For Immediate Release

WASHINGTON, DC – As President Trump was sworn in today surrounded by billionaire friends who stand to benefit the most from his Project 2025 agenda, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) warned that working people will pay the price for his day one executive actions.

“From filling the government with his political allies to threatening vital programs like Medicaid to cut taxes for corporations and the wealthy to imposing steep tariffs that will raise the cost of everyday goods, it's clear that Donald Trump intends to be president for the privileged few and not the many,” said SEIU International President April Verrett. “His actions will hurt working people who have been demanding unions, lower prices, higher wages and affordable care. On a day on which we honor Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., we recommit ourselves to upholding his legacy of fighting for racial and economic justice for all working people. Our fight continues, we won’t back down.”

SEIU stands with the immigrant workers targeted by President Trump, who invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to criminalize immigrant families and execute his mass deportation agenda.

“Immigrants are essential,” said SEIU Secretary-Treasurer Rocio Sáenz. “They contribute tremendously to our economy and to our communities -- as careworkers, janitors, building security, disaster response workers, agricultural workers and more. So-called leaders have tried to blame immigrants for all of society’s problems, but we will all suffer greatly if these workers are suddenly uprooted from our communities."

Trump’s day one Executive Orders (EOs) included the following anti-worker measures:

• Rolling back job protections and attacking collective bargaining rights for federal workers, including turning some into at-will employees, which would silence workers’ voices, pave the way for the rampant mistreatment of federal workers and threaten the quality of federal services that Americans rely on.

• Calling for numerous measures to terrorize immigrant workers, families and communities and force them further underground, destabilizing essential services, threatening major economic shock, and putting workers at risk of being racially profiled. Ending birthright citizenship, which punishes people whose right to be called Americans is enshrined in the 14th amendment.

• Rescinding more than 70 Biden EOs, including paving the way for drug companies to undermine lower negotiated drug prices under Medicare and potentially making it more difficult for Americans to qualify for and keep their healthcare through Medicaid.
  

Representing 2 million service and care workers, SEIU has committed to winning a future in which every worker can join a union, with living wages and benefits that enable them to live a full and productive life. The union recently announced its reaffiliation with the AFL-CIO, creating a unified labor movement that is more than 15 million strong. In 2024, worker-led victories included a $20 minimum wage and a seat at the table for California’s fast food workers; restored union rights for Michigan home care workers and the repeal of the state’s right-to-work law; Massachusetts’ rideshare workers winning the right to unionize; 500 Starbucks stores voting to unionize, and more.

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