The crowd-sourced Project 2025
Chapter 18: The Department of Labor and Related Agencies, by Joanna
Continuing with our project, where intrepid volunteers offered to read a chapter (or chapters) of the HeritageFoundationTrumpRepublican plan for our future, Project 2025:
So here goes, the goals of our fascist criminal conservative enterprise:
We need to support the Christian family and support individual workers. We should not support Unions, in fact we should drive them out of existence. We should make sure that non US citizens can't work and thrive here.
Let's start to do that by:
Banning Critical Race Theory training.
Ending the requirement for contractors to promise not to discriminate.
Let's make sure that the protections given to gay and transgender people in the workforce are limited even further. All definitions of gender should be based upon the biological definition only.
If there are health care benefits for terminating a pregnancy, let's take those away.
Let's allow teenagers the opportunity to work in the most hazardous jobs.
Are you a person with disabilities? Let's tie federal funds under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunities to outcomes. Less funding for programs that help those with disabilities achieve gainful employment. We are also going to take a whopping cut out of all employment and training programs.
Those Unions! Let's create lots of "employee involvement organizations" so that employees have less power and more "cooperation" with management.
Let's end the "exclusive representation" under the Workers Choice Act to diminish Unions further.
Oh, and let's change the rules so that if you don't like your Union's politics, that would be the basis for a now legitimate duty of fair representation claim.
We won't wait for someone to make a complaint against their Union, let's now allow the Office of Labor Management Standards to freely authorize an investigation without any formal complaint.
And, even though we think all Unions must be corrupt, so now we can investigate them without cause, we are going to eliminate the requirement for employers to file a written disclosure if they pay consultants or Union busters (eliminate the "persuader rule").
We should do more to negate all that Unions achieve for workers. We are going to remove the card check rule. That way it will take longer for people to join and form their own Union.
And, instead of clear timelines by which workers can vote to decertify their Union, we will remove the "windows" and allow decertification votes at any time. So Unions will be engaged in those battles rather than fighting for good health care, good benefits, a decent quality of life.
Too many federal regulations -- take away the Fair Labor Standards Act and Occupational Safety and Health act requirements. Make Unions negotiate for those standards and have to trade off working a lot of time without overtime or having a safe workplace. Let's repeal some other labor standards too (Davis-Bacon) and allow waivers of NLRA and FLSA. One more thing, reduce health and safety inspections at worksites to only the most egregious offenders. Everyone else should be just fine.
We are also going to remove all requirements that investments be done with some kind of moral accountability. We want to remove the Environmental Social Investing requirement for ERISA. The oil and gas companies should not be harmed because they don't care about the only planet we have. \We should not have to be penalized because they don't care about reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
So, America first. Don't hire people from outside "America" because they are taking away "American" jobs. Reduce the H-2A visa (agricultural) and H-2B (non-agricultural" and prioritize hiring "Americans" first. We don't want to hear about all of the great initiatives and ideas, let alone the humanity and exchange of ideas, generated from those non-Americans.
End game -- we want to weaponize the DOL. We want to nullify any anti-discrimination or critical race theory, undercut health and safety, foment discrimination, make people work more hours for cheap, attack Unions relentlessly, and reduce the Employment and Training Programs. We are going back in time to preserve the Christian family. And by the way, we are maximizing the hiring of political appointees here and everywhere to make sure we can DO IT TO YOU.
Great job Joanna! I am so impressed with my fellow members of Susan’s “Soup Brigade”…..we are in a do or die fight!
Susan, this virus is knocking my socks off. I will not go into hospital here at any cost. So we are speeding home. I apologize I am not up to my character; suffice it to say it’s a mess.