We need to alert you about the Heritage Foundation's "Project 2025," a strategic plan they aim to implement if Republicans win the White House in 2025. This plan is outlined in their "180 Day Playbook," which you can find in full here. They use a variety of threats, such as those posed by the Chinese Communist Party and principles like Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) and Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG), to justify a significant and systematic "deep state purge" of federal workers and programs.
They have already created a Presidential Personnel Database for quickly filling administration positions and a Presidential Administration Academy to prepare appointees through certification programs. This playbook outlines general threats to the nation and specific threats to UFCW and its members.
General Threats to the Nation
While every administration selects political appointees, Project 2025 goes further by targeting civilian positions, which is unprecedented. They suggest that Executive Branch workers must follow the President's orders, even if believed to be unconstitutional. The plan claims a "divine" mandate to restore the "American Way," proposing shifts in agency rulemaking to partisan entities and officials, reducing key worker protections due to Congressional gridlock.
For example, they propose weakening the Federal Election Commission (FEC) and shifting authority to the Department of Justice (DOJ), increasing political appointee influence over federal elections. They promote conspiracy theories about federal agencies and justify weakening the Center for Disease Control (CDC), making it harder to issue guidelines like mask mandates.
The military is also targeted, accused of being "woke" and blamed for low recruitment due to its commitment to climate change and critical race theory, proposing to replace high-ranking officials with loyalists.
Threats to UFCW Members
The legalization of employer unions – what they call “Employee Involvement Organizations” (EIOs). This would weaken all unions – especially private sector unions like UFCW, by giving employers the ability to steer their employees away from independent, member run organizations and toward those that they have complete control over.
· Elimination of temporary protected status (TPS), and potentially even the H-2 visa program.
· Calling on Congress to consider whether “public unions are appropriate in the first place.”
· SNAP reform, including increased hurdles in program eligibility, and even removing the nutrition title from the Farm Bill. It is this inclusion that once ensured passage of the bill as it included bipartisan interests.
· Weaker meat labeling and inspection regulations.
· A role for religious organizations in the Department of Labor including making it harder for workers seeking an abortion, special protections for religious employers, and expanding a religious organization’s ability to administer job training (even their own anti-union industry-recognized apprenticeship programs or IRAPs).
· Expansion of the Office of Labor Management Standards (OLMS), with an emphasis on cracking down on unions, rather than employers and employer organizations.
· Eliminating the persuader rule, card check recognition, project labor agreements, and the Davis-Bacon Act.
· Promoting a tax structure that continues to shift the burden away from corporations and onto individuals by capping employer tax incentives for employee benefits at $12,000.
· Eliminating any fund, including pension funds, from incorporating any investment strategy outside of investor risks and returns.
· Weakening or potentially eliminating the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) ability to enforce antitrust laws.
· Weaken our meat inspection and product of origin labeling laws, endangering our food supply.
· Eliminate data collection from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission – meaning the Department of Labor will no longer be able to conduct adequate research on discrimination at the workplace.
· Eliminate electric vehicle incentives and mandates, such as the requirement that their batteries are built in the United States with union labor.
Outlook
This plan represents a significant threat to our union, members, and democracy. We need to be prepared to address member concerns about issues like China, ESG, and DEI, as these will dominate political discourse. While this plan is published by the Heritage Foundation, it is heavily influenced by the former Trump administration, with many contributors being former Trump staffers.
If Republicans regain the White House, UFCW must be ready for the worst of this gameplan. Whether adopted entirely or piecemeal, it will hinder our ability to work effectively and erode democratic institutions. Let's stay informed and united in facing these challenges.