On Jan. 20, Donald J. Trump was sworn into office as the 47th president of the United States of America. During his inauguration, CEOs Mark Zuckerberg, Tim Cook, Sundar Pichai, Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk were sitting ahead of his cabinet nominees. Does this reflect the incoming administration’s priorities on labor policy?
In the row of his cabinet nominees sat Lori Chavez-DeRemer, Trump’s pick to lead the U.S. Department of Labor. One-term Republican Congresswoman for the Fifth District in Oregon, Chavez-DeRemer has a somewhat pro-labor record on Capitol Hill. She supported the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, legislation that would make it easier to unionize on a federal level. However, the bill never received enough Republican votes in the Senate to avoid a filibuster.
AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler has praised Chavez-DeRemer’s “pro-labor record in Congress” but remains cautious about the Trump administration. Nominating Chavez-DeRemer was a much more moderate choice than many expected for Trump for this position, considering his general support in his previous term for policies that would make it harder for workers to unionize and his criticisms of union bosses on the campaign trail.
During his first term, Trump chose business-friendly appointees to the National Labor Relations Board. Board members and the general counsel of the NLRB are appointed by the president with the consent of the Senate. The board has five members, each appointed for a five-year term, with the term of one member expiring each year. The general counsel is appointed by the president to a four-year term and is responsible for the investigation and prosecution of unfair labor practices.
On the day of his inauguration, Trump named Republican board member Marvin E. Kaplan as chairman of the NLRB. Democrats currently hold a 2-1 majority, but Trump’s nominees for the vacancies will likely turn the tide. The board primarily acts as a quasi-judicial body in deciding cases in administrative proceedings.
Under Biden’s board, many Trump-era precedents were overturned to favor union-friendly policies. The NLRB under Trump is expected to restore these prior precedents. For example, this could include reinstating a more relaxed timeline for union elections, allowing employers to proffer a severance agreement with a non-disparagement provision without violating the National Labor Relations Act and protecting solo protests as “concerted activity” only when accompanied by evidenced group activities.
Trump is also expected to terminate current NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo and replace her with a more pro-employer successor. Biden terminated former NLRB General Counsel Peter Robb shortly after his inauguration, and Abruzzo quickly began reversing policies of the prior Trump administration. The general counsel regularly issues memoranda, setting forth changes to existing law that they would like to see the board implement. Once Trump nominates a new general counsel, it is expected they will immediately rescind many, if not all, of Abruzzo’s memoranda and initiatives.
With a 53-47 Republican majority in the U.S. Senate, Trump’s nominees are unlikely to face any substantial opposition to confirmation. Moments into being sworn in, Trump terminated all remote work arrangements for federal employees in the executive branch, ordered a pause on recruiting federal civilian employees in the executive branch and set new hiring and firing standards for federal employees.
However, not all of Trump’s policy changes will be sustained, as within hours of his signing these directives, lawsuits emerged challenging some of them. Despite potential lawsuits that are likely to arise, the Trump administration will certainly pursue significant changes to labor and employment policies, aspiring to alter the landscape of worker protections and business regulations.
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