On May 23, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) released its FY 2026 budget proposal. There are many things about the document that don’t add up. The new leadership proposes a $14 million budget cut from an agency that has been woefully under-resourced for more than a decade. The proposal acknowledges that the NLRB will lose almost 10 percent of its staff through the recent “fork in the road” resignation program and its push for voluntary early retirements, but predicts it will somehow successfully complete more cases with less money and fewer people. While this mystifying math alone is enough to raise concern, the document is hiding a more subtle policy change that should raise alarm bells for anyone who cares about workers’ rights.
The budget justification states that “The NLRB’s FY 2022–2026 Strategic Plan . . . which guides the agency’s program and budget decisions, contains four goals designed to objectively measure the Agency’s success in achieving its mission.” This is inaccurate. The agency’s FY 2022–2026 Strategic Plan—which used to be readily available on the agency’s website with other strategic plans, but is now a bit harder to find—actually contains five strategic goals. The fifth goal—the one swept under the rug by the agency’s new leadership—is to “Improve public awareness of the Agency’s mission and its activities.”
This area of the agency’s work included important initiatives—mostly focused on informing workers of their rights under law—that a reasonable person might find uncontroversial, such as:
- increasing the amount of information available on the agency’s website;
- expanding and broadening the agency’s use of social media to reach more of the public;
- expanding the digital resources available for non-English speakers and improving the accessibility of the agency’s website for persons with disabilities;
- expanding agency outreach programs and know-your-rights education efforts to better include historically marginalized populations, immigrant populations, and youth; and
- engaging in outreach and know-your-rights education activities with other federal agencies and embassies.
The NLRB’s new budget justification does not acknowledge—much less give a reason for—its silent elimination of this important part of the agency’s agenda. It could be a victim of the Trump administration’s misguided efforts to eradicate programs that support diversity, equity, and inclusion in the federal government. It could be a reflection of their unabashed antagonism toward immigrant workers. Regardless of the motivation, the detrimental effect is the same. All workers, regardless of their race, nationality, or citizenship status, will suffer if public education and know-your-rights programs at agencies like the NLRB are abandoned.
Why Know-Your-Rights Outreach Is Important
No one benefits when workers don’t know their rights and can be more easily abused—except for unscrupulous employers. Making workers more vulnerable by keeping them uninformed allows employers to undercut labor conditions, depriving workers of overtime pay and safe working conditions. Young workers, workers with limited English proficiency, or workers who are new to an industry or occupation can all be easy prey for victimization. These vulnerable workers suffer, and when they are abused, it lowers labor standards for everyone.
Know-your-rights education is particularly important when it comes to the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), because of the breadth of the protections the act provides. Unlike laws that are specific to particular workplace issues—such as the Occupational Safety and Health Act for workplace safety, or the Fair Labor Standards Act for wages and overtime—the NLRA protects workers’ right to join together and discuss or raise concerns about any workplace-related issue. Whatever workers care about—from unfair scheduling practices to unequal pay to lack of adequate safety equipment—the NLRA gives them the right to raise these concerns with their employer in a collective fashion. Union and nonunion workers alike all benefit from these broad protections.
To be clear, the NLRA is also the only federal law that can give most private-sector workers a path to a true voice in the workplace: union representation. At a time when more and more workers view unions favorably and are increasingly open to potentially choosing union representation if they could, it is critically important that all workers know that they have the right to unionize and how to do so.
Informing Workers of Their Rights Has Wide, Bipartisan Support
Indeed, there’s bipartisan acknowledgment that workers deserve to know their labor rights. Recent polling by the conservative-leaning American Compass Institute showed that an overwhelming majority of Americans—including a majority of Democrats, Independents, and Republicans—would support a law requiring employers to post a notice of workers’ rights under the National Labor Relations Act in workplaces. Requiring employers to inform workers of their rights has always been a part of the PRO Act, a labor law reform bill supported by Democrats, and a proposal to create such a requirement was also included in the “pro-worker” framework of reforms supported by Senator Josh Hawley (R–MO).
It’s not just workers who benefit from robust public outreach—responsible employers are also aided by the NLRB’s outreach efforts. Most employers want to comply with workplace laws, but many employers—especially small businesses—may not be aware of the scope of the NLRA’s protections or how to respond when workers raise workplace concerns or voice their support for a union. The NLRB’s public outreach efforts have always included robust efforts to educate employers and assist them in complying with the law to avoid inadvertent mistakes and legal liability.
It is commonsense good government to make more information available to the public on an agency website, or to make sure that information is available in a variety of languages and accessible to people with disabilities. Similarly, it should not be controversial for an agency that protects the public to prioritize interacting with the public, and making sure that workers and businesses alike know their rights and obligations under the law. Nobody benefits when the public is kept in the dark about the law, and certainly no one benefits when a critical agency like the NLRB covertly shelves its emphasis on public outreach without any reason or opportunity for the public to weigh in.
Deputy Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling recently opined on social media that “Federal agencies have a duty to provide easy-to-understand guidance to everyone.” While Deputy Secretary Sonderling does not oversee the NLRB, the same principle should apply to all worker protections agencies—and part of that duty is providing easy-to-understand and accessible guidance to workers about their rights under the law. One would hope that Mr. Sonderling’s colleagues at the Trump NLRB share his views, and will reexamine their commitment to this critical aspect of the agency’s work.
Tags: unions, nlrb, workers rights, donald trump
Why Doesn’t the Trump NLRB Want Workers to Know their Rights?
On May 23, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) released its FY 2026 budget proposal. There are many things about the document that don’t add up. The new leadership proposes a $14 million budget cut from an agency that has been woefully under-resourced for more than a decade. The proposal acknowledges that the NLRB will lose almost 10 percent of its staff through the recent “fork in the road” resignation program and its push for voluntary early retirements, but predicts it will somehow successfully complete more cases with less money and fewer people. While this mystifying math alone is enough to raise concern, the document is hiding a more subtle policy change that should raise alarm bells for anyone who cares about workers’ rights.
The budget justification states that “The NLRB’s FY 2022–2026 Strategic Plan . . . which guides the agency’s program and budget decisions, contains four goals designed to objectively measure the Agency’s success in achieving its mission.” This is inaccurate. The agency’s FY 2022–2026 Strategic Plan—which used to be readily available on the agency’s website with other strategic plans, but is now a bit harder to find—actually contains five strategic goals. The fifth goal—the one swept under the rug by the agency’s new leadership—is to “Improve public awareness of the Agency’s mission and its activities.”
This area of the agency’s work included important initiatives—mostly focused on informing workers of their rights under law—that a reasonable person might find uncontroversial, such as:
The NLRB’s new budget justification does not acknowledge—much less give a reason for—its silent elimination of this important part of the agency’s agenda. It could be a victim of the Trump administration’s misguided efforts to eradicate programs that support diversity, equity, and inclusion in the federal government. It could be a reflection of their unabashed antagonism toward immigrant workers. Regardless of the motivation, the detrimental effect is the same. All workers, regardless of their race, nationality, or citizenship status, will suffer if public education and know-your-rights programs at agencies like the NLRB are abandoned.
Why Know-Your-Rights Outreach Is Important
No one benefits when workers don’t know their rights and can be more easily abused—except for unscrupulous employers. Making workers more vulnerable by keeping them uninformed allows employers to undercut labor conditions, depriving workers of overtime pay and safe working conditions. Young workers, workers with limited English proficiency, or workers who are new to an industry or occupation can all be easy prey for victimization. These vulnerable workers suffer, and when they are abused, it lowers labor standards for everyone.
Know-your-rights education is particularly important when it comes to the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), because of the breadth of the protections the act provides. Unlike laws that are specific to particular workplace issues—such as the Occupational Safety and Health Act for workplace safety, or the Fair Labor Standards Act for wages and overtime—the NLRA protects workers’ right to join together and discuss or raise concerns about any workplace-related issue. Whatever workers care about—from unfair scheduling practices to unequal pay to lack of adequate safety equipment—the NLRA gives them the right to raise these concerns with their employer in a collective fashion. Union and nonunion workers alike all benefit from these broad protections.
To be clear, the NLRA is also the only federal law that can give most private-sector workers a path to a true voice in the workplace: union representation. At a time when more and more workers view unions favorably and are increasingly open to potentially choosing union representation if they could, it is critically important that all workers know that they have the right to unionize and how to do so.
Informing Workers of Their Rights Has Wide, Bipartisan Support
Indeed, there’s bipartisan acknowledgment that workers deserve to know their labor rights. Recent polling by the conservative-leaning American Compass Institute showed that an overwhelming majority of Americans—including a majority of Democrats, Independents, and Republicans—would support a law requiring employers to post a notice of workers’ rights under the National Labor Relations Act in workplaces. Requiring employers to inform workers of their rights has always been a part of the PRO Act, a labor law reform bill supported by Democrats, and a proposal to create such a requirement was also included in the “pro-worker” framework of reforms supported by Senator Josh Hawley (R–MO).
It’s not just workers who benefit from robust public outreach—responsible employers are also aided by the NLRB’s outreach efforts. Most employers want to comply with workplace laws, but many employers—especially small businesses—may not be aware of the scope of the NLRA’s protections or how to respond when workers raise workplace concerns or voice their support for a union. The NLRB’s public outreach efforts have always included robust efforts to educate employers and assist them in complying with the law to avoid inadvertent mistakes and legal liability.
It is commonsense good government to make more information available to the public on an agency website, or to make sure that information is available in a variety of languages and accessible to people with disabilities. Similarly, it should not be controversial for an agency that protects the public to prioritize interacting with the public, and making sure that workers and businesses alike know their rights and obligations under the law. Nobody benefits when the public is kept in the dark about the law, and certainly no one benefits when a critical agency like the NLRB covertly shelves its emphasis on public outreach without any reason or opportunity for the public to weigh in.
Deputy Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling recently opined on social media that “Federal agencies have a duty to provide easy-to-understand guidance to everyone.” While Deputy Secretary Sonderling does not oversee the NLRB, the same principle should apply to all worker protections agencies—and part of that duty is providing easy-to-understand and accessible guidance to workers about their rights under the law. One would hope that Mr. Sonderling’s colleagues at the Trump NLRB share his views, and will reexamine their commitment to this critical aspect of the agency’s work.
Tags: unions, nlrb, workers rights, donald trump