Worker Policy Watch
Your source for accurate and reliable information on how federal policies are shaping workers’ rights—and what’s at stake for working people nationwide under the Trump administration.
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Under Trump, National Labor Relations Board Rescinds Policy Guidance on Unlawful Severance Agreements
Trump-appointed leadership at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) rescinded many of the policy memos issued by former NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo. This rescinded memo (GC 23-05) provided guidance to employers on implementing the Board’s February 2023 McLaren Macomb decision. In that case, the NLRB ruled that employers cannot force their employees to waive their rights under the NLRA as a condition of a severance agreement.
Impact:
General Counsel memos provide policy guidance to NLRB field staff, workers, and employers that indicates how the general counsel understands the law and plans to apply it. The rescission of this memo by Acting General Counsel William Cowen is a signal that a Trump-appointed majority on the Board will likely reverse course and cease to protect workers from being forced to choose between their legal rights and receiving a workplace benefit. Trump accelerated the path to achieving a majority on the Board through the unprecedented firing of Board Member Gwynne Wilcox, which is being challenged in court.
Under Trump, National Labor Relations Board Rescinds Policy Guidance Making Board Operations More Effective
Trump-appointed leadership at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) rescinded many of the policy memos issued by former NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo. These rescinded memos included directives that dealt with improving transparency and efficiency (GC 25-03), tracking employer compliance with Board orders (GC 23-07), fast-tracking important or complex cases to the full Board for resolution (GC 21-04, GC 23-04), administering mail ballots for union elections (GC 21-01), and setting appropriate timelines for resolving cases (GC 22-05). Acting General Counsel William Cowen also rescinded memos related to cooperation with other workplace agencies (GC 22-03) and the handling of requests for case data from other agencies (GC 23-03).
Impact:
General Counsel memos provide policy guidance to NLRB field staff, workers, and employers that indicates how the general counsel understands the law and plans to apply it. These rescinded memos included common sense reforms, like removing arbitrary deadlines and instead setting timelines for case resolution based on the case’s complexity, allowing for higher quality work. The policies dealing with interagency cooperation were also critical to supporting the NLRB’s collaboration with federal agencies to protect undocumented workers who faced unfair labor practices from immigration enforcement, so that workers could come forward and enforce their rights without fear of deportation.
Under Trump, National Labor Relations Board Rescinds Policy Guidance on Union-Busting Captive Audience Meetings
Trump-appointed leadership at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) rescinded many of the policy memos issued by former NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo. This rescinded memo (GC 22-04) urged the Board to codify the right of employees to abstain from captive audience meetings, a coercive anti-union tactic where employers convene mandatory meetings to push anti-union messages. The Board ultimately did find these meetings to be unlawful under the National Labor Relations Act in November 2024.
Impact:
General Counsel memos provide policy guidance to NLRB field staff, workers, and employers that indicates how the general counsel understands the law and plans to apply it. The rescission of this memo by Acting General Counsel William Cowen is a signal that a Trump-appointed majority on the Board will likely reverse course and cease to protect workers from captive audience meetings. Trump accelerated the path to achieving a majority on the Board through the unprecedented firing of Board Member Gwynne Wilcox, which is being challenged in court.
Under Trump, National Labor Relations Board Rescinds Policy Guidance on Key Labor Enforcement Mechanisms
Trump-appointed leadership at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) rescinded many of the policy memos issued by former NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo. This includes several memos focused on how the Board can use creative remedies to compensate workers harmed by illegal employer practices (GC 21-06, GC 21-07, GC 22-06, GC 24-04), memos focused on the ability of the Board to order employers to halt ongoing illegal practices and allow organizing activity to continue (GC 21-05, GC 22-02, GC 23-01, GC 24-05), and ensure that any settlement between workers and employers is fair to the workers and the public (GC 25-02).
Impact:
General Counsel memos provide policy guidance to NLRB field staff, workers, and employers that indicates how the general counsel understands the law and plans to apply it. With the rescission of these memos by Acting General Counsel William Cowen, workers will face an environment where it is even harder for them to enforce their right to organize. NLRB field offices may use fewer creative remedies to compensate workers, making it less costly for employers to engage in illegal retaliation. The Board may no longer use injunctions to halt and prevent illegal union-busting in progress. And the agency will likely no longer stand in the way when employers force workers to accept unfair settlement agreements.
Under Trump, National Labor Relations Board Rescinds Policy Guidance on Exploitative “Non-Compete” and “Stay-or-Pay” Agreements Between Employees and Employers
Trump-appointed leadership at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) rescinded many of the policy memos issued by former NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo. These rescinded memos sought to address unlawful and overbroad “non-compete” and “stay-or-pay” agreements between employers and employees where workers are either restricted in which jobs they can take or forced to pay their employer a monetary fee or payment in the event that they leave their job.
Impact:
Imposing so-called “non-compete” and “stay-or-pay” agreements on workers interferes with an employee’s right to take collective action to improve their working conditions because such agreements are coercive and can have a chilling effect on worker organizing and worker job mobility. Employers now have more ability to impose these exploitative restrictions and payment schemes on their workers.
Under Trump, National Labor Relations Board Rescinds Policy Guidance That Student Athletes Have Rights to Collectively Bargain and Join a Union
Trump-appointed leadership at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) rescinded many of the policy memos issued by former NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo. This rescinded memo (GC 21-08) states that student athletes were statutory employees under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) and therefore subject to the rights and protections under federal labor law, including the right to engage in union activities.
Impact:
General Counsel memos provide policy guidance to NLRB field staff, workers, and employers that indicates how the general counsel understands the law and plans to apply it. With the rescission of this memo by Acting General Counsel William Cowen, student athletes will no longer be considered employees under the National Labor Relations Act. This means that student athletes will no longer be recognized by the NLRB and academic institutions as having rights and protections to collectively bargain to improve the terms and conditions of their work as student athletes.
Trump Administration to Fire 200,000 Federal Workers Still On Probation
The Trump administration orders the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to begin firing federal workers still in the multi-year probationary period, risking severe disruption of critical work across government agencies.
Impact:
Around 200,000 federal workers could be targeted for firing. This is a reversal of an earlier OPM directive that initially ordered agencies to begin firing federal workers on probation for “poor performance.” The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), the largest federal employee union, has pledged to fight back against this latest assault on federal workers.
U.S. Department of Justice Will No Longer Defend Independence of Federal Agencies, Including EEOC and NLRB
In an unprecedented attack on the rule of law, Trump fired members and commissioners of several independent federal agencies, including the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the National Labor Relations Board as well as agencies that protect civil servants and other federal employees. Trump-appointed leadership at the U.S. Department of Justice changed the department's historic position and now asserts that the rules protecting those officials from being fired for political reasons are unconstitutional.
Impact:
These agencies were designed by Congress to be independent and bipartisan and their officials are not part of the president’s cabinet. Their independence is a core part of their mission to protect working people - just as the independence of the U.S. Department of Justice is a core part of its mission.
Trump Seeks to Turn a Wide Range of Non-Partisan, Civil Service Federal Jobs into Partisan Appointments
The Trump administration has submitted draft regulations to eliminate civil service protections for a wide range of non-partisan, civil service federal employees so that they can be fired and replaced by partisan appointees. Federal employees enjoy civil service protections so they can perform their work objectively, without fear of reprisal for not following a political agenda, and be honest brokers to the general public.
Impact:
The Trump administration is seeking to aggressively gut and control the federal government in unprecedented and apparently unlawful ways, including by gutting civil service jobs. Several lawsuits have been filed by labor unions and worker organizations challenging the Trump administration Executive Order seeking to reclassify federal workers under the so-called “schedule F” making it easier for them to be fired.
Trump Orders More DOGE Oversight and Drastic Reduction of Federal Workforce
The Trump administration’s latest executive order plans for massive layoffs of the federal workforce and authorizes DOGE oversight for hiring of vacant positions within federal agencies.
Impact:
This executive order is another attempt to gut the federal workforce by ordering agencies to prepare for "large scale" layoffs and requiring that agencies “hire no more than one employee for every four employees that depart.” This is all being contemplated without any regard for the civil service protections that these workers have--namely the right to keep their jobs absent just cause to fire them--and without regard for the important functions civil servants perform that protect the health, safety, economic security, and general well-being of the public.