This Isn’t Just About Lisa Cook, It’s About Every Worker

Federal Reserve Board of Governors member Lisa Cook. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

In Georgia, workers live under at-will laws. You can be fired at any time, for almost any reason, with little protection. Georgia is not unique. Forty-nine states follow at-will employment, leaving only Montana as the exception. That means job security is fragile for most workers.

The Pattern of Firings and Rollbacks

So when President Trump declared he was firing Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, it was more than political theater. His claim of “for cause” removal, built on disputed mortgage paperwork, does not meet the legal threshold in the Federal Reserve Act. Lisa Cook is now fighting her dismissal in court. No Federal Reserve governor has ever been fired in its 112-year history. Whether or not the courts uphold her removal, the fact that we are even debating if a president can unilaterally fire a Fed governor shows how far this power grab has gone.

And Lisa Cook is not the only one. Trump has already fired Robert Primus, a Democratic member of the Surface Transportation Board, just as a multibillion dollar rail merger was under review. He also forced out Susan Monarez, the CDC director, because she refused to bend science to political messaging. These moves are not isolated. They are part of a larger strategy to dismantle independence across federal agencies and reshape them in his own image.

Markets reacted quickly. Long-term interest rates rose, the dollar weakened, and the Fed’s independence was called into question. Those shifts are not abstract. In Georgia, families face higher mortgage payments. Farmers see rising borrowing costs for equipment. Small businesses in Savannah and Augusta struggle to access credit. What happens in Washington always trickles down to our kitchen tables, our storefronts, and our paychecks.

At the same time, workers are already under strain. Nationally, Black women have 300,000 fewer jobs today than a year ago. That number should alarm us all. It shows who pays first when institutions crack under political pressure. It also makes clear that this is not just about politics at the top. It is about whether the most vulnerable workers in the economy can find stability at all.

Why This Matters for Every Worker

We also cannot ignore what is happening in the corporate world. We saw Target walk back its commitments to equity. We have watched other major corporations quietly scale back the promises they made in 2020. When leaders in Washington and corporations in boardrooms send the same message, that accountability and independence are optional, it is workers and communities who lose.

I know this because I live it. I sit on a board that has already lost four corporate partners this year, and I walked away from a partnership myself because our values did not align. Those decisions were not easy, walking away never is, but they were necessary because when companies show us they are willing to abandon their commitments, we have to believe them. When our values are not respected, we cannot pretend the relationship will serve our communities.

The connection is clear. Trump fires Robert Primus and Susan Monarez outright and tries to fire Lisa Cook because they do not serve his agenda. Corporations abandon their equity commitments when standing by them feels inconvenient. Both moves are about control, not service. Both put people second to power.

What Must Happen Now

There are solutions we must push forward. We need stronger unemployment insurance so families are not left behind when instability leads to job loss. We need small business credit programs that help communities survive when lending tightens. We need to revisit at-will employment and push for stronger just-cause protections so workers cannot be dismissed without accountability. We need to expand workforce development pipelines so people can find good jobs no matter what chaos unfolds at the federal level. These are the solutions I will continue to push forward.

But there is also what people can do on their own, right now. Communities can choose to support businesses that live their values and walk away from those that do not. Workers can build collective power by sharing information, by refusing to normalize retaliation, and by standing together when one voice is not enough. Consumers can demand transparency from corporations, not just public statements, and hold them accountable when they back away from their promises. Every one of us has the power to decide where we spend our money, who we stand beside, and what behavior we will not accept.

Trump has already put his face on the Department of Labor, branding it as if the workforce belongs to him. That symbol tells us everything. He is not interested in protecting workers. He is interested in controlling them.

The community must respond with clarity. We must remind ourselves, and each other, that power belongs to the people, not to one man. Lisa Cook will fight her case in court. Workers rarely get that chance. Which is why we cannot treat this as just a legal battle. It is a signal about where this country is headed and whether we will allow fairness and stability to be replaced by fear.

When Trump fires Robert Primus and Susan Monarez and tries to fire Lisa Cook, he is not just targeting individuals. He is targeting the idea that institutions exist to serve the public.

And that is something none of us can afford to let stand.