Union leaders call Trump most anti-union president in modern history

Rollbacks include 20% OSHA inspection cut, NLRB chair firing

On Labor Day 2026, President Donald Trump faces accusations from major U.S. labor leaders that his administration has been the most anti-union in modern American history. The Guardian documented a year of actions since Labor Day 2025, when Trump pledged: “Every policy of the Trump administration is designed to lift up the American worker and promote great-paying blue-collar jobs.” Labor leaders interviewed by the paper said they were stunned by the scope of what they called anti-worker and anti-union actions.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration cut workplace inspections by 20% compared with Joe Biden’s last year in office. The administration has also repeatedly delayed implementing a rule to limit silica dust exposure, a hazard linked to black lung disease among coal miners. The United Mine Workers union has called for “immediate enforcement” of the stalled silica dust rule, even as Trump publicly positioned himself as a champion of coal miners.

On wages, prices — pushed up by the administration’s tariffs and the war with Iran — have risen faster than wages over the past year, fueling what the paper described as an affordability crisis. The administration has proposed eliminating federal minimum wage and overtime protections for roughly 3 million homecare workers who care for seniors and people with disabilities.

Heidi Shierholz, president of the Economic Policy Institute, said she was stunned by Trump’s anti-worker actions over the past year, pointing in particular to Trump’s order lowering the minimum wage that federal contractors must pay their employees from $17.75 an hour to $13.30 — a change she called a “chop” to the contractor wage that, the Guardian reported, cost some workers over $9,000 a year in pay. Trump has also rescinded a Biden-era regulation that had extended overtime pay to more salaried workers, a move that will leave 4.3 million workers no longer qualifying for time-and-a-half overtime. Two federal courts in Texas had previously ruled against the Biden overtime regulation. Trump has never pushed to raise the $7.25-an-hour federal minimum wage, which has eroded in value since its last increase in 2009.

Despite multiple court rulings slowing or halting the effort, the administration has pressed ahead with what Liz Shuler, president of the AFL-CIO, called “the largest single act of union-busting in our history”: stripping roughly 1 million federal employees of their right to bargain collectively. The action has reached workers at the Transportation Security Administration, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Agriculture, the Environmental Protection Agency and other agencies.

In an unprecedented move, Trump fired Gwynne Wilcox, the pro-union chair of the NLRB — the first time a president has removed an NLRB member. The administration has since named multiple pro-business officials to the labor board.

Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants, said in an interview: “Trump’s actions make him by far the most anti-union president in our modern history. His administration has been massively anti-worker, anti-union and anti-working class.”

White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers defended the administration’s record, telling The Guardian: “President Trump will always put American workers first, which is why he signed the largest middle-class tax cuts in history, secured trillions in investments into our country, and negotiated historic trade deals to reshore our manufacturing industry and protect American jobs. Thanks to President Trump, American workers are prioritized over illegal aliens and foreign-born workers once again.”

Shierholz characterized the pattern as systematic: “The Trump administration is systematically weakening policies and institutions that give workers a voice, that give workers protections and that hold employers accountable. He’s been doing that from day one, and since then it has absolutely continued and accelerated. You see attacks on every kind of worker protection from safety and health to wage and hour protections. Policy after policy after policy goes directly against the interests of workers.”

Trump has helped some groups of workers by securing congressional passage of no tax on tips and a significant cut in taxes on overtime pay. The White House points to tax cuts for working families, which critics say have overwhelmingly favored the ultra-wealthy while providing only modest cuts to workers.

The administration is also seeking to weaken a Biden-era regulation protecting workers against extreme heat — including requirements for rest breaks, access to water, and access to shade — and to undo Biden’s plan to codify extreme heat as a workplace hazard. The Guardian reported that corporate lobbying preceded the administration’s push to roll back the heat protections.

In February, after corporate lobbying, the administration scrapped a Biden-era rule that made it harder for employers to classify workers as independent contractors — a change that will lower labor costs by removing obligations to pay minimum wage, overtime, and Social Security, Medicare, and unemployment insurance contributions. The change affects construction workers, Uber drivers, and other gig-economy workers.

Although Trump has promised to use tariffs and other means to revive American manufacturing, the U.S. has lost 35,000 manufacturing jobs since he returned to office, with the paper attributing the losses in part to “chaos and uncertainty” from the tariffs. Modest gains in factory jobs have emerged in recent months. Young workers have struggled to find employment, and the administration’s embrace of AI and data centers has fueled fears about job displacement.

In a separate front, the Department of Homeland Security obtained financial records from the Service Employees International Union and the Communications Workers of America as part of an investigation into opposition to Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in Minnesota. DHS characterized the inquiry as related to “domestic terrorism financing.” Federal prosecutors told a grand jury that the AFL-CIO and several unions were part of a criminal conspiracy to obstruct ICE agents in Minnesota, according to The Guardian.

Nelson characterized the move as part of a broader pattern: “It’s terrible that they’re going after labor activists and unions in Minnesota for merely standing up for their neighbors. It’s outrageous that this administration called union members who are fighting for their neighbors ‘domestic terrorists’.”