The AFL-CIO, the nation’s largest labor federation, gave the Republican Congress a failing grade for its first 100 days, saying the GOP’s deregulatory zeal is undermining worker protections.
The federation was particularly incensed that it had rolled back so many rules that the AFL-CIO had lobbied former President Barack Obama’s administration to make.
“During the first 100 days, the House voted 15 times and the Senate 13 times to wipe out Obama-era regulations that were protecting Americans from workplace hazards. They even removed one rule that requires corporations to simply keep accurate records of injuries, so they can be avoided in the future,” said Bill Samuels, the AFL-CIO’s director of legislative policy.
Samuels slammed the effort to repeal Obamacare and place Judge Neil Gorsuch on the Supreme Court, calling him a “champion for corporate America.”
He also criticized the appointment of Betsy DeVos as education secretary, saying she had “spent her billions undermining public education and attacking teachers.” DeVos is an advocate of charter schools, which teachers’ unions hate because they are harder to organize than traditional public schools.
