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"Rather than standing up for average Americans," said the Independent U.S. senator, the president is "protecting the interests of some of the wealthiest people in the world."
President Donald Trump, by his actions, has revealed his clear dishonesty when he claims to be governing on behalf of American workers and their families.
That's the message at the heart of a statement released Friday by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who cited recent attacks on the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) by the Trump administration and his allies that directly contradict any such claims.
"When Trump campaigned for president, he claimed he was on the side of the working class," said Sanders. "But that’s not what he’s delivering. Rather than standing up for average Americans, he's protecting the interests of some of the wealthiest people in the world."
When Trump, he continued, "fires the most pro-union General Counsel in the history of the NLRB and illegally removes a member of this independent board, he is not a champion of the working class. He is a champion of unfettered corporate greed and union busters."
"When Trump campaigned for president, he claimed he was on the side of the working class. But that’s not what he’s delivering."
—Sen. Bernie Sanders
On Jan. 27, NLRB Commissioner Gwynne Wilcox, appointed to the board in 2021 for a term intended to last through to 2028, was terminated in a move that labor experts said was both unprecedented and unlawful.
Wilcox, who has since filed a lawsuit over her ouster, said in an interview with CBS News on Thursday that she was shocked—as were many others—by Trump's move, which she called a "blatant violation" of statutes that protect members of the board from political interference or reprisal.
"The law is that board members cannot be removed from their position unless they've engaged in neglect or duty or malfeasance, Wilcox explained. "And based upon the letter I received, there was no claim of that. There [wasn't] any cause or any reason that I was actually terminated."
Labor unions and advocates have said the attack on Wilcox represents a full and frontal assault on the ability of workers to organize or for union members to have their disputes or grievances addressed.
"The removal of Chair Wilcox threatens NLRB's independence and endangers working people's rights," said Eric Dean, General President of the Iron Workers Union (IW), in a Friday statement. "We stand in solidarity with Chair Wilcox and call for her immediate reinstatement to safeguard workers' rights."
The IW, which represents over 135,000 ironworkers in North America, said the "inappropriate" removal of Wilcox "has rendered the 5-member board inoperable, shutting down its decision-making ability and jeopardizing the protection of workers."
Sanders, in his remarks, echoed that central concern:
As a result of Trump’s unprecedented move, the NLRB no longer has a quorum and has effectively been shut down. What does this mean? It means that it will be far, far harder for workers to exercise their constitutional right to form a union and improve their standard of living. It means that during a union election, corporate bosses can illegally fire workers who vote to join a union. It means that corporate CEOs have free rein to illegally intimidate and coerce pro-union workers without recourse. It means that corporations can aggressively decide not to bargain in good faith with union workers or sign a first contract.
And because the NLRB is now dysfunctional, workers have no recourse.
Trump’s decision has already had disastrous consequences. Last week, workers at a Whole Foods grocery store in Philadelphia voted 130-100 to join the United Food and Commercial Workers union. But Whole Foods, owned by Jeff Bezos, has made it crystal clear that they will ignore this union victory and will not bargain with their union workers in good faith. Without a functioning NLRB, Whole Foods cannot be held accountable for its illegal behavior.
Sanders singled out Bezos as well as Elon Musk, who has been tapped by Trump to oversee the Department of Government Efficiency( DOGE), which is not an actual department with congressionally-granted authority but has targeted numerous federal agencies over the last two weeks, including the Department of Labor.
"For months, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, the two wealthiest men alive," said Sanders, "have been working overtime to abolish the NLRB. Why is that? These notorious anti-union billionaires want the absolute power to exploit their workers and violate labor law. The lower the wages they pay, the more money they make. Since Election Day, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos have become $184 billion richer and are now worth $669 billion. But, apparently, that’s not enough."
Since Trump's reelection in November, a campaign victory bankrolled by numerous right-wing billionaires like Musk, Sanders has railed against the threat posed by what he has termed an American oligarchy.
Union leaders like AFL-CIO president Liz Shuler have also issued warnings about the erosion of worker protections under Trump.
“The government can work for billionaires or it can work for working people—but not both,” Shuler said on Wednesday ahead of a rally outside the Department of Labor, where DOGE personnel were said to meeting with DOL staffers.
“The government can work for billionaires or it can work for working people—but not both." —Liz Shuler, AFL-CIO
In a recent appearance on MSNBC's "All In With Chris Hayes," Sanders said that while Republicans are in control of both chambers of Congress, those majorities are historically slim and that means lawmakers remain "susceptible to citizen outrage."
Sanders said he wanted the American people, and specifically working families, to understand that they are right to be anxious about the current situation, but that they must mobilize and agitate to make their opposition heard.
"If you see these guys doing something—like wanting to give huge tax breaks to billionaires while they cut Medicare; or they want to go 'Drill, baby, drill' while we happen to be facing an existential threat of climate change; if they want to deport 20 million people in this country—stand up, fight back, we can beat them," said Sanders.
"Let's not act in a hopeless way," he continued, remarking on what can be done in the immediate term. "Longer term, obviously, we have to do what the Democratic Party has not done—and become the party of the working class, develop a strong grassroots movement, with labor unions, with young people, with people of color—and organize and fight back."
"The progressive agenda, and I say this over and over again, is the people's agenda," said Sanders. "It is wildly popular."
"The people who keep our food and medicine safe know more about how to make government efficient than an outsider whose companies benefit from the very agencies he is infiltrating."
As billionaire tech mogul Elon Musk set his sights on the U.S. Department of Labor in his wide-scale ransacking of the federal government, the largest federation of unions in the country made clear at a rally that Musk's Department of Government Efficiency isn't waging an attack on "waste" or bureaucracy—but on working people.
The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) led labor unions and Democratic lawmakers in a gathering outside the Department of Labor (DOL), where employees were notified Tuesday that they would soon be ordered to turn over data to Musk's DOGE operatives, who will be staying at the agency for "an indeterminate period of time."
Those who don't comply, acting Labor Secretary Vince Micone said, could be fired.
At the rally, AFL-CIO president Liz Shuler announced the union's launch of the "Department of People Who Work for a Living"—a new campaign aimed at reporting on DOGE's attacks on working Americans through digital ads and public actions at the agencies Musk's advisory body is attempting to cut.
"Elon Musk and DOGE, they want us to think this is about efficiency, right?" said Shuler. "They want us to think the DOL is some bureaucracy that doesn't matter. That could not be further from the truth. This is about our health, our safety, our fair pay, our jobs, and these are the people who fight for us."
Musk was scheduled to have a "kickoff meeting" with DOL staffers on Wednesday, but Shuler noted that at the last minute, the in-person meeting was switched to a virtual one.
"And it's because you turned up the heat!" said Shuler. "You're making them feel it."
In a statement, Shuler added that "the government can work for billionaires or it can work for working people—but not both."
"We will hold DOGE and Elon Musk accountable because we are certain that the people who keep our food and medicine safe know more about how to make government efficient than an outsider whose companies benefit from the very agencies he is infiltrating," she said.
In recent days, DOGE has set up illegal servers in the Office of Personnel Management; taken control of Treasury Department payment system that contains personal data of millions of Americans who receive Social Security and Medicare benefits as well as other payments; placed nearly all U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) employees on administrative leave and attempted to dismantle the agency while attacking its aid initiatives around the globe; and begun a probe of Department of Education data as the Trump administration prepares to try to shut the agency down.
Musk's companies Tesla and SpaceX have faced multiple federal investigations, including by the DOL, into complaints of unfair labor practices, at least one workplace death, and failures to comply with protocols for protecting state secrets.
In addition to rallying at DOL, the AFL-CIO joined several national unions including the American Federation of Government Employees and Communications Workers of America in filing an injunction against Micone and DOGE, demanding a temporary restraining order to keep Musk and his employees out of the agency.
As In These Times reported, the legal filing warns that "failing to grant the injunction will result in DOGE's unqualified, unelected operatives having access to 'highly sensitive data,' including but not limited to medical and benefits information about all federal workers with worker compensation or black lung claims, the identities of vulnerable workers who have filed wage and hour or occupational safety complaints, and critical Bureau of Labor Statistics data."
At the rally, Shuler applauded workers for standing up in the face of Musk's attempted takeover of the federal government.
"No one voted for this undermining of our rights and that's why were standing up," said Shuler. "Look around. We have power and we're ready to use it!"
"Trump and Republicans are hell-bent on launching an all-out assault on working people and their rights—they're just hoping we don't notice," said Democratic Sen. Patty Murray.
U.S. President Donald Trump's firing of officials on the National Labor Relations Board and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission earlier this week marks another clear indication that he "could not care less about the rights of workers," a top Democratic senator remarked late Tuesday as the implications of the president's moves set in.
"I am extremely alarmed by the unprecedented firings of EEOC commissioners and NLRB members without cause—these are yet more lawless actions by a president who thinks he is above the law," Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said of Trump's termination of EEOC commissioner Jocelyn Samuels, former EEOC chair Charlotte Burrows, NLRB member Gwynne Wilcox, and NLRB general counsel Jennifer Abruzzo—decisions that are expected to spark legal fights.
"These brazen firings undermine not only the will of Congress but these agencies' critical work fighting on behalf of workers across the country," Murray added. "Trump and Republicans are hell-bent on launching an all-out assault on working people and their rights—they're just hoping we don't notice."
Trump's firing of Wilcox and Abruzzo—champions of workers' rights—halted the NLRB's ability to issue decisions, as the board is now without a quorum.
"The board reviews rulings by in-house judges in cases brought by the general counsel," Reutersnoted. "Until it does, those orders cannot be enforced."
News of the firings—which could have sweeping implications for the future of the NLRB and organizing rights—came on the same day the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released fresh data showing that the share of workers who were union members in 2024 fell to a new low of 9.9% even as public support for unions climbed to 70%, close to a record high.
The Economic Policy Institute noted that "although the latest BLS data show a decline in the unionization rate, many workers continued to make organizing gains within auto manufacturing, hospitality, public education, and healthcare."
AFL-CIO president Liz Shuler warned in a statement Tuesday that Trump's firing of Wilcox—who, under federal law, cannot be fired on political grounds—"is illegal and will have immediate consequences for working people."
"By leaving only two board members in their posts, the president has effectively shut down the National Labor Relations Board's operations, leaving the workers it defends on their own in the face of union-busting and retaliation," said Shuler. "Alongside the firing of NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo, these moves will make it easier for bosses to violate the law and trample on workers' legal rights on the job and fundamental freedom to organize."
"Member Wilcox has already indicated she will challenge her firing," Shuler added, "and we fully expect she will succeed in the courts and be restored to her position so she can continue to be a critical pro-worker voice on the NLRB."