Donald Trump has repeatedly vowed to champion US workers. Shortly before Labor Day last year, he said: “Every policy of the Trump administration is designed to lift up the American worker and “promote great-paying blue-collar jobs”. But in the year since last Labor Day, Trump has taken many actions that have hurt US workers and unions, with some labor experts saying they have been stunned at how anti-worker Trump has been.
In the months after Trump returned to office, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (Osha) cut workplace inspections by 20%, compared with Joe Biden’s last year in office. Even though Trump campaigned as a champion of coalminers, his administration has repeatedly delayed implementation of a rule to limit silica dust, which has afflicted and killed many coalminers with black lung. The United Mine Workers union has urgently called for “immediate enforcement” of the stalled silica dust rule.
