It's no coincidence that Trump is attacking unions as the GOP cuts health care
Wisconsinites know: union-busting is a strategy to undercut all opposition
At a hospital in Madison, nurses are on strike. From the White House, Trump is gutting workers’ rights. And in Congress, Republicans are plotting mammoth cuts to health care.
These fights are interlinked.
In Madison, nurses at UnityPoint-Health Meriter Hospital went on strike on Tuesday, with a labor action slated to run through tomorrow after months of negotiations in which management refused to include safety standards and patient-staff ratios in the contract. If you’re in the area, you can join their actions on Saturday morning—sign up here.
Meanwhile, Trump signed an executive order refusing to honor collective bargaining for public sector employees—the biggest act of union-busting in American history. This illegal order is now tied up in court; we have to hope it will be struck down.
At the same time, Trump fired the chair of the National Labor Relations Board—leaving the top labor court without a quorum to hear cases.
The NLRB firing—which most observers and lower courts also considered illegal—has been upheld by an unsigned Supreme Court opinion, dangerously undermining the authority of independent agencies generally & devastatingly harming labor rights in our country.
These attacks are patterned on Scott Walker’s attacks on unions in 2011. There’s a reason autocrats try to crush unions first: unions build the power of working people. And that power is essential to democracy.
And then there’s the third front: the Medicaid cuts.
Voters are furious. They point out that when you cut health care, people lose their lives.
One Republican Senator’s response: “Well, we’re all going to die.”
Most Americans don’t want health care cuts. But attacks on Medicaid don’t hurt the rich. If you take away the political power of working people, it’s easier to loot the working class in order to extra-enrich the already wealthy.
That’s how these agendas fit together: crush unions, slash health care, and hand the plunder to the billionaires who fund Republican campaigns.
All of that brings us back to the Meriter nurses’ strike. Everyone benefits when hospitals work with nurses to raise the bar on safety and improve staffing—unless your only value is counting pennies.
When I joined the picket line as the strike kicked off early Tuesday morning, nurses shared their stories. I heard from the nurses about how they loved their jobs, how dedicated they were to caring for their patients, and how infuriating it was for management to refuse to even negotiate on questions that affect their work and their patients’ lives every single day.
Let’s stand with the SEIU nurses fighting for what’s right. And, as Democrats, let’s fight for a country where the dignity and voice of working people—and respect for the unions through which they take action—is honored, not undermined.
You can help fuel our WisDems year-round grassroots organizing and help us reach our end-of-month fundraising goal as we gear up for a blue trifecta in 2026. Chip in here.
When I worked in the hospital we used to say “Staff it or close it down”. Too many medical errors are made when healthcare workers don’t have adequate staffing.
You put out more information than the DNC. Thank you.