From today’s ABC News:
In recent years, the labor movement received a makeover. A surge in organizing and a swell of popularity coincided with the tenure of President Joe Biden, who some labor leaders have praised as the most pro-union president in the nation’s history.
The impending arrival of President-elect Donald Trump has thrust some of those gains into question, experts told ABC News.
Trump’s first term featured a weakening of labor regulations and the appointment of pro-management officials in key positions, experts said, voicing expectations of a similar approach when Trump returns to office.
Such changes would likely make it more difficult for workers to form unions and negotiate workplace improvements, but the labor movement may withstand those headwinds since many of the factors that have driven its growth remain in place, experts said.
“It’s going to be a dramatic change,” Paul Clark, professor of labor and employment relations at Pennsylvania State University, told ABC News. “But I don’t think you’ll see that momentum reverse overnight. In the long run, it’s harder to say.”
Soon after he takes office in January, Trump is expected to replace National Labor Relations Board General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo, who has enforced federal policy in a manner widely viewed as pro-union.
The move would mirror a similar action taken by Biden, who fired then-NLRB General Counsel Peter Robb on Biden’s first day in office. Trump may also opt to remove Democratic members of the NLRB’s five-person board, though such a move could face a stiff legal challenge, experts said.
Read the complete story here.