Unions Continue to Convince Themselves They’re Better Off Long Term with Trump in the White House

March 9, 2017 / ,

Maybe a profoundly anti-worker Trump administration is just what American labor needs – a galvanizing force, and a defined target – is the thought process coming from many in the labor movement today. They then start to list the many areas of labor law that changed under President Obama and that are ripe for changing back to what they were pre-Obama. For example:

  • The make up of the NLRB. The term of the sole Republican Obama-appointed Philip Miscimarra expires in late 2017, as does that of general counsel Richard F. Griffin, Jr. That means President Trump will be in a position to radically reshape the NLRB with three board appointees and a new general counsel in his first year.
  • Quickie Elections. This change sped up the calendar for union-recognition campaigns and reduced companies’ ability to fight of the effort. A major win for unions.
  • Joint Employer. The NLRB made great strides in making franchisors share responsibility for the treatment of workers by franchisees. The same is true for the staffing industry where user and supplier companies are now more easily defined as joint employers.
  • Right to Work. Slightly more than half of the states in the U.S. have Right to Work laws allowing employees to decide if they want to be in a union and pay union dues. If a state is not Right to Work, then all employees working in a classification covered by the collective bargaining agreement must be in the union to work at that company. There is a movement at the federal level for a national Right to Work law which could get enough support within Congress and the Trump administration to pass.

So, says the labor movement, maybe a profoundly anti-worker Trump administration is just what American labor needs – a galvanizing force, and a defined target. And by expanding and building on the successful fights for higher minimum wages, labor can remind workers that the more they fight together, the more they gain together. Maybe. Or maybe unionization rates will continue to plummet year after year after year….

Matt Austin owns Austin Legal, LLC, a boutique law firm based in Ohio that limits its representation to employers dealing with labor, employment, and OSHA matters. You can call Matt at (614) 285-5342 or email him at Matt@MattAustinLaborLaw.com.