New York Times editorial: Trump’s War on Worker Rights
EDITOR'S NOTE: Thanks to William Barry, retired organizer and director of Labor Studies at The Community College of Baltimore County, for sending us this editorial. Here's more from Barry: "As you read this opinion, there are two sections which are so important: 'The federal government has displaced unions as the primary protector of the rights and safety of American workers' [and]....'The decision, and the administration’s broader pattern of actions and inaction, is sending a clear message to American workers: You’re on your own.' And we should listen to this warning...(and we shouldn't have to depend on the New York Times to raise the issue.)"
The administration is making life easier for business owners and harder for workers.
President Trump ran for office as a champion of American workers and a friend of labor unions, but his administration has systematically favored employers at the expense of workers.
In recent months, the administration has moved to tighten qualifications for who must be paid the minimum wage and who must be paid overtime. It is asking the Supreme Court to rule that companies can fire workers on the basis of sexual orientation. The number of workplace safety inspectors employed by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration has fallen to the lowest level in the agency’s half-century of operation.
And as the administration has pulled back from protecting the rights, safety and economic welfare of workers, it has sought to undermine state regulators and to prevent workers from protecting their own interest through collective bargaining.