10 Ways That Trump And The GOP Hurt Workers In 2017

(Cartoon image is by Mike Konopacki at huckkonopackicartoons.com.)

2017 was not a good year for American workers -- thanks to Donald Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress. The good folks at the Economic Policy Institute have reviewed the year that just finished, and they give us the 10 actions taken by Trump and the GOP that hurt workers the most. I post those actions here with part of their discussion. You can go to this link to see their more in-depth discussion.

1. Enacting tax cuts that overwhelmingly favor the wealthy over the average worker

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) signed into law at the end of 2017 provides a permanent cut in the corporate income tax rate that will overwhelmingly benefit capital owners and the top 1 percent. It also includes temporary reductions in the tax rates faced by the richest households and a temporary tax cut for “pass-through” business owners—a provision that has been marketed as a small business tax cut but that will actually deliver an even higher share of benefits to top one percenters than the corporate rate cuts will. While TCJA also includes some temporary cuts that could potentially benefit some low- and moderate-income families, these benefits are both stingy and temporary, whereas the tax cuts for the largest corporations have no expiration date. President Trump’s boast to diners at the $200,000-initiation-fee Mar-a-Lago Club during the holidays says it best: “You all just got a lot richer.”

2. Taking billions out of workers’ pockets by weakening or abandoning regulations that protect their pay

In 2017 the Trump administration hurt workers’ pay in many ways, including acts to dismantle two key regulations that protect the pay of low- to middle-income workers: it failed to defend a 2016 rule strengthening overtime protections for these workers, and it took steps to gut regulations that protect servers from having their tips taken by their employers. These failures to protect workers’ pay could cost workers an estimated $7 billion per year.

3. Blocking workers from access to the courts by allowing mandatory arbitration clauses in employment contracts

In 2017, the Trump administration—in a virtually unprecedented move—switched sides in a case before the U.S. Supreme Court and is now fighting on the side of corporate interests and against workers. When the Supreme Court was first considering Murphy Oil v. NLRB in 2016, the Obama Justice Department sided with workers. If, as expected, the now-Trump-backed plaintiffs prevail, companies will be able to continue to require employees to sign arbitration agreements with class action waivers—forcing workers to give up their right to file class action lawsuits, taking them out of the courtrooms and into individual private arbitration when their rights on the job are violated. And employers’ use of such agreements is likely to increase if the court rules in favor of the plaintiff.

4. Pushing immigration policies that hurt all workers

The Trump administration has taken a number of extreme actions that will hurt all workers, including pursuing and detaining unauthorized immigrants who were victims of employer abuse and human trafficking—while they were trying to enforce their rights in court—and ending Temporary Protected Status for hundreds of thousands of immigrant workers, many of whom have resided in the United States for two decades. But perhaps the most inhumane and ill-advised example has been the administration’s termination of Deferred Action of Childhood Arrivals (DACA).

5. Rolling back regulations that protect worker pay and safety

President Trump and congressional Republicans have blocked regulations that protect workers’ pay and safety. Two of the blocked regulations are the Workplace Injury and Illness recordkeeping rule, and the Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces rule. By blocking these rules, the president and Congress are raising the risks for workers while rewarding companies that put their employees at risk.

6. Stacking the Federal Reserve Board with candidates friendlier to Wall Street than to working families

The Trump administration inherited three vacancies on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors and got two more vacancies to fill when Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen and Vice Chair Stanley Fischer announced their resignations. President Trump’s actions so far—including his choice not to reappoint Yellen as chair, and his nomination of Randal Quarles to fill one of the inherited vacancies—suggest that he plans to tilt the board toward the interests of Wall Street rather than those of working families.

7. Ensuring Wall Street can pocket more of workers’ retirement savings

The Trump administration’s repeated delays to a rule protecting retirement savers from “conflicted” investment advice will cost retirement savers an estimated $18.5 billion over the next 30 years in hidden fees and lost earning potential.

8. Stacking the Supreme Court against workers by appointing Neil Gorsuch

On April 7, 2017, the Senate confirmed Trump’s nominee to the Supreme Court, Neil Gorsuch, who has a record of ruling against workers and siding with corporate interests. Now on the Supreme Court, Gorsuch may cast the deciding vote in significant cases challenging workers’ rights. Cases involving collective bargaining, forced arbitration and class action waivers in employment disputes, and joint-employer doctrines are already on the court’s docket this term or are likely to be considered by the court in coming years.

9. Trying to take affordable health care away from millions of working people

The Trump administration and congressional Republicans spent much of 2017 attempting to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA). They finally succeeded in repealing a well-known provision of the ACA—the penalty for not buying health insurance—in the tax bill signed into law at the end of 2017. According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the repeal of this provision will raise the number of uninsured Americans by 13 million in 2027.

10. Undercutting key worker protection agencies by nominating anti-worker leaders

Trump has appointed—or tried to appoint—individuals with records of exploiting workers to key posts in the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) and the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). DOL is supposed to promote the welfare of job seekers, wage earners, and retirees by, among other things, protecting them from hazards on the job and ensuring they are paid for their work. The NLRB is charged with protecting the rights of most private-sector employees to join together, with or without a union, to improve their wages and working conditions. Nominees to critical roles at DOL and the NLRB have—in word and deed—expressed hostility to the worker rights laws they are in charge of upholding.