Trump and Musk Are Rolling Back Federal Worker Protections. Here’s How Cities Can Fight Back.

How Philadelphia is fighting back against Trump’s anti-worker crusade

by Kendra Brooks, Philadelphia City Councilmember (originally published in The Nation)

There’s no bad time to stand up and protect the rights of workers, but there’s no better time than right now.

In just the first few months of his term, Donald Trump has dismantled the Department of Labor, illegally fired the former head of the National Labor Relations Board, dismissed hundreds of thousands of federal workers without regard for their union contracts, and now is attempting to end collective bargaining rights for federal workers completely.

We’re fighting against that here in Philadelphia—in partnership with domestic workers, union members, and my colleagues in the Philadelphia City Council. And what we’re doing can be a model for cities all across the country.

One of our main initiatives is to expand protections for our 750,000 workers, and to make sure the city of Philadelphia has the tools and resources needed to protect its workers, and hold accountable bad actors who break the law. Cities across the country who want to follow suit should be looking to strengthen local labor policies and ensure effective enforcement.

If we are going to successfully take on the greed of the billionaires and corporations, we need to lead with our values and put them at the front of our local policy fights. Trump and Musk might not care about workers, but the Working Families Party and our allies who helped with this legislation certainly do.

That’s why I introduced the Protect Our Workers Enforce Rights (POWER) Act along with 13 of my colleagues. It’s the most significant legislation to offer sweeping protections for workers since Trump’s election. The legislation passed earlier this week with the support of the National Domestic Workers Alliance, AFL-CIO, and Black and brown worker advocates across Philly.

Philly is a union town. We have deep roots in struggles for dignity, respect, and the pro-worker laws that make it possible to escape poverty, raise a family, and live a good life. This includes recently passed legislation for a fair work week, higher wages for airport and security workers, and one of the first Domestic Worker Bill of Rights in the country. As a city councilor and former domestic worker, I wanted to strengthen and update our current laws while making sure workers are protected from retaliation and can more easily assert their rights on the job. Philadelphians work hard every day. And we need to provide them with the protections they deserve when they go to work.

With this legislation, we’re seizing the moment by making our Department of Labor more proactive, more transparent, and more responsive to the needs of everyday workers. This bill prevents retaliation against workers who assert their rights, enacting stronger legal safeguards for workers and steeper financial penalties for employers who break the law. It allows workers to receive direct financial support when employers violate their rights, where previously all financial penalties went solely to the city—as well as strengthens our Department of Labor, enabling more thorough and proactive workplace investigations and allowing the department to suspend the business licenses of bad employers. It also gives workers the option of pursuing private rights of action, and mandates more public reporting, including a “Bad Actors Database,” which lists employers with three or more violations, providing more public accountability for employers that break the law.

POWER also raises the hourly rate for paid sick leave for tipped workers, and certifies immigration protections for workers facing abuse or other violations.

Corporate-backed politicians and their billionaire allies are waging a war on working people across the country. And with the Republican trifecta in DC, it’s clear that the federal government won’t save us. It’s on us, at the city level, to step up.

As we speak, we’re barely 100 days into this administration. But one thing is already clear: The billionaires running our country don’t care about workers. In the face of Trump’s dismantling of worker protection and pro-union precedents, we cannot idly sit by. Elected officials must use all legal and legislative options to push back and protect working people on the city level—regardless of what Trump does.

Kendra Brooks serves as the Minority Leader on the Philadelphia City Council. She is the first Working Families Party member elected to City Council.