Posts tagged DOGE
Unions take their protest of federal layoffs to the US Capitol
March 7, 2025 // They were there to demonstrate against reductions to the federal workforce. Signs included messages such as, “Save the Civil Service, Save the Country” and, “Support the Federal Workforce.” “The skies are crying because what’s happening to our workforce and what’s happening to the missions of our agencies,” said Doreen Greenwald, president of the National Treasury Employees Union. The protest was organized by a coalition of unions, including NTEU, and those who spoke criticized President Donald Trump’s administration’s downsizing of the federal workforce.
White House seeks data on federal staffers’ union work, raising alarms
March 4, 2025 // Legislation passed by Congress in 1978 grants federal government employees designated paid time during work hours — known as “official time” — to engage in certain union matters related to labor-management activities, such as bargaining contracts, filing grievance proceedings and holding workplace safety trainings. A federal worker, for example, may be allowed to use paid work time to represent an employee who is getting disciplined or fired. Official time is not allocated for union-specific business, such as union drives or elections.
Philly congressman, union leaders, workers protest Trump’s federal layoffs
February 27, 2025 // “As to how we’re doing, the only answer is poorly,” Alex Berman, the executive vice president of the National Treasury Union Chapter 71, which represents Philly-area IRS workers, told NBC10 on Monday. “I have been on my phone constantly talking to the more than 400 people at my chapter alone who were let go under false pretenses. Now we’re looking at, if you don’t do X, you’ll be fired.” Berman referred to an email that was sent to federal workers last week asking them to detail their work. Monday’s rally took place at Independence National Historical Park where two employees were recently laid off, according to a union official.
DOGE will use AI to assess the responses of federal workers who were told to justify their jobs via email
February 27, 2025 // A coalition of unions and groups that have been fighting the Trump administration's mass layoffs of probationary workers charge the effort was unlawful. They amended their lawsuit against the U.S. Office of Personnel Management over the weekend to add a claim involving the OPM email directing workers to justify their workweek.
Op-ed: As unions fight reform, Trump should assert executive power
February 26, 2025 // Unfortunately, for decades, unions and their collective bargaining agreements have hamstrung presidents and the people they’ve chosen to run federal departments and agencies in all the wrong ways. Under a bill President Carter signed in 1978, the president cannot simply reject a proposed union agreement but must go before the Federal Service Impasses Panel, or arbitrator that can make him accept terms he doesn’t want. Also, union agreements prevent incompetent or unethical employees protected by a union from being fired or even having negative notes placed in their files without notice and an opportunity to bring grievance proceedings, where unions will back even the least deserving member to the hilt.
Agencies, unions tell fed workers: Don’t answer Musk’s threat email
February 25, 2025 // "AFGE will challenge any unlawful terminations of our members and federal employees across the country," union president Everett Kelley said in a statement Saturday night. Kelley sent a letter to OPM acting director Charles Ezell on Sunday, demanding the email be withdrawn by that night. The AFGE also sent guidance to members Sunday saying they should respond if ordered to do so by their agencies.
Teamsters Back Trump’s OSHA Nominee, But Dissent Emerges
February 18, 2025 // “OSHA and the DOL, under the leadership of soon-to-be Secretary Chavez-DeRemer, will continue to benefit from leaders who started in the trades and understand the risks facing working Americans today and necessary reforms and opportunities to protect them,” the Teamsters said in a statement Friday. Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU), a grassroots rank-and-file movement of thousands of Teamsters members, did not share as glowing of an opinion as the wider union. “Teamsters know bosses rarely care about our safety. OSHA is already too weak and toothless,” the movement said. “Now more than ever, we need to fight for ourselves.”
US Forest Service to Terminate 3,400 Workers, Union Leader Says
February 14, 2025 // President Donald Trump directed agency heads Feb. 11 to “undertake preparations to initiate large-scale reductions in force” that focus on firing workers who “perform functions not mandated by statute,” including “diversity, equity and inclusion programs.”
HUD is bracing as DOGE seeks to cut waste, fraud. Union leaders have a suggestion
February 12, 2025 // Last year, AFGE Council 222 filed a complaint with HUD's Inspector General and members of Congress. It said the app made it impossible for HUD to inspect nearly all of its five million housing units across the country every five years, as required by law. There hasn't been much response so far. But Gaines hopes that will change now that DOGE has asked for a review of all contracts.
Unions play catch up as DOGE rips through federal agencies
February 11, 2025 // They’re expanding a lawsuit that seeks to protect the Labor Department’s data systems to include other agencies.