Posts tagged federal government
How are unions pushing back against Trump’s attacks on labor and layoffs?
October 21, 2025 // Unions are battling the administration in federal courtrooms nationwide, after filing dozens of lawsuits to try to halt attempts to shed hundreds of thousands of government employees, strip collective bargaining rights from over a million workers, and gut some federal agencies. On Wednesday, they made a significant breakthrough: Judge Susan Illston, of the US district court’s northern district of California, granted a temporary restraining order blocking Trump’s latest mass layoffs from the government shutdown.
Op-Ed: Instead of subsidy fights, Georgia should allow ‘portable’ benefits
October 20, 2025 // Meanwhile, other states have taken the lead on the matter. Utah, Tennessee and Alabama have all formally recognized portable benefits as a form of independent contractor compensation. Georgia can be next by passing a safe harbor portable benefits model, which will cost the state and federal government zero taxpayer dollars. It simply clarifies that companies can contribute to portable benefits accounts if they want and doing so is not evidence of an employee/employer relationship.
Horseshoe casino dealers prepare to strike for right to unionize
October 17, 2025 // The workers, flanked by organizers from Teamsters Local 135, said they have been turned down on an alternate third-party observer, which would have permitted the Oct. 17 election to go forward without delay. “We’ve already had a vote,” said Zachary Holbrook, a dealer/supervisor. “92% of the majority voted for strike authorization.”
DOGE can maintain access to federal personnel data, court rules
August 13, 2025 // Tuesday’s decision will maintain the status quo, as the appeals court had already paused the lower court’s injunction in April. At Education, DOGE staff can read into platforms that contain federal student loan and other data, while at Treasury they can access IRS systems containing all taxpayer information. DOGE maintains a presence at the Office of Management and Budget, but mostly its staff have dispersed as political appointees of individual agencies.
More Than 150,000 Federal Workers Accepted Trump’s Resignation Incentives
August 6, 2025 // A new government estimate, along with a study by the nonprofit Partnership for Public Service, provides a long-awaited window into the scale of the departures.
Trump’s Labor Department proposes more than 60 rule changes in a push to deregulate workplaces
July 22, 2025 // The U.S. Department of Labor is aiming to rewrite or repeal more than 60 “obsolete” workplace regulations, ranging from minimum wage requirements for home health care workers and people with disabilities to standards governing exposure to harmful substances.
Supreme Court allows Trump mass layoffs to move forward
July 9, 2025 // “The plans themselves are not before this Court, at this stage, and we thus have no occasion to consider whether they can and will be carried out consistent with the constraints of law,” Sotomayor wrote. Since the start of the second Trump term, the Supreme Court has repeatedly lifted lower-court rulings restricting his actions, including in a ruling last month that restricted lower-court judges’ ability to issue nationwide injunctions. The case is Donald J. Trump, president of the United States, et al. v. American Federation of Government Employees, et al.
One Big Beautiful Law on American Radio Journal
July 7, 2025 // This week on American Radio Journal: Lowman Henry talks with Vincent Vernuccio from the Institute for the American Worker about the proposed Employee Rights Act of 2025;
OPM calls for quicker firings, more stringent performance standards
June 25, 2025 // Don Kettl, professor emeritus and former dean of the University of Maryland School of Public Policy. “In the case of any downsizing in government, training is always the first to go. So is there going to be investment to try to make happen what they’re proposing?” The former HR official said the plan to reduce performance improvement plans to 30 days belies the overall memo as a “red herring.” “If you can’t articulate why someone’s failing and you only give them 30 days to show that they’re no longer failing, it becomes a procedural widget to sustain a termination,” they said. “[And] the Trump administration has done such a thorough job in the last five months cutting the balls off of unions—which is a mistake, because they help provide due process—and the Merit Systems Protection Board, the [Equal Employment Opportunity Commission] and [Office of Special Counsel], it’s going to be hard for current employees under these constraints to win anything.”
Trump administration offers some details of how it would control US Steel, but union raises concerns
June 16, 2025 // The union said it was “disappointed” that Trump “has reversed course” and raised basic questions about the ownership structure of U.S. Steel. “Neither the government nor the companies have publicly identified what all the terms of the proposed transaction are,” the letter said. “Our labor agreement expires next year, on September 1, 2026, and the USW and its members are prepared to engage the new owners" of U.S. Steel "to obtain a fair contract.” If Trump has as much control of U.S. Steel as he has claimed, that could put him in the delicate position of negotiating the salary and benefits of unionized steelworkers going into midterm elections.