In response to Donald Trump slashing worker protections, DNC Chair Ken Martin released the following statement:

“Donald Trump is betraying America’s workers by forcing people to choose between a paycheck and their safety. Slashing basic protections like standards to ensure roofs don’t collapse, minimum wage for home health care workers, and proper lighting in a construction site won’t make workers safer or small businesses stronger — it will just make greedy corporations richer. Trump continues to needlessly risk American lives to make it easier for the ultra-wealthy to cut corners and line their own pockets.” 

NEW: Donald Trump and his Department of Labor are planning to roll back dozens of critical worker protections. 

CBS News: “Labor Department looking to lighten workplace regulation with sweeping rules changes and repeals” 

“The U.S. Department of Labor is aiming to rewrite or repeal more than 60 ‘obsolete’ workplace regulations, ranging from minimum wage requirements for home health care workers and people with disabilities to standards governing exposure to harmful substances. … 

“Under one of the Labor Department’s proposals, an estimated 3.7 million workers employed by home care agencies could be paid below the federal minimum wage – currently $7.25 per hour – and made ineligible for overtime pay …

“[T]he Labor Department would rescind a requirement for most employer-provided transportation to have seat belts for those agriculture workers.

“The department is also proposing to reverse a 2024 rule that protected migrant farmworkers from retaliation for activities such as filing a complaint and testifying or participating in an investigation, hearing or proceeding. …

“[OSHA] wants to rescind a requirement for employers to provide adequate lighting at construction sites …

“Several proposals could impact safety procedures for mines. … employers have to submit plans for ventilation and preventing roof collapses in coal mines for review by the Labor Department’s Mine Safety and Health Administration. … 

“The Labor Department wants to end that authority … 

“[T]he department is proposing to strip district managers of their ability to require changes to mine health and safety training programs.” 

REMINDER: During his first term, Trump repeatedly broke his promises to workers across the country.

CNN: “Trump told GM workers he could save their plant, but it’s gone for good”

Washington Post: “Trump promised this Wisconsin town a manufacturing boom. It never arrived.”

Fox Business: “Electric truck company touted by Trump as ‘an incredible concept’ files for bankruptcy”

MLive: “On the 2016 campaign trail in Warren, Trump pledged ‘you won’t lose one plant’ if he were elected. GM announced last year it would end production at five North American plants.”

Trump already moved to close dozens of mine safety offices — endangering coal miners across the country — and rolled back safety measures for coal miners during his first term. 

Charleston Gazette-Mail: “An Attack On All Workers’: Cuts To NIOSH In Morgantown, Mining Research Panned.”

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: “Deep Fear In Coal Country: DOGE Cuts Put Region’s Miners And Families On Edge.”

“The Department of Government Efficiency, created by President Donald Trump and run by Elon Musk, has been targeting federal agencies for spending cuts. That includes terminating leases for three dozen offices in the Mine Safety and Health Administration, the agency responsible for enforcing mine safety laws.”

Louisville Public Media: “Hundreds of employees at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health were laid off this week, including researchers that monitor the health of coal miners. Scott Laney worked at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health for nearly 20 years. It’s part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services tasked with keeping Americans safe at work.”

NBC News: “Trump says he loves miners. Critics say he’s putting their lives in danger.”

Reuters: “The head of the U.S. federal agency in charge of mine safety said on Thursday he has no plans to fast-track new limits for coal miner exposure to silica dust because he believes exposure rates are already falling.

“The comments come as the national coal miners and steel workers unions urge the Trump administration to regulate silica on the basis of research showing it is causing a resurgence of black lung disease among coal miners in central Appalachia here.”