Brian Petruska can’t help but sound alarmed at the possibility of another Donald Trump presidency. He is still witnessing the legal fallout from Trump’s first term.
“We want to get back to pre-1930s labor law in this country,” said Petruska, an attorney for the Laborers’ International Union of North America.told HuffPost. “I’m not exaggerating. That is literally what happens.”
Petruska referred to the efforts of employers – including Elon Musk, the richest man in the world and a surrogate for Trump amid his 2024 White House bid — to destroy the National Labor Relations Board, the federal agency created in 1935 that enforces collective bargaining rights.
Companies like Musk’s SpaceX are challenging the constitutionality of the NLRB’s structure to defend themselves against allegations of unfair labor practices. Some Trump-appointed judges have already shown they are receptive to the companies’ arguments, and the question could end up before the Supreme Court, where a conservative supermajority formed by Trump would decide the board’s fate.
We want to go back to labor law in this country before the 1930s.Brian Petruska, attorney for the Laborers’ International Union of North America
As Petruska sees it, another four years under Trump would only bring more attacks on workers’ rights, and more judges willing to rule in favor of companies.
“The changes – not to exaggerate – are potentially catastrophic,” he said. “Almost every worker protection you can think of is under threat. They are on the table and in danger.”
Trump has indicated that his election this year would lead to a crackdown on immigration; a rollback of environmental protections; pardons for rioters convicted over the January 6, 2021 insurrection; and legal retaliation against his political opponents, among others. He hasn’t laid out his plan for workers’ rights, but it’s not hard to imagine what he would do with the NLRB, an independent agency run by presidential appointees.
The Labor Council has been a hotbed for progressive policy reforms under President Joe Biden. The top prosecutor, General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo, is often mentioned in the same breath as the chair of the Federal Trade Commission Lina Khan as one of Biden’s most consequential appointments. Abruzzo’s policies have boosted union sentiment and made her a star on the left, making her a shot in the arm for any incoming Republican administration.
Abruzzo outlined her philosophy while speaking to reporters Tuesday at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., describing the bill as “pro-worker” rather than pro-union or pro-employer.
“We promote employees’ ability to raise their voices and be heard and seek the respect and dignity they deserve,” she said, “and get a piece of the pie for the value they add to operations from their employers.”
It’s not exactly a view shared by Trump, who recently praised Musk as someone who would fire striking workers, which is generally against the law.
Trump would probably almost certainly get rid of the Abruzzo on his first day in office, as the Conservative transition blueprint Project 2025 recommends. With her would go the pieces of her agenda that she has not yet been able to implement, such as banning mandatory anti-union meetings at work, abolishing the use of non-compete agreements and preventing employers from permanently replacing strikers.
The NLRB has a five-member board, separate from the general counsel, currently led by Democratic chairwoman Lauren McFerran. Just as Biden did, Trump was able to flip party control of the administration as staggered seats opened up. By working with an employer-friendly general counsel like Trump’s latest, the administration could then undo the most consequential reforms of the past four years.
If you take this job, you are required by your congressional mandate to protect the rights of workers in this country.Jennifer Abruzzo, NLRB general counsel
That includes the sign’s landmark Cemex decisionthat discourages illegal union busting and makes it easier for workers to form unions. The Biden administration has also accelerated the union election process, giving employers less time to wage anti-union campaigns; expanded collective bargaining rights for more workers, such as independent contractors; and higher compensation for workers illegally fired. All such changes could be on the chopping block.
When asked by HuffPost if she was concerned about these types of policies being reversed by Trump appointees, Abruzzo stayed away from politics and tried to sound somewhat hopeful.
“If you take this job, you are required by your congressional mandate to protect the rights of workers in this country,” she said.
But a change in leadership could easily dampen the rise in workplace activism. The number of union election petitions has more than doubled in the Biden years as more workers seek to organize their workplaces. Employees are also filing many more unfair labor practice charges, showing they are willing to challenge their bosses.
There are many factors that may be at play in this wave of activism, such as Americans’ increasingly positive view of unions and a resilient labor market that has given workers more power. But workers would also like to stand up for their rights more because they feel the current Workers’ Council will have their backs, said Jon Schleuss, president of The NewsGuild-CWA.
“I’ve seen the difference [between] the Trump administration and the Biden administration,” Schleuss said.
He noted that the Labor Board recently went to federal court request an injunction against the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette after it refused to negotiate with the Guild and unilaterally cut employee health care benefits. That’s the kind of move Schleuss is less likely to see under a Trump administration.
“We’re much more focused on filing unfair labor practice charges because we know there’s a board and general counsel and board agents who are interested in actually enforcing the rules. [law]” he said.
Rolling back the policy isn’t the only way Trump and his appointees could undermine the work of the Labor Council — they could also try to cut the budget, push out existing staff and let the agency atrophy, just like Trump’s first general counsel of the NLRB was accused. . To this end, Project 2025 calls for a hiring freeze at the board and other employment agencies. Inadequate funding and low staffing levels have already left the NLRB struggling to handle rising workloads.
Of course, these problems seem less urgent than a constitutional challenge to the administration itself on the road to a steady Supreme Court the breaking down of the administrative state. Abruzzo said cases brought by companies like SpaceX were merely a distraction from their own alleged legal violations, but warned that everyone will pay a price if they succeed.
“Their goal is to just prevent us from doing our job,” she said. “We are the only federal agency that enforces the only federal labor laws in this country. It would be chaos if the agency could not carry out its duties properly.”
