Posts tagged DOGE
Exclusive-US cancels FDA bargaining session over layoffs, union says
May 7, 2025 // Senior U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman on April 25 issued an injunction to block the executive order from being implemented, pending the outcome of a lawsuit by the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), which represents about 160,000 federal employees including as many as 9,000 FDA staff. The Trump administration has appealed that injunction. A five-hour, virtual meeting between the union and the Department of Health and Human Services to discuss mass layoffs at the FDA was axed the evening before it was set to take place. No reason was given for the cancellation and no attempt was made to reschedule it, according to NTEU chapter president Anthony Lee.
Unions, cities, nonprofits sue to block Trump workforce cuts
May 1, 2025 // Musk has tempered his original goal for DOGE to slash $1 trillion from government spending, saying this month it was on track to cut $150 billion this year. The Trump administration has faced more than 200 lawsuits challenging its policies, with a significant number calling the president's directives unconstitutional. The case is American Federation of Government Employees, AFL-CIO et al v Trump et al, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, No. 25-03698.
Largest federal employee union, a leading Trump opponent, to lay off more than half of staff
April 28, 2025 // “It’s going to demolish us,” said Justin Youngblood, president of an AFGE chapter that represents workers at a VA hospital in Kansas City, Missouri. “That’s going to cut the legs off of AFGE and all of the locals.” He said the union's national leadership should have been better prepared to manage an expected downturn in revenue during Trump's second term.
U Rochester Ph.D. Student Workers Strike for an Election Without the NLRB
April 27, 2025 // University of Rochester Ph.D. student workers began striking this week to pressure the institution to agree to what they call a “fair union election.” And for the process to be fair, they say, it can’t be handled by the Trump-era National Labor Relations Board. “We don’t see any kind of path through the NLRB at present,” said George Elkind, a Ph.D. student on the proposed UR Graduate Labor Union’s organizing committee.
Op-ed: MARY KATHARINE HAM: Teachers union bosses put themselves first, teachers and students last
April 23, 2025 // Just recently, Iowa Republican Sen. Joni Ernst uncovered $3.3 million in taxpayer money, and 87,000 hours spent at one agency alone over just two years that went to thousands of hours of union-related activities instead of the American people. Elsewhere, the IRS union is negotiating for its members to show up only once a week in person and retain a bunch of generous bonuses. An unwelcome April surprise, just like your tax bill!
Commentary: Federal workers shouldn’t have collective bargaining rights
April 22, 2025 // Government unions’ response to DOGE’s cost-cutting efforts underscores the need for reform
OPM proposes rule to formally revive Schedule F
April 22, 2025 // The Office of Personnel Management on Friday filed proposed regulations that would formally revive Schedule F, setting the stage for tens of thousands of federal workers to be stripped of their civil service protections, making them effectively at-will employees. The proposal, which will be published in the Federal Register on April 23, outlines the new excepted service category, now called Schedule Policy/Career, purports to remove “cumbersome adverse action procedures” for employees in what the administration deems to be policy-related jobs and accused the Biden administration, which filed its own regulations last year seeking to prevent Schedule F’s return, of “protecting poor performers.”
Toledo Art Museum Workers Move to Unionize
April 18, 2025 // Organizing under the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), some 100 workers will form the new union, which emerged after TMA’s glass technicians came together under Teamsters in 2007. The new unit will include staff from the visitor services, glass studio, research, education, curatorial, and library departments, among other eligible sectors, and is expected to grow upon selecting a representative.
Unions Form Pro Bono Legal Network for Federal Workers Targeted by Trump
April 16, 2025 // “We knew there would be a lot of quick and valiant legal work in the federal courts, but we knew there was a chance you’d have to go to the employee agencies to protect the workers’ rights,” Deborah Greenfield, the network’s executive director, said in an interview. One challenge for the network and their potential clients is that some of these bodies, like the National Labor Relations Board, are themselves in a state of limbo as courts weigh whether Mr. Trump has the power to fire appointed board members.
Federal employee alleges DOGE activity resulted in data breach at labor board
April 16, 2025 // The specialist, Daniel Berulis, made the allegations in a sworn declaration submitted to members of Congress and to a federal whistleblower office, asking them to investigate what he called a cybsersecurity breach. His lawyer said that Berulis had also been targeted with a threatening note and photographs showing him near where he lives. The declaration was first reported by NPR, and NBC News has not independently verified the allegations.