project 2025 agenda would disqualify any American from receiving federally subsidized housing from the Department of Homeland Security if they have an undocumented family member—such as a mother or father, grandmother or grandfather—living with them.
Eliminates Unions in Our Immigration System
The Trump Project 2025 agenda would eliminate all staff unions at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and within the Department of Justice immigration court system—at the workplaces of the workers who enforce, implement and interpret our country’s immigration laws—under the guise of national security.
Privatizes FEMA and TSA
The Trump Project 2025 agenda would privatize key jobs at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and Transportation Security Administration (TSA), handing over our country’s key national security and disaster response work to profit-motivated corporations.
Eliminates Protections for Victims of Human Trafficking and Abuse
The Trump Project 2025 agenda seeks to end key protections for survivors of workplace crimes, domestic violence, human and labor trafficking, and other egregious offenses, by eliminating U and T nonimmigrant visas.
Creates a Unit to Strip Citizenship from Naturalized Immigrants
The Trump Project 2025 agenda would reinstate a Trump-era process to strip citizenship from certain naturalized American citizens that could result in unfair targeting and threaten the security of millions of working families.
Enables Corporations to Exploit Child Labor
The Trump Project 2025 agenda would roll back child labor protections, separate and detain immigrant families, and reduce the Department of Labor’s (DOL’s) funding and mandate to protect workers.
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Donald Trump’s Project 2025 Ties
