Donald Trump’s Project 2025 agenda adds to his long, shameful anti-worker record by attacking the registered apprenticeship system – which benefits workers and employers alike – and replacing it with his failed first term policy that put the interests and pocketbooks of mega corporations over American workers.

Not only does Trump’s Project 2025 agenda include plans to undermine existing pathways to the middle class for millions of American apprentices with a worse-off program, but it could also jeopardize fair overtime pay, roll back safety regulations, undermine workers’ fundamental right to unionize, and even eliminate crucial child labor protections.

By restoring Trump’s failed, anti-worker apprenticeship program, Project 2025 would give big corporations the power to exploit American workers and prioritize big business over everyday Americans.

Center for American Progress: “Project 2025 Would Undermine Registered Apprenticeship System and Put Corporations Over Workers”

“Specifically, Project 2025 seeks to revive a failed Trump administration proposal called the Industry-Recognized Apprenticeship Program (IRAP), which was quickly reversed by the U.S. Department of Labor in 2021 after President Joe Biden took office. The IRAP model sought to eliminate and weaken quality standards and worker protections for apprenticeship programs, including by assigning oversight authority to third-party industry groups. The end result would have been a system that prioritized corporate interests over workers.”

Media Matters: “Project 2025 leader The Heritage Foundation pushes anti-worker apprenticeship and contracting policies”

“The Heritage Foundation — lead organizer of Project 2025, a sprawling effort to provide policy and staffing for a second Trump administration — recently promoted an apprenticeship program that opens up workers to increased exploitation.

“Heritage criticizes what it characterizes as ‘the Biden-Harris Administration’s multi-front assault against apprenticeship programs,’ specifically the administration’s cancellation of “new Industry Recognized Apprenticeship Programs,” or IRAPS […] In fact, IRAPs were a Trump-era policy that created a new class of apprenticeship programs that were controlled and overseen by employers — rather than the Department of Labor — and loosened standards meant to protect workers.”

Texas American Federation of Teachers: “Sounding the Alarm on Project 2025: The Far-Right’s Blueprint to Dismantle Public Education and Workers’ Rights”

“The plan calls for expanding apprenticeship programs outside of the Registered Apprenticeship Program model […] These changes are likely to reduce oversight and quality control of these programs and could harm funding for high-quality apprenticeship programs offered by labor unions like the AFL-CIO.”

Project 2025’s anti-worker agenda goes beyond gutting the registered apprenticeship system — Trump’s extremist policy plan attacks American workers from every angle.

Center for American Progress: “Project 2025’s Plan To Gut Checks and Balances Harms American Workers”

“Project 2025 would pull the rug out from under American workers and make it harder to earn a spot in America’s middle class, all while giving massive tax breaks to the ultrawealthy. […]

“Project 2025 proposes a ban on ‘card check,’ one of the main ways workers can organize a union and bargain collectively for better wages, benefits, and working conditions. The proposal also weakens the National Labor Relations Board’s watchdog role, which would make it harder to form a union and have that union recognized. 

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“According to the AFL-CIO, the plan also ‘make[s] it easier for employers to get rid of workers’ unions in the middle of … contracts.’”

The Guardian: “Trump claims he’s pro-worker. Project 2025 will gut labor rights”

“Project 2025 would shrink many workers’ paychecks by calling for a law that limits when they receive overtime pay – to only when they work more than 80 hours over a two-week period, instead of the current system of working more than 40 hours in one week. That means if an employee works 55 hours one week and 25 the next, that worker won’t qualify for overtime pay, despite working 55 hours one week.

“In another proposal that would slice labor costs, Project 2025 says workers who qualify for overtime pay should be able to choose to receive compensatory time rather than time-and-a-half overtime pay. The project says this idea aims to give workers more time with their families, but many worker advocates say it is a ploy to enable employers to twist workers’ arms so that they take comp time instead of time-and-a-half pay.”

Center for American Progress: “Project 2025 Would Exploit Child Labor by Allowing Minors To Work in Dangerous Conditions With Fewer Protections”

“Despite strong evidence that dangerous child labor can harm young workers, the far-right authoritarian playbook known as Project 2025 proposes eliminating protections against hazardous work for children. Specifically, Project 2025 calls on the U.S. Department of Labor to ‘amend its hazard-order regulations to permit teenage workers access to work in regulated jobs with proper training and parental consent.’ In plain English, revising these ‘hazard-order regulations’ means letting teens work in hazardous jobs.”