Trump using Dept. of Labor to attack workers, not to defend us

Bill Knight column for Oct. 18, 19 or 20, 2018

The federal Department of Labor for decades was the agency responsible for defending labor law and, by extension, U.S. workers who were supposed to be protected by the National Labor Relations Act, OSHA and various regulations.

Under the Trump administration, however, it seems as if the Labor Department is TARGETING workers, not PROTECTING them.

Last month, the Department of Labor (DoL) took steps to impose certain Christian tenets on employment policies by means of new guidelines and a new administrator.

Workers will be the most affected, followed by taxpayers.

First, “religious freedom” advocate Steven Begakis in August was appointed policy adviser to the DoL’s Wages & Hours Division, which supervises issues such as employment discrimination, family leave, and wage theft. Begakis is a conservative lawyer who’ll help set policies covering areas such as wage equality and family leave.

With policymakers like him, who needs union-busters?

Begakis’ appointment followed DoL’a Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs’ Aug. 10 announcement directing staff “in all their activities ... [to] take into account recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions and White House executive orders that protect religious freedom,” citing cases involving Hobby Lobby and a cake shop, plus other lawsuits that claimed that a fundamentalist brand of Christianity was being suppressed by laws requiring employers to make birth-control available to women workers or equal rights for gay Americans.

To be clear, “religious freedom” in such a context means special consideration for one variation of one faith.

With little subtlety, the directive encourages contractors to discriminate against gay and transgender Americans – and other religions, frankly – based on narrow interpretations of Christianity.

“This is an attempt to encourage business to take taxpayer dollars and then fire people for being transgender,” commented Harper Jean Tobin of the National Center for Transgender Equality. “Religious organizations have ample protections under federal law, but they are not allowed to use federal money to discriminate against people. The language of this directive is so broad and so vague because it is part of a long line of attempts by this administration to sow confusion and encourage any employer to act on their worst prejudices.

“No employers should be allowed to use taxpayer dollars to fire someone because of who they are,” Tobin added.

Indeed, as a group, federal contractors make billions of dollars in taxpayer-funded work – work that is supposed to be governed by strict rules concerning fair business practices.

The new policy and new hire could result in U.S. taxpayers of all faiths, sexual preferences, gender identification – as well as age, race, class, etc. – paying companies to discriminate against fellow U.S. citizens.

The Department of Labor’s moves come on the heels of Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ Aug. 1 establishment of a “Religious Liberty Task Force” in the Justice Department, and the Department of Health & Human Services’ spring announcement of an HHS rule permitting the imposition of religious viewers on patients’ health care.

Government is increasingly being used not as a shield, but a weapon.