The late American author and activist Maya Angelou used to say that when someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time. A group of former senior Trump administration officials have done just that in a nearly 900-page policy document called Project 2025. The project is funded by the conservative Heritage Foundation, a sponsor of next week’s Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.
The document is an alarming roadmap of what to expect in a second Trump administration. It is made up of policy contributions from over 100 like-minded organizations, including Young America’s Foundation headed by Scott Walker. While Donald Trump has denied any formal involvement, the authors are a who’s who list of former and, if elected, future Trump administration officials.
What does Project 2025 propose? Greatly expanding the power of the president; replacing thousands of civil servants with Trump loyalists, and implementing an expansive anti-union agenda. Significantly for America’s workers, this includes changing federal rules to allow employers to avoid paying overtime and kneecapping the National Labor Relations Board.
Led by Biden administration appointees, the NLRB has overseen union elections that have resulted in a 70 percent worker victory rate, the highest in the past 15 years. This is the result of the NLRB simply serving its mandated function: to act as the impartial umpire in contests between employers and workers who want to organize a union. Recent history shows clearly that when laws preventing anti-union employers from interfering with organizing are actually enforced, there are more wins for workers.
Little wonder then, that Project 2025 offers a playbook on how to cripple the NLRB’s enforcement capacity, beginning with the firing “on Day One” of NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo. General Council Abruzzo has demonstrated her commitment to going after companies that violate workers’ rights. In the anti-worker world envisioned by Project 2025, that makes her unfit to serve.
The resurgence of union organizing in our nation has been greatly assisted by the Biden administration’s strong belief that unions are essential to American prosperity. That’s why the AFL-CIO has proudly endorsed President Biden.
In a campaign that has focused on personalities, it is more important than ever to look at policies. With Project 2025, Donald Trump has shown us who he is. We should believe him. His extreme vision of an America where the law of the land is whatever the president says it is, where hard-won workers’ rights are stripped away with no recourse, is a dark future that must not come to pass. Now is the time for our union movement to stand in solidarity against it.