UNIONS FEAR DEMISE OF NIOSH
Multiple labor unions and states are challenging the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
NIOSH is an agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that funds and develops research to support workplace safety regulations, including studies aimed to reduce cancer risk in firefighters and treat respiratory diseases in miners. NIOSH also evaluates the safety of worksite protective gear and investigates workplace disease outbreaks and health hazards.
In March 2025, HHS announced a “dramatic restructuring” of the NIOSH workforce, and over the course of the next few months, laid off approximately 90% of its workforce. Absent the support of NIOSH research and expertise, worker advocates fear that OSHA’s workplace safety enforcement will deteriorate. Already, the loss of NIOSH research leaves OSHA’s proposed heat stress regulations vulnerable to attack.
