House Votes to Block Trump’s Union-Busting, but Senate Fight Looms

As seen in People's World:

In a significant rebuke to the Trump White House, the House of Representatives passed the bipartisan Protecting America’s Workforce Act (H.R. 2550) before year’s end, voting to reverse the Trump administration’s executive order that stripped collective bargaining rights from over a million federal workers. The 231-195 vote, forced by a discharge petition, marks the first legislative move to overturn a Trump order this term.

The bill’s passage is a result of the sustained pressure by federal worker unions and their allies. As it stands now, this represents an important defensive victory against what has been rightly called “the single largest act of union-busting in American history.”

Trump’s executive orders to bust the federal unions, with the stroke of a pen, were yet another phase of a long-running campaign by the ultra-right to weaken public sector unions. It is also a central pillar of the racist and anti-worker Project 2025 blueprint pursued by hardline factions within the ruling class. Nearly 20% of the federal workforce are African-American.

While the passage of the bill in the House is a necessary first step, the terrain of struggle now shifts to the Senate, where the battle will be tougher. The need for a mass mobilization campaign from labor is a necessity if the bill is ever to make it over the finish line.