St. Paul Regional Labor Federation President Kera Peterson is pictured speaking at the 2022 MN AFL-CIO Convention.
President Trump took his oath of office less than two months ago, and already it’s clear that Project 2025 is, indeed, the blueprint for his second administration. Trump repeatedly denied any ties to the document, which polled poorly among likely voters, on the campaign trail. But even before taking office, he appointed Project 2025 co-author Russ Vought – who has said he wanted federal employees to be “put in trauma” and be “viewed as the villains” – to serve as his budget director. And since Inauguration Day, Trump has signed executive orders straight from the pages of Project 2025, while granting an unaccountable billionaire, Elon Musk, unfettered access to federal agencies and our private data.
Make no mistake: this is all part of the Project 2025 strategy. Trump, Musk and the other MAGA extremists serving in this administration want to exhaust and overwhelm working people from all angles, as quickly as possible, so that we can’t fight back. They want to divide us, distract us and drag us backward. It’s why they are so intent on banning diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives – not just in federal agencies, but also in grants and loans issued by the federal government. It’s why Trump rescinded a 60-year-old executive order requiring equal opportunities in federal contracting. And it’s why they are increasingly threatening local schools and cities – including a direct shot at the City of Saint Paul – for not doing the work of federal immigration agents.
Our labor movement is no stranger to these tactics. Musk and Trump want us scared. They want us to forget the federal workers arbitrarily fired by DOGE and to abandon the students and teachers fearful of ICE raids in their schools. They assure us that the veterans who rely on the VA for care, the workers who look to the National Labor Relations Board for justice and the seniors who rely on the Postal Service for their medication have no reason to worry. But we know that’s not true. These essential services and the workers who provide them are worth fighting for, and the labor movement is, indeed, fighting – in the courts, in Congress and in the streets.
Unions have filed multiple lawsuits since Trump took office. Some have challenged the overreach of DOGE, whose reckless cuts undermine the mission of our federal agencies and put Americans’ health, safety and natural resources at risk. The AFL-CIO has sued to keep DOGE from accessing workers’ private data. Federal workers’ unions have sued to block an executive order rescinding civil-service protections. The American Federation of Teachers has challenged a policy to withhold funds from schools that teach about systemic racism.
As Congress rushes to avoid a shutdown this month, unions are sounding the alarm about Trump’s demand for a $4 trillion tax giveaway to giant corporations and the ultra-wealthy. Republicans have signaled that they plan to pay for it at the expense of working people, with deep cuts to Medicaid and food assistance for children. The cuts will put millions of Americans’ jobs at risk, including nursing home and home care workers who are members of our union family. Nearly 1.3 million Minnesotans rely on Medicaid. A cut this steep – potentially $880 billion – will have ripple effects, as state and local governments try to stretch their budgets to fill in the gaps. That puts all public service workers’ jobs at risk. Taking away people’s jobs, food assistance and health care to pad billionaires’ bank accounts isn’t just bad policy, it’s immoral.
These are chaotic, challenging times. It can feel like a month’s worth of troubling news happens in the blink of an eye. It’s especially important for us to remember, as a labor movement, that our strength is in solidarity and our power is in organizing. Union members can fight back by putting a face to the Trump administration’s reckless actions. Consider speaking up about how federal services benefit your life – or how DOGE’s layoffs have hurt you or someone you care about. The AFL-CIO is collecting stories through its cheeky, newly launched Department of People who Work for a Living. The site also features resources for keeping track of what’s happening and ways working people can link up and fight back. And perhaps now more than ever, it’s important to contact our members of Congress, regardless of their party affiliation. Demand that they uphold their oath to the Constitution, and tell them to put workers over billionaires – always.
– Kera Peterson is president of the Saint Paul Regional Labor Federation, AFL-CIO.
Union Advocate 