PUTTING WORKERS FIRST?

Who are the Trump Administration & Congress (really) fighting for?
"Every decision . . . will be made to benefit American workers."
- President Trump, Inaugural Address, Jan 20, 2017
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Week 197
Oct 28, 2020

Eastern District Court of CA halts Trump’s USDA decision to stop collecting farmworker pay data.

  • For over a century, the USDA has conducted a survey twice per year to determine wage rates for those enrolled in the H-2A guest worker program. The reporting from this survey is used to determine wages for those enrolled in the program. Trump's USDA announced in September that the agency would not be conducting the fall survey or report.
  • The court's decision to prevent the USDA (through a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction) from cancelling the survey will prevent thousands of farmworkers from receiving inadequate pay.
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H-2A, USDA
Week 174
May 20, 2020

USDA and FDA enter into an MOU that aims to keep Farms and Food processing companies operating during the pandemic without protecting workers.

  • The agreement admits that outbreaks of COVID-19 among workers at food processing facilities or among harvesting crews could lead to reduction in food production capacity. But nothing in the MOU indicates any willingness to seek to protect the food system by preventing outbreaks of COVID-19 among farmworkers and other food workers.
  • The Trump Administration has made clear that it is unwilling to protect farmworkers and other agricultural workers who it may force to work during the pandemic.
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Health and Safety, Immigrant Workers, USDA
Week 166
Mar 26, 2020

Trump’s USDA still focused on privatizing meat inspection even during COVID-19 crisis.

  • The USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), approved a regulatory waiver for a Tyson meat plant in Kansas in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. The waiver was issued under the Salmonella Initiative Program (SIP), which allows a regulatory waiver from FSIS if internal safety data is shared with the agency.
  • Meat plants are already grappling with efforts to keep their workers safe during the COVID-19 crisis. Prioritizing de-regulation, especially in the middle of a public health emergency, is a danger to consumers and workers.
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coronavirus, Health and Safety, USDA
Week 139
Sep 17, 2019

USDA finalizes swine inspection rule that jeopardizes worker and consumer safety.

  • Trump's USDA claims to be "modernizing" swine slaughter plants with the implementation of a new rule that increases line speeds, but in reality, the agency is endangering consumers, workers and the animals being slaughtered.
  • This rule will lead to an increase in packinghouse worker injuries. It is the first time in history that factory line speed limits have been removed from slaughterhouses. The rule also reduces the number of government plant inspectors by 40% and allows companies to create their own food safety testing programs.
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Health and Safety, USDA
Week 110
Feb 28, 2019

USDA allowing poultry plants with injury records to circumvent rules and speed up lines.

  • USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service has been approving requests to waive line speed restrictions at poultry plants that have a history of severe worker injuries.
  • Allowing plants that have documented instances of severe worker injuries to increase line speeds will lead to more injuries, and allows plants to sacrifice worker safety for production.
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Health and Safety, USDA
Week 88
Sep 27, 2018

Trump Administration violates their own rules and the Administrative Procedures Act by implementing policy that allows poultry plants to increase line speeds.

  • This policy provides an exemption to poultry plants seeking to circumvent the law by applying individually to be exempt from the 2014 rule that limited line speeds for worker safety.
  • Increased line speeds are threat to the health and safety of workers and consumers.
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Health and Safety, USDA
Week 64
Apr 11, 2018

Trump Administration orders review of all safety net and social insurance programs, with eye toward imposing work requirements on all program participants.

  • The so-called "Reducing Poverty in America" initiative will do just the opposite. It will plunge more people into poverty by stripping low-income and unemployed people of the benefits and payments that help them afford food, housing, health care and other much-needed income supports.
  • This executive order fails to consider barriers to obtaining meaningful employment, such as racial and gender bias, mental health issues, arrest records and complicated family structures.
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HHS, HUD, USDA
Week 57
Feb 23, 2018

USDA announces criteria to be used in illegal waiver program in poultry

  • USDA announces criteria it will use in granting waivers from line speed limits in poultry plants
  • Workers in poultry plants given line speed waivers will experience more repetitive stress injuries
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Health and Safety, USDA
Week 54
Feb 01, 2018

New USDA proposal removes limits on hog processing line speeds.

  • Agency's proposal endangers workers by allowing plants to aggressively increase already high line speeds.
  • Endangers workers in an industry already suffering twice the serious workplace injury rate as all other industries.
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Health and Safety, USDA
Jan 30, 2018

USDA rejects poultry industry’s petition to aggressively speed up factory lines but announces that it will make available criteria for additional waivers of line speed limits.

  • Today, in a bit of welcome news, the U.S. Department of Agriculture rejected a poultry industry petition to aggressively increase line speeds at poultry plants around the country but it indicated that it would announce specific criteria by which operators may apply for waivers on an individual basis.
  • The decision means that not all of our nations 250,000 poultry processing workers will be subject to even faster line speeds, saving them from even more repetitive stress injuries. But individual operators may get illegal waivers.
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Health and Safety, USDA
Week 38
Oct 13, 2017

Trump administration considers industry request to greatly speed up poultry lines.

  • Agriculture department considers baseless request from industry group seeking to relitigate an established rule and remove line speed limits for certain plants.
  • Exemption from this duly adopted Obama-era rule would endanger both workers and consumers alike.
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Health and Safety, USDA
Week 17
May 21, 2017

Trump administration’s proposed budget puts low-wage workers last.

  • President proposes a budget slashing work supports like health care while paving the way for arbitrary or even punitive work requirements that don't actually help job seekers.
  • The proposed budget includes $800 million in cuts to Medicaid, along with $193 million cut to SNAP over the next 10 years.
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Benefits, Budget, DHHS, Legislation, USDA
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