HENDERSON, Nev. – Members of AFSCME Local 4041 and other Nevada unions gathered in this Las Vegas suburb over the weekend to demonstrate how Donald Trump’s Project 2025 would shred public services and erode the freedoms of working people should he return to the White House.
Public service members of AFSCME, SEIU Local 1107, the Nevada State AFL-CIO and union members from across the state held a “shred day” on Saturday to oppose Project 2025, a roadmap for a possible second Trump term.
In front of a shredding truck, the speakers detailed how Trump’s plans would crush unions, eliminate overtime protections, repeal the $35 cap on insulin for seniors, end negotiations for lower prescription drug prices, and more.
Rosina Barrientos, a Local 4041 member who works as a developmental specialist for the state of Nevada, took Trump to task for attacking union members’ collective bargaining rights.
“After winning collective bargaining rights in 2019, and winning our first collective bargaining agreement in 2021, Nevada state employees have seen great improvements to our lives,” Barrientos said. “Having a union means more rights and respect in the workplace. We finally have a voice on the job and we’re not going back.”
Carol Matrone, a former child care and senior advocate for the state of Nevada and a member of AFSCME Nevada Retiree Chapter 4041, said Project 2025 would make it extremely difficult for retirees to afford health care.
“Like many of you, I believed that if you work hard, play by the rules, and look out for your community, you’d earn a little dignity when it’s time to retire,” she said. “Project 2025 would eliminate traditional Medicare, stop the federal government from negotiating drug prices, and would no longer penalize Big Pharma for raising drug prices more than the rate of inflation.”
Susie Martinez, executive secretary-treasurer of the Nevada State AFL-CIO, said, “We built this state. From Reno to Las Vegas, Nevada thrives on union labor. Now, these MAGA extremists want to gut it all. They’re ready to slash the programs that keep our families afloat — your benefits, health care, your freedoms — all gone with the stroke of a pen.”
AFSCME members in Ohio held a similar “shred day” in Youngstown earlier this month. Other such events are planned throughout the country to expose the dangers working people face under Trump’s Project 2025.
Both the Nevada and Ohio events featured a full-size shredding truck to symbolize the threat to fundamental freedoms — such as the freedom to join a union, access affordable health care, and retire with dignity — that we all stand to lose. Following the event, union members canvassed their communities to get out the vote to stop Trump’s Project 2025.
AFSCME Now has written extensively about the various ways in which Project 2025 will harm us. Read the overview story and our pieces on Project 2025’s impact on retirement security, our health care system, on Medicare, and on public education and the economy.
Trump pretends not to know anything about Project 2025, but:
- The Washington Post reports that Trump took a private flight with Project 2025 leader Kevin Roberts to a Heritage Foundation Conference in 2022, where Trump said in a speech that they “will lay the groundwork and detail plans for exactly what our movement will do.”
- CNN reports that at least 140 former Trump administration officials were involved in the creation of Project 2025, including six former cabinet secretaries.
- Trump’s running mate, J.D. Vance, wrote the foreword for Project 2025 leader Kevin Roberts’ book, “Dawn’s Early Light.”