The United States Department of Labor plans to repeal or rewrite more than 60 work-related regulations. These essential workplace rules include minimum wage protections for home healthcare workers – who provide vital services, especially as assisted living and other healthcare-related services become increasingly expensive – and for people who work with a disability. In addition, the regulations under attack currently provide protections against exposure to harmful substances and other unsafe working conditions as well as the prohibition of retaliation against those who report wage theft, discrimination, or other workplace violations. The Federal regime’s planned rollback, if adopted, also would dramatically reduce accountability when employees suffer injuries or are killed while working.

At the same time, the current Federal administration also has escalated the campaign against unions and workplace democracy more broadly. As an example, the current Federal administration issued Executive Order No. 14251 to strip most Federal employees of collective bargaining rights. This extreme action follows the mass layoffs of approximately 300,000 long-serving and highly dedicated public servants who have worked in key areas across the Federal government. The AFL-CIO and other labor and public-interest organizations are challenging these anti-worker policies, asserting among other things that the Federal regime’s actions are unconstitutional as well as arbitrary and capricious.