Watch: Trump, neoliberal populism and labour law: lessons for the UK?

One of the first things Donald Trump did when back in office was to sack Jennifer Abruzzo, General Counsel of the US National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), because of the anti-union busting policies the Board had adopted in recent years.  Trump’s critics warn that he is clearing out all political resistance, which may include working people and their organisations, the trade unions. The funding provided to Trump’s election campaign by Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and other anti-union billionaires – and the central role in government given to Musk is telling.

In Argentina, Milei’s neoliberal reforms are not only drastically cutting up the state, they are attacking trade union power, collective bargaining, and labour rights. Neoliberalism there, could be paving the way for a period of right-wing populism and authoritarianism.

This kind of authoritarianism is always a concern when it comes to considering the effects the political environment will have on labour law, workers’ rights and civil rights in other countries. Authoritarianism appears now to be a creeping spectre at home in the UK too, in terms of exercising civil rights, and against support of internationalism.

In the UK, the Employment Rights Bill is currently hanging in the balance between being delivered in earnest or watered down at the behest of big business. But a look at the US and Argentinian situations, and other international examples, may indicate some of the potential pitfalls and possibilities for workers in the UK and their organisations when considering how to unshackle themselves from the constraints they currently find themselves in.

Prof Matthew Finkin and Dr Julieta Lobato unpack these important topics, with the IER’s Professor Keith Ewing in the Chair:

• Prof Matthew Finkin, the University of Illinois USA – a well-respected expert and author on U.S. domestic and comparative labor law, who has won several awards for his well-recognised work.
• Dr Julieta Lobato, LLB, LLM, and PhD from the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina. She has studied Argentina’s neoliberal reforms under President Milei. Her current project at the University of Glasgow investigates the implications for labour law of transitions from neoliberalism to right-wing populism.

Watch here: