The National Labor Relations Board is being turned into a weapon against workers.
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) was created to protect workers’ rights—not to destroy them. But nearly six months into Donald Trump’s second term, the agency is being hollowed out, kneecapped, and weaponized against the very workers it was meant to protect. It’s a textbook example of Project 2025 in action.
Trump’s first move? Firing longtime labor champion Gwynne Wilcox. The three-person Board, which needs at least three members to issue decisions, now has just two—making it effectively paralyzed and unable to enforce even basic worker protections.
Inside the agency, the damage is palpable. “I came to the NLRB to help protect workers and uphold labor law,” said one anonymous program assistant in The Nation. “Now it feels like the agency’s been turned into a hammer that employers can use to smash organizing efforts.”
And that hammer is only getting heavier. Trump has nominated Crystal Carey, a management-side attorney with a long résumé of defending corporate interests, to serve as General Counsel. With Republican control of both chambers of Congress, her confirmation seems inevitable.
This isn’t an accident—it’s the plan. Project 2025, the far-right Heritage Foundation blueprint for dismantling government as we know it, explicitly calls for eviscerating the NLRB. Trump is delivering.
Case investigations, such as those involving Tesla’s toxic work environment, are gathering dust. The Board can’t enforce rulings. Budget cuts and hiring freezes have halted enforcement and led to mass attrition. Career staff are watching the mission they signed up for unravel.
And it’s not just the NLRB. The Trump Administration is gutting the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and union protections for over a million federal employees.
Federal unions are fighting back in court. But with a right-wing Supreme Court that upheld Wilcox’s firing, the future looks grim.
While Trump and his allies are fast-tracking Project 2025’s anti-worker agenda, unions must prepare for the long fight ahead because the war on labor isn’t coming. It’s here.
