Originally at https://www.afscme.org
Donald Trump and his allies want to eliminate AFSCME.
Questioning the need for public service unions is only part of Trump’s plan for a second term. His plan — all 900 pages of it — would take power away from working people and give him unprecedented levels of control over our lives.
Known as “Project 2025,” this radical agenda, designed to be set in motion on Day One of a new Trump administration, was written by top Trump advisers.
AFSCME research shows Project 2025 would hurt working people by:
- Allowing states to ban labor unions in the private sector.
- Making it easier for corporations to fire workers who engage in collective action or organizing.
- Allowing corporations to get rid of unions even when the workers are protected by a signed union contract.
- Forcing workers to hold secret ballot elections to form a union even when their employer has agreed to voluntarily recognize it.
- Eliminating overtime protections for workers.
- Ignoring the federal minimum wage.
- Eliminating the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program, which has relieved many AFSCME members of an overwhelming student debt burden.
- Ending merit staffing in the federal government so Trump can hire unqualified loyalists for thousands of positions now filled by qualified, trained, nonpartisan career employees — among them AFSCME members.
- Gutting health care and retirement benefits. Eliminating federal rules that protect children from working in mines, meatpacking plants and other dangerous workplaces.
But Trump’s attacks on workers and our unions are only one front in Project 2025’s attack.
Our research shows the draconian blueprint for Trump’s second term includes hundreds of extreme policy recommendations that would, among other things, transform the entire federal government, gut health care and retirement benefits, destroy public education, wreck the economy, and wreak havoc with reproductive rights and immigration — all designed to crush our freedoms and benefit the wealthy at our expense.
What’s more, Project 2025 would also eviscerate Biden administration programs and policies that AFSCME members overwhelmingly support and fought for:
- If this plan is implemented, Trump would undo the progress we’ve achieved under the Biden administration in reducing prescription drug costs, and he would repeal the $35 per month cap on insulin costs for seniors on Medicare.
- He would also end the government’s ability to negotiate drug prices with Big Pharma and end Medicare’s $2,000 per year cap on out-of-pocket drug costs that begins in 2025.
- Project 2025 would put an end to the Head Start program, which serves more than 833,000 children living in poverty across the country; many AFSCME members also work as Head Start educators.
The best way to block this roadmap for an imperial presidency is to defeat Trump and his MAGA allies during the upcoming elections. Vote for pro-worker candidates at every level of government in November!
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