President Donald Trump has "assaulted" regulations for workers, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka told CNN when asked how ending protection for dreamers would affect the U.S. work force.
"It will make the workplace less fair," he told Pamela Brown on CNN's "The Lead" with Jake Tapper. "It will make it more difficult to come together and raise wages for everybody. There are eight million people making contributions every single day. Taking away their rights, making them exposed to being fired at will is not only cruel, it's very, very wrong for the economy. It's the wrong thing to do.
"So, I think we would probably respond in two ways. The first thing we'll do is work with those DACA workers to make sure that their rights are protected, their job is protected. And then we'll fight to get legislation so that the contributions that they make are celebrated rather than assaulted."
Politico on Sunday reported Trump had decided to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals with a six-month delay and was set to announce the move Tuesday. The Obama-era program grants amnesty to undocumented immigrants who entered the United States as children.
Trumka, who briefly served on the president's Manufacturing Council but resigned after Trump's statements about Charlottesville, Virginia, said this week, per NPR, it has been extremely difficult trying to work with the White House on manufacturing, trade, and other issues.
"My members, just like most Americans, are angry that the system isn't working for them. That it keeps moving them further and further behind," he said, adding "while the country is the richest country on the face of the earth."