Trump’s War on Workers
- Pamela Cross
- May 1
- 3 min read
As someone who grew up in Southern Ohio, the tales of Appalachian labor history were all around. Learning about the miners who risked their livelihood as well as their very lives to win the right to organize, I can’t help but see the parallels of the current administration echoing the dangerous and exploitative past. With Donald Trump again occupying the highest office in the United States, it’s imperative that we take a hard look at his record and the very real threat this administration poses to unions, working families, and the rights our relatives in the not-so-distant past fought and died to secure.
Looking at the big picture, unions are the backbone of the American middle class—they've secured living wages, safer working conditions, health care, and retirement benefits for millions of Americans. Here in Appalachia, they are deeply woven into our history. The Battle of Blair Mountain in 1921 saw over ten thousand coal miners in West Virginia rise up against oppressive conditions despite facing private detectives, federal troops, and even aerial bombings just for the right to unionize. Similarly, the Harlan County War in Kentucky during the 1930s was a drawn-out struggle between coal companies and miners who dared to demand fair pay and humane working hours. These weren’t simple labor disputes, they were fights for dignity and survival.
Today we face a new threat to those hard-earned rights—subtler, but no less insidious. Donald Trump, despite his frequent claims of being a champion of the working man, has done more to undercut the labor movement than any president in recent history. His administration’s policies seek to weaken union protections, dismantle workplace safety regulations, and allow corporations to silence workers who might speak out against unjust treatment.
Since returning to office in January 2025, Donald Trump has issued several executive orders that significantly impact federal employee unions and workers' rights. These actions have raised concerns among labor unions and workers' rights advocates.
Trump has also appointed a deeply anti-union majority to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the agency responsible for protecting workers’ rights to organize. Under Trump, the NLRB issued decisions that made it harder for workers to form unions, easier for employers to retaliate against organizing efforts, and more difficult to hold companies accountable for violating labor laws. One decision even allowed employers to remove union representatives from job interviews—a move that has weakened the very foundation of collective bargaining. This has been criticized by labor unions—the AFL-CIO has called it “the very definition of union-busting".
Trump’s department of Labor has consistently sided with big business. They have delayed and diluted Obama-era rules that would have expanded overtime pay to millions of workers. They also rolled back rules requiring transparency from companies engaging in anti-union activities, making it easier for corporations to hire “union avoidance consultants” without public disclosure.
What does this mean for working folks? Especially those of us in rural and post-industrial communities here in Scioto County? It means that under another Trump administration, we can expect more attacks on the right to organize, more power handed over to corporations, and fewer protections for those of us just trying to earn a decent living. These executive orders and the attacks on unions don’t just affect federal workers or big cities, here in Appalachia we know all too well what happens when labor is crushed and workers are trampled by corporate greed—wages stagnate, jobs become more dangerous, and communities suffer. The legacy of the fight for a safe and fair work environment here is sacred. The blood spilled at Blair Mountain and Harlan County wasn’t for nothing—it was for a future where workers had a voice.
That future is at risk.
As we crawl toward the next election cycle (devastatingly the midterms aren’t until next year but don’t worry, I’ll remind you), it’s more important than ever that we support candidates who stand with workers—not just in words but in action. We need leaders who will not leave the working class behind.
Trump has shown us who he is. He is a friend of corporate power, of union-busting, and of polices that hurt the very communities he claims to champion. We owe it to the coal miners of West Virginia, to the miners and the brave women who organized the strikes in Harlan County, and to every working family still fighting to make ends meet, to speak the truth about Trump’s record. And to fight like hell to protect what they built.
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