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by evil-olive 487 days ago
> Most other employment law issues are regulated at the state level.

this is just flat-out not true. look at the NLRB [0] and OSHA [1] for the two most obvious examples of the federal government regulating employment conditions.

there is certainly lots of employment regulation that also happens at the state and local level, but why is that an argument in favor of not doing federal regulation?

eg, if I'm working in North Dakota and get injured on the job, then yeah the state government will adjudicate my worker's comp claim, and generally speaking the feds don't need to get involved.

however, if the company I work for in ND requires me to sign a non-compete contract that supposedly applies in all 50 states, and might prevent me from moving to South Dakota or another state - how is that not a concern of the federal government? this is interstate commerce, which the constitution very explicitly gives the federal government power to regulate.

0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Labor_Relations_Board

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupational_Safety_and_Health...

2 comments

Both organizations are widely expected to vaporize, or at least become completely useless. As far as the administration is concerned, they are waste, fraud, and abuse.
To be fair, any R president would have done this. The pendulum goes back and fourth…
Many Republican Presidential candidates campaigned on promising this, but in office they are least tried to govern. The voters got fed up and voted for someone who genuinely did want to destroy it.
Disagree, I don’t think Trump campaigned on abolishing OSHA, for example. I had people telling me not to take some of his more “out there” statements too seriously. Others telling me democrats were inciting division for simply pointing out that Trump seemed inclined to destroy the federal government — not to mention the lies about Project 2025.

My point is that while many like these changes, others definitely didn’t expect it to go this far. So let’s not act like most Americans actually want this.

That’s my point, the difference here is not the policy goal, it’s the execution.

I see a lot of people acting as if the aims of Trump are some big departure. In fact they have been mainstream R goals for a long time.

Let's be honest, the other party wasn't much better. Lots of talk about "womens healthcare", but not a peep about funding OSHA properly. Me? Brought in to clean up after a major incident that made the regional news and cost the taxpayer ~ 2 millions.
Tangentially related:

"Republican Pressure to Disband OSHA Rises Amid Sweeping Trump Orders": https://www.inc.com/kit-eaton/republican-pressure-to-disband...

"NLRB Lacks Quorum to Exercise its Authority Following President Trump’s Removal of Member; The President Also Dismissed NLRB General Counsel Abruzzo": https://www.stinson.com/newsroom-publications-nlrb-lacks-quo...