The Trump Administration’s Global Labor Policy Has Hurt Workers in the U.S. and Abroad

US President Donald Trump’s domestic policies have been painful for workers in the United States. His foreign policy followed suit. Nationally and internationally, this administration has undermined workers’ rights, destroyed institutions that enforce labor standards, and targeted labor unions, to the detriment of the working class everywhere.

Trump has pursued the most aggressive anti-labor policies of any administration in more than a generation. In addition to eliminating wage increases and federal regulations that protect workers’ rights and safety, it will likely have put more than 300,000 federal employees out of work by the end of 2025. It has stripped nearly half a million workers of collective bargaining rights and abandoned enforcement of labor standards that ensure workers go home safe at the end of the day with the wages they deserve.

US President Donald Trump’s domestic policies have been painful for workers in the United States. His foreign policy followed suit. Nationally and internationally, this administration has undermined workers’ rights, destroyed institutions that enforce labor standards, and targeted labor unions, to the detriment of the working class everywhere.

Trump has pursued the most aggressive anti-labor policies of any administration in more than a generation. In addition to eliminating wage increases and federal regulations that protect workers’ rights and safety, it will likely have put more than 300,000 federal employees out of work by the end of 2025. It has stripped nearly half a million workers of collective bargaining rights and abandoned enforcement of labor standards that ensure workers go home safe at the end of the day with the wages they deserve.

Before January, she served as former President Joe Biden’s chief diplomat for international labor policy at the State Department. Our team realized that those working in the United States were capable of this only It thrives if workers across the global economy can exercise their rights – especially their right to organize.

Trump has taken the opposite approach. Just as this administration works to silence the voices of workers at home, it also silences their voices in international forums. Earlier this year, the administration barred representatives of the AFL-CIO — the country’s largest union confederation — from joining the official U.S. delegation to the annual conference of the International Labor Organization (ILO). Since 1919, employers, governments and workers have set global labor standards at these regular meetings. But last June, the most representative labor organization in the United States had no voice in key negotiations focused on gig economy standards and workplace safety. Likewise, when the United States hosts the G20 presidency in 2026, for the first time in nearly two decades, it has not announced plans to highlight any discussion of labor or employment issues.

The ILO is the largest independent organization that collects labor and economic data worldwide. With this information, the ILO develops policies and programs in cooperation with governments, employers and workers in an effort to benefit countries around the world, including the United States. For example, the ILO has established programs as part of trade agreements with countries such as Cambodia, Jordan, and Haiti that work to promote labor standards and compliance with internationally recognized labor rights abroad. The ILO also played a crucial role in ending state-imposed forced labor in Uzbekistan’s cotton export industry. Earlier this year, cuts in US foreign aid to the International Labor Organization led to the loss of 225 jobs globally.

In recent years, US diplomacy and global action programs have enabled independent experts and analysts to collect sensitive information and publish reports that have helped guide pro-labor policies domestically and through multilateral institutions such as the International Labor Organization. These efforts also helped secure Congressional passage of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, landmark bipartisan legislation that prevents billions of dollars worth of imports made by Chinese forced labor from entering the United States.

Now, Trump has eliminated dozens of foreign policy staffers who were dedicated to promoting human rights, including workers’ rights and labor standards. He suddenly cut more than $700 million in technical assistance programs funded by the State Department, the Labor Department, and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). These programs promoted workers’ rights by combating forced labor, union busting, and violence against workers. These practices are widespread around the world, not only harming workers but also creating an unfair competitive advantage for the companies and countries in which these practices occur. Ultimately, these harmful tactics foster a race to the bottom in working conditions across global supply chains, harming U.S. companies and workers alike.

When Trump cut these programs, many front-line advocates lost their jobs, and many workers lost their only source of support. The message was clear: workers and their heroes no longer enjoyed the protection or political support of the United States government. Whatever pro-labor concessions the Trump team claims to have obtained from tariff negotiations ring hollow when the United States has no power to enforce them. The Trump White House has done more damage by demanding that the EU rescind a 2024 corporate due diligence requirement that targets human rights (and labor rights) abuses in global supply chains.

As a result of Trump’s cuts, already vulnerable people face greater risks. US-funded international labor programs previously supported garment workers in Central America and South Asia, places with some of the highest rates of violence against workers and labor activists.

The union organizer who was brazenly murdered outside a factory in Bangladesh in 2023, and the union leader who was murdered in Guatemala in 2024, were affiliated with labor organizations that depended on American support. US programs provided legal support and capacity building for workers and unions organizing under serious threats and dangerous conditions. A USAID work program in Bangladesh, which congress has supported for more than a decade, has empowered women garment workers to address workplace violence, negotiate collective bargaining agreements, and engage effectively with their employers. Now, these programs have had to stop abruptly, leaving workers to fend for themselves.

The United States has also supported workplace safety in hazardous sectors such as critical mineral extraction in Indonesia and Zambia. One Indonesia-based program helped workers in nickel smelters, where fires can be fatal, learn occupational health and safety precautions. Trump ended all of these programs. Another canceled program involved combating the use of forced labor in Cambodian cyber scams, scams that resulted in millions of dollars being stolen from elderly Americans.

To understand how radical the attack on workers is now, it is useful to compare it to the recent Trump administration. Congress then appropriated $180 million to reform worker rights and standards in Mexico as part of the United States-Mexico-Canada Trade Agreement (USMCA). These funds helped prevent labor rights abuses in the supply chains of US companies that pass through Mexico. It contributed to ensuring benefits for more than 43,000 workers, including dozens of reinstatements due to wrongful termination of their employment. Nearly $6 million in back wages to workers; Free and fair union elections. For example, the United States-Mexico-Canada Compact case paved the way for GM workers in Silao to elect their first independent labor union, which negotiated a new collective bargaining agreement that included wage increases for most workers of more than 10%.

Why are these measures important for American workers? By addressing workplace abuses abroad, Washington helps level the playing field for workers and companies in the United States. That’s why American companies supported these government programs. This is also why bipartisan congressional support for international labor rights programs has increased in recent years. Without US funding for global labor, American trade will not serve and will not benefit the country’s workers and companies.

Without the resources needed to support effective labor enforcement and advocacy, labor violations will continue unchallenged. While the State Department falsely claims to care about and act on behalf of American workers, the President continues to disenfranchise the country’s workforce, demonize their organizations, and eliminate global labor policies that help workers everywhere thrive.