By David K. Shipler
Making America Cruel Again, Part 2 of an Occasional Series
One of the
many peculiarities of Donald Trump’s presidency is how deftly he stabs workers
in the back while making many of them think he’s on their side. He’s given
“I’ve got your back” a new meaning.
His
administration is dismantling environmental protections for laborers,
decimating job safety regulations, and attacking the livelihoods of many of
them by triggering tariffs on US goods going to Canada, the European Union, and
China. Most of this destruction can be repaired in time once Democrats return
to power in the White House and Congress. But more durable damage is being done
by the Supreme Court, and there is surely more to come as Trump tees up for his
second court appointment.
His first pick, Neil Gorsuch, is
remarkably hostile to workers’ rights, and he has been so since before he
ascended to the Court. He wrote the 5-4 majority opinion this term in Epic v. Lewis, stripping employees who
are forced to sign arbitration agreements from any recourse in the courts over
unfair labor practices. And he joined the 5-4 majority in Janus v. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees,
stripping public employees’ unions of their ability to collect dues from all
workers who profit from the salaries, vacations, health insurance, and other benefits
negotiated through collective bargaining.
Gorsuch’s position should have come
as no surprise. In a 2016 dissent as an appeals court judge in the Tenth
Circuit, he went through bizarre legal acrobatics to uphold the firing of a
truck driver who opted to leave his cargo rather than freeze to death on a
winter night in Illinois.
When the brakes on his trailer
froze, the driver, Alphonse Maddin, phoned for help from his company, Trans Am
Trucking, and waited several hours for a repair truck. He was practically out
of fuel, the auxiliary power heater for the cabin was broken, and he began to
show dangerous signs of succumbing to the subzero temperatures. His cousin, who
called him, said that his speech was slurred. His feet felt numb, and breathing
was difficult. Finally, in desperation, he unhitched the tractor from the
trailer and drove toward safety, returning 15 minutes later after being
informed that the repair truck had arrived. He was then fired.
