Unions Brace For Trump's Assault On Organized Labor

Trump’s NLRB will likely be filled with lawyers from the union-busting world hell-bent on rolling back workers’ gains.

By Michael Arria, Truthout

In November, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) sided with Amazon workers in ruling that it is illegal to force workers to attend mandatory anti-union propaganda sessions, upending a doctrine of U.S. labor law that has existed since 1948.

The anti-union propaganda sessions, which are formally referred to as “captive audience meetings” are a controversial practice that has long been used to deter unionization drives.

“These coercive meetings are well-known union-busting tools, and the practice has no place in America’s workplaces or in our democracy,” AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler said in a statement celebrating the NLRB’s role in ending the practice.

a woman holds a sign at a uaw autoworkers strike

The celebration will presumably be short-lived, however, as the incoming Trump administration is expected to revert the board to the pro-business, anti-union agency that it was during his first term. This means workers’ rights will inevitably be rolled back and much of the progress made over the past four years could be lost.

It’s hard to know exactly how long the process of realigning the NLRB will take, but most labor experts and leaders expect Donald Trump, upon arriving in the White House, to sack General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo, who steered the board in a pro-worker direction via 26 issued memorandums. There’s precedent for such an action, as President Joe Biden dumped Trump’s General Counsel Peter Robb on his first day in office. That move was challenged in court but was ruled to be legal.