In an alarming escalation of the Trump administration’s war on American labor protections, the federal commission responsible for overseeing workplace anti-harassment laws voted 2-1 on Thursday to dramatically undermine enforcement of those laws. Under President Donald Trump, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is being transformed into an anti-democratic weapon that will make millions of workers more vulnerable to harassment in the workplace.
Andrea Lucas, the EEOC’s Trump-appointed chair, has used the specter of “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” to target school boards, universities and law firms. The commission’s basic job has been to protect workers from discrimination, harassment and firing based on their race, age, disability status, sex and other protected characteristics. She has managed to defang the internal oversight authority of the other EEOC commissioners and erase anti-harassment guidance protecting transgender workers.
