(Bloomberg) -- The largest US union federation has been working to equip its affiliates around the country to help defend immigrant workers against potential workplace raids and mass deportation efforts once Donald Trump becomes president this month.
“Immigrant rights are worker rights, and this is a top priority for the labor movement,” AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler said in an interview. The union federation has provided its state and local affiliates with resources to inform immigrant workers of their rights, secure legal assistance and “be ready for the fightback,” Shuler said. “We have a rapid response network on the ground to help workers who are scared and fearful of what’s going to come.”
In recent decades, major unions have been vocal supporters of comprehensive immigration reform proposals that would include pathways to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, while seeking to overhaul guest worker programs they argue give companies too much leverage over employees. Shuler said the AFL-CIO will continue to be vocal about the need for reform in programs like the H-1B skilled worker visa, which has been defended by Trump and Elon Musk and condemned by some of their conservative allies. “These programs are used to exploit workers to hold them hostage to corporations who just want to pay people less,” Shuler said.
The union federation is also readying rapid response plans to defend federal government employees against the Department of Government Efficiency, the budget-cutting task force Trump has tapped billionaire Musk and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy to lead. “We’re preparing for a defensive strategy at the moment, because federal workers will be under attack right out of the gate,” Shuler said. That will include initiatives to highlight employees’ own insights into what would actually boost government efficiency, she said.
Asked about Shuler’s comments, the Trump-Vance Transition sent a statement in which spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said, “President Trump will keep his promise to the hardworking men and women of America by bringing jobs back home, restoring American manufacturing, slashing inflation, and cutting taxes.”
Those efforts underscore the challenge the labor movement faces in Trump, who has campaigned as an ally to union members and succeeded at peeling off some of their votes, but in his first term filled key enforcement posts with business allies who pushed changes giving companies more power over workers. “Corporate control of pretty much everything has skyrocketed, and we’re about to see it go on steroids with our federal government with Elon Musk and his friends coming to Washington,” said Shuler, calling the Tesla Inc. and SpaceX executive the “union-buster-in-chief.” During last year’s presidential campaign, Trump praised the idea of Musk axing workers if they went on strike.
Another transition spokesperson, Brian Hughes, said in an emailed statement that the president-elect “is surrounding himself with industry leaders like Elon Musk as he works to restore innovation, reduce regulation, and celebrate free speech in his second term.”
Musk and the Trump transition team did not immediately respond to inquiries.
As it braces for Trump’s arrival, the AFL-CIO is expanding its ranks. The nearly 2-million member Service Employees International Union voted Wednesday to join the union federation, boosting the AFL-CIO’s size and clout. With SEIU’s affiliation, the AFL-CIO says it will represent nearly 15 million workers, a tally that includes members of its affiliated unions as well as non-union employees who signed up to be part of its advocacy group Working America.
SEIU, the second-largest US union, is the labor group behind the high-profile “Fight For $15” campaign in the fast food industry, and its affiliate Workers United has organized around 500 Starbucks Corp. cafes over the past few years. Its members include many immigrants as well as healthcare workers in Medicaid-funded positions threatened by Musk’s DOGE.
“Joining the AFL-CIO just is another example of amassing our strength, readying ourselves for the fights to come, both defense and offense,” said SEIU President April Verrett, while noting discussion of the affiliation long predated Trump’s win. “This is about doing the work that is needed to undo the 40-year attack on working people.”
(Updated to include comment from the Trump transition team.)
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