The Economic Policy Institute’s Senior Policy Analyst Margaret Poydock told Truthout that these moves are “aimed at gutting the federal workforce and politicizing the career civil service.”
According to a recent report from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), “extending employment insurance to strikers would cost less than 1% of total UI expenditures in each state that has considered such legislation.” The EPI report also claims that such policies “help stabilize the economy by keeping dollars flowing to communities where a strike is taking place,” and that such policies would oblige employers to “engage workers more earnestly at the bargaining table, knowing that they can’t rely on threats to starve workers out by forcing a strike.”
Less than a month into his second term, President Trump has undertaken dozens of actions that harm workers, the economy and our democracy. If it feels like déjà vu, it is. Many of these actions were introduced during his first term, when President Trump attacked unions, workers’ wages and workplace health and safety. But now, equipped with policies from the Heritage Foundation’s far-right Project 2025, Trump is going even further to prioritize the interests of corporations and billionaires like Elon Musk over working people.
As the nation marks a turbulent Black History Month, the economic state of Black America has much improved over the last few decades but is still nowhere near parity.
A court hearing today will determine whether the group — along with union affiliates and the Economic Policy Institute — can truly halt Elon Musk’s advances.
The issue has also been taken up at the state level, with bills introduced in about 20 states, according to the think tank the Economic Policy Institute, a vocal opponent.
EPI contends few workers would benefit from removing taxes on tips because lower-income workers would not likely meet income thresholds needed to qualify. And it would create new avenues for tax avoidance that could deplete state and federal budgets.