Politics and views in the United States.

Labor Day protests aim to give power back to the working people, Trump paints a rosey but questionable picture of the state of labor and research shows low wage workers are falling even further behind their bosses.

TRANSCRIPT

Welcome to 2025 Talks, where we are following our democracy in historic times.

We're going to make Labor Day a day where we stand up and fight.

Jobs with Justice’s Mackenzie Barris says possibly a thousand workers against billionaires and allied protests across the country today support constitutional values and oppose authoritarianism.

We are seeing a full scale attack on our basic democratic rights to come together to collectively work for better conditions through labor unions.

Barrett says the Trump administration has undermined union rights through mass layoffs and by ending bargaining power for federal employees.

The Supreme Court is also declining to review a decision that ruled that states' public sector employees cannot be forced to pay agency fees or dues to a union as a condition of employment.

The country's most conservative federal appeals court has ruled that the body regulating union rights is unconstitutional.

The Supreme Court previously found the 90-year-old law establishing the NLRB to be constitutional, but the Fifth Circuit just ruled against it in a case brought by billionaire Elon Musk's rocket company, SpaceX.

The board itself had been paralyzed by having too few members.

Last month, President Donald Trump appointed two, but they need Senate approval.

Meanwhile, Trump is painting a rosy picture of the state of labor.

Wages for blue collar workers are now rising at the fastest rate in 60 years.

The administration attributes the gains to Trump's focus on manufacturing.

Critics argue it's the result of the Biden administration's economy spilling over into Trump's term.

The number of Americans filing new applications for jobless benefits fell for the week ending August 22nd, but tepid hiring could raise the unemployment rate to 4.3 percent in August.

Analysts say hiring and firing are stagnant amid confusion over Trump's trade policy and domestic demand has also slowed considerably, attributed in part to tariffs.

And it turns out that low-wage workers are falling further behind their bosses.

At a time when many American workers are struggling with high costs for things like groceries and housing.

Low-wage employers are focused on making their overpaid CEOs even richer.

That's Sarah Anderson with the Institute for Policy Studies.

Their research found that CEOs at the largest 100 low-wage corporations listed in the S&P 500 earn more than 600 times that of their lowest paid workers.

Women are leaving the labor force.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics shows more than 200,000 women nationwide have left since January, while about 50,000 men entered.

Sonia Pasi is CEO of Freeform, a nonprofit that helps survivors of domestic violence.

She says true equity in the workforce would require equal outcomes on measures like salary, leadership positions, and assets.

We've moved into an era where we talk about gender equity instead of gender equality.

It's not enough to just say, "Let's all be equal."

And equity really gets at what it would take for us to get there.

Pasi and other advocates say good healthcare and childcare policies could help bring women into the workforce and help them see equal results there.

I'm Mary Sherman for Pacifica Network and Public News Service.

Find our trust indicators at publicnewsservice.org.