Project 2025 Targets the NLRB: Gutting Joint-Employer Standards to Crush Union Organizing in Franchised and Subcontracted Workplaces
Project 2025 proposes reversing the NLRB's 2023 joint-employer standard, returning to the narrower Trump-era rule. This would block most sectoral bargaining in franchised and subcontracted workplaces, gutting the NLRA's protections for millions of workers in fast food, warehousing, and staffing agencies.
The NLRB's joint-employer standard is the legal mechanism that lets workers in franchised or subcontracted workplaces bargain with the brand or corporation that actually controls their wages and conditions—not just the local franchisee or temp agency that writes their paycheck. When McDonald's sets labor practices across thousands of stores, workers need to hold McDonald's accountable at the bargaining table. Project 2025 proposes rolling back that standard, fragmenting bargaining units into atomized, powerless islands. This is not a technical tweak; it is a blueprint to make collective bargaining impossible in the fastest-growing sectors of the economy.
As of early 2025, the NLRB's 2023 broad joint-employer rule has already been struck down by a federal court (March 2024), and the Board has removed the contested language per court order. The current administration has not yet issued a replacement rule. Project 2025 would lock in that narrow, employer-friendly standard permanently—or push for legislation to codify it. For workers at franchise chains, staffing agencies, and warehouse subcontractors, this means the company that actually controls their hours, safety, and pay can remain at arm's length from the union. The result: no meaningful bargaining power, no sectoral agreements, no leverage.
Labor organizers know that joint-employer doctrine is not an abstraction. When Amazon's subcontractors violate wage laws, when a fast-food franchisee retaliates against union supporters, the parent company can claim ignorance and escape liability. The broad standard closed that loophole. Project 2025 would reopen it, handing employers a free pass to outsource their legal obligations. The fight now is to push the NLRB to reissue a strong joint-employer rule—or, better yet, to pass the PRO Act, which codifies the broad standard into law so no administration can undo it. Without that, organizing in this economy is an uphill battle that leaves millions of workers outside the NLRA's protections entirely.
Rollback path — how this gets undone
This action has already been implemented. These are the concrete levers that could reverse it.
- Resist further NLRB quorum disruption via Court challenges Labor unions and worker advocates must continue to litigate the unlawful removal of Board members; the December 2025 Senate confirmations restored a quorum, but the victory must be consolidated by opposing any future at-will removals that could cripple the Board again.
- Codify broad joint-employer standard through new NLRB rulemaking or federal legislation The next administration and Congress should direct the NLRB to issue a new rule restoring the 2023 broad joint-employer standard, or pass the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, which codifies a joint-employer standard that covers franchised and subcontracted workers.
- Restore full NLRB enforcement capacity The General Counsel must prioritize prosecuting unfair labor practices related to joint-employer disputes and quorum-related delays, and the Board should implement expedited procedures to clear the months-long backlog caused by the quorum crisis.
Original source — excerpted
project2025 Project 2025 ch. 18: Department of Labor (pp 613-616)"— 581 — 18 DEPARTMENT OF LABOR AND RELATED AGENCIES Jonathan Berry MISSION STATEMENT At the heart of The Conservative Promise is the resolve to reclaim the role of each American worker as the protagonist in his or her own life and to restore the family as the centerpiece of American life. The role that labor policy plays in that promise is twofold: Give workers the support they need for rewarding, well-paying, and self-driven careers, and restore the family-supporting job as the centerpiece of the American economy. The Judeo-Christian tradition, stretching back to Genesis, has always recognized fruitful work as integral to human dignity, as service to God, neighbor, and family. And Americans have long been known for their work ethic. While it is primarily the culture’s responsibility to affirm the dignity of work, our federal labor and employment agencies have an important role to play by protect- ing workers, setting boundaries for the healthy functioning of labor markets, and ultimately encouraging wages and conditions for jobs that can support a family. OVERVIEW The labor agencies covered in this chapter include the Department of Labor (DOL), the Equal Employment …"