Standing Up for Federal Workers
From the AFL-CIO
Working people are the lifeblood of the federal government. They manage our parks, monitor our skies, fight deadly diseases and care for the most vulnerable among us. Yet, President Donald Trump has decided to target these committed public servants and their rights on the job.
The Trump administration’s actions against federal employees over the past few months have ranged from the shortsighted to the insidious:
- Tasked with overseeing labor relations between the federal government and millions of working people, the Federal Labor Relations Authority has been unable to prosecute complaints because President Trump still hasn’t appointed a general counsel. Instead of allowing the FLRA to do its job, the White House has only worsened the backlog by shutting down two of the agency’s seven regional offices.
- This month, the Department of Education threw out a collective bargaining agreement that already had been in effect, denying 3,900 workers their negotiated rights and protections. Attempting to bypass the negotiating table altogether, the administration implemented an illegal contract that had been soundly rejected by the membership.
- Trump implemented an across-the-board ban on agency labor-management forums, eliminating a vehicle for conversations on issues as critical as workplace safety and sexual harassment.
- The administration proposed a zero percent annual raise for federal workers.
- After encouraging telecommute policies for years, the Department of Agriculture is needlessly requiring thousands of employees to work from the office—inadvertently sparking a traffic nightmare.
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