Strengthen unions and worker protections against exploitation and AI displacement
A worker alone is powerless against systems that prioritize profit over people. Laws that limit workers' ability to organize don't just affect union members; they suppress wages, reduce benefits, and weaken bargaining power for entire industries and communities. Decades of data show that states with weaker labor protections have lower median wages, higher rates of workplace injury, and wider income inequality than those with stronger ones.
A strong workforce is an organized one. Unions lift wages, secure benefits, and give workers a seat at the table. When unions thrive, so does the middle class. No worker should be forced into poverty while corporations boast record profits. Labor built this nation; labor deserves protection, especially as artificial intelligence technologies threaten to replace millions of jobs nationwide.
A fair wage and a safe workplace should not be a privilege, but rather a right of every employee. Strengthen unions, and we strengthen America. The time to act is now. Project 2029 unequivocally supports strengthening federal protections for labor and collective bargaining, including:
Directing the Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division to aggressively enforce existing federal labor standards, including overtime eligibility rules, minimum wage requirements, and protections against wage theft, which costs American workers an estimated $50 billion annually. The Division's enforcement capacity has been systematically reduced through budget cuts and staffing losses over the past decade, leaving millions of workers, particularly those in low-wage industries, without meaningful recourse when employers violate the law. Restoring full enforcement capacity and directing the Division to prioritize industries with documented patterns of noncompliance is an immediate, cost-effective mechanism to prevent wage theft.
Restoring and strengthening the Department of Labor's 2024 final rule on employee and independent contractor classification under the Fair Labor Standards Act, which was rescinded by the current administration. Tens of millions of American workers, including rideshare drivers, delivery workers, home health aides, and construction laborers, are misclassified as independent contractors by employers to avoid paying them minimum wage, overtime, benefits, and payroll taxes. This misclassification is one of the most pervasive and costly labor law violations in the country, transferring billions of dollars annually out of front-line workers’ pockets. Restoring this rule will ensure that workers who are functionally employees receive the full protections the law entitles them to.
Rescinding Executive Order 14251, which undermines the collective bargaining rights of thousands of federal employees by broadly and arbitrarily excluding entire government departments and subdivisions from the protections of the Federal Service Labor-Management Relations Statute and related provisions. By unilaterally labeling numerous federal agencies as having primary national security functions, this order effectively strips their employees of the ability to unionize, negotiate working conditions, or engage in grievance proceedings. Furthermore, the order allows certain Cabinet secretaries to unilaterally suspend labor protections at their discretion, centralizing power in executive hands and enabling the erosion of labor protections with minimal transparency or accountability.
Restoring Executive Order 14003 to enhance protections for career civil servants and promote collective bargaining rights.
Restoring Executive Order 14055 to require that when a federal service contract expires, and a new contract is awarded for the same or similar services at the same location, the successor contractor must offer employment to the non-managerial employees of the predecessor contractor. This policy protects experienced workers from job loss due to contract transitions and will protect against replacing previous contractors with AI technology. It is also designed to retain experienced workers familiar with federal operations, thereby reducing disruptions and training costs.
Issuing a new Executive Order to strengthen these protections by cementing protections for career civil servants from AI displacement and politically motivated purges. This order must mandate that productivity increases should equally benefit management and workers (by way of either increased pay or reduced work hours for the same pay), ensure collective bargaining rights allow career civil servants to advocate for protection against AI displacement and politically motivated purges, and direct federal agencies to engage in good-faith bargaining with labor unions over “permissive subjects” of bargaining, such as staffing patterns and technology use.
Appointing a National Labor Relations Board General Counsel who is committed to protecting the right of private employees to organize in order to improve their working conditions, penalizing and prosecuting employers that violate the law, speeding up the unionization process, and combating "captive audience" meetings, during which employees are forced to listen to anti-union rhetoric.
Appointing a Secretary of Labor who is committed to publicly advocating against so-called Right to Work laws that weaken unions and supporting federal legislation to remove such laws, in addition to advocating for wage increases and supporting legislation to increase wages, expand overtime protections, and support union organizing and collective bargaining rights.
