Center for American Progress: Despite Musk’s Departure, Trump’s War Against Unions and Workers Will Continue
By AURELIA GLASS
Despite Musk’s Departure, Trump’s War Against Unions and Workers Will Continue
While DOGE made headlines for firing tens of thousands of federal workers, Elon Musk's departure will not slow down the Trump administration’s efforts to end collective bargaining for more than 1 million workers, slash wage protections for hundreds of thousands, and muzzle a key agency protecting organizing rights.
President Donald Trump’s second administration has been defined by its assault on the federal workforce. With Elon Musk at the helm of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), the Trump administration fired tens of thousands of federal workers, jeopardizing services that working families across the country rely on. Yet the attacks on workers have gone beyond firing public sector workers and will not end just because Musk has left the government.
In fact, many of the Trump administration’s worst actions against the livelihoods and organizing rights of workers, both in the federal workforce and in the private sector, weren’t carried out by Elon Musk or DOGE. Despite the administration’s claim that President Trump is “putting American workers first,” the White House and federal agency heads are trying to end collective bargaining for more than 1 million government workers; hobble the agency overseeing collective bargaining rights for workers in the private sector; and cut the minimum wage for hundreds of thousands of federal contractors. While these anti-worker actions haven’t racked up as many headlines as the administration’s tens of thousands of layoffs, they threaten the foundations of union organizing in the United States and target vulnerable private sector workers.
Here’s what you should know about Trump’s war on workers and unions.
The Trump administration revoked bargaining rights for more than 1 million federal workers
The Trump administration has ended collective bargaining for 4 out of 5 federal workers represented by unions at more than a dozen federal agencies, including those that care for aging veterans, keep food safe, and protect the public from outbreaks of disease. According to Center for American Progress analysis of federal employment data, the Trump administration ended collective bargaining rights for more than 1 million American workers via an executive order issued on March 27, 2025, and a prior decision to end collective bargaining at the Transportation Security Administration. Georgetown University labor historian Joseph McCartin called this order “by far the largest single action of union-busting in American history.”
Collective bargaining empowers workers to come together to protect themselves for speaking up on the job and to negotiate for improved working conditions, including better overtime, paid leave, and health and safety standards. Without the hope of being able to negotiate future contracts for the duration of the Trump administration, federal workers lose not only their ability to negotiate for better working conditions but also some of the protections that enable them to blow the whistle when they see something at work that is dangerous to the public.
President Trump cited national security concerns as his reason for eliminating collective bargaining for the vast majority of unionized federal workers—even though the government has long recognized the right of workers at agencies, such as the U.S. Department of Defense, to bargain. Federal employee bargaining law permits collective bargaining for workers at agencies with national security roles as long as their bargaining is not incompatible with national security needs. Moreover, the order includes hundreds of thousands of workers whose roles have little to do with national security, including those who inspect food to prevent outbreaks of disease, conduct research on respiratory hazards faced by mine workers, and keep nuclear power plants safe.
A Trump administration fact sheet released alongside the executive order ending collective bargaining for federal workers said that federal employee unions were “fighting back” against the government’s union-busting agenda by suing the administration to prevent mass layoffs. However, joining together to stand up against employer abuses, such as illegally firing workers, is one of the many reasons workers form unions in the first place and can help serve broader public interests. For example, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) collective bargaining agreements protect employee whistleblowers who have uncovered problems at the agency, such as the mismanagement of veterans’ private information or the illegal restraint of a patient at a VA medical center.
Ending collective bargaining for federal workers hurts not only workers and unions but also the Americans those workers serve.