Almost every day the Trump administration fires another broadside at dedicated federal employees.
It might be another executive order, like the one stripping many civil servants of their job protections. Or it might be Elon Musk, through his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), firing thousands of probationary employees (those with less than a year of service, and even long-time workers promoted to their new positions less than a year ago).
In its first week, DOGE issued the infamous email titled “Fork in the road,” which offered a buyout to all federal employees while threatening that they might well be fired later. Musk hoped to entice 5% to 10% of the workforce to take the deal and leave, but workers’ unions encouraged them not to consider the bogus offer. Only 3% accepted the deal.
Trump and Musk are swinging this wrecking ball without any consideration of the impact on core government services like Social Security, Medicare, and Veterans benefits and healthcare. Ensuring the safety of aviation or even the food supply is also not a concern.
The point of this anti-worker blitzkrieg is to intimidate thousands of civil servants until they quit or just accept that they no longer have any of the protections guaranteed by their union contracts, which should have the force of law.
An aerospace safety engineer with the Federal Aviation Administration, not identified here due to likely retaliation, describes the effect in the workplace of harassing emails from DOGE, “They are causing a lot of chaos and anxiety. People feel intimidated because they don’t know whether to believe what is being said in the public sphere.”
A threat to all unions
Such brazen attacks imperil all of labor.
Just one of the affected unions, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), represents 800,000 of those under siege. A variety of unions cover thousands more.
The drastic staffing reductions will set the stage for dismantling whole agencies, especially those that hold corporations accountable. Privatization, a key tenet of the far-right Project 2025 plan, will sweep the land. Large federal employee unions could be busted, with the intent to eventually make all public sector unions illegal, another Project 2025 goal.
Public sector unions cover half of the organized workforce in the United States. After decades of union busting, labor overall, both public and private sector, only represents 11% of workers in the U.S. Taking out half of that in one fell swoop would reduce the labor movement so much that employers will likely move to wipe out unions altogether.
Moving beyond fear
The targets of the intimidation and mass firings are not staying quiet. Rank-and-file workers across the nation have formed the Federal Unionists Network (FUN). The group’s website declares its goal is “to support each other in strengthening our unions, improving our agencies and building solidarity across the federal sector of the labor movement.”
FUN has already organized actions in every state. An example was nationwide Save Our Services rallies on Presidents’ Day, Feb. 19, 2025. One inspiring rally was at the Federal Building in Seattle, where several thousand came out in support, including many members of the public, who rely on the services beleaguered civil servants provide.
Workers and regular folks spoke eloquently about the impacts of the cuts. The rally was spirited. One chant, defying the DOGE buyout memo, rang out, “Fork No! We won’t go!” Unfortunately, the rest of labor did not show up with banners, signs, and union colors.
Time to escalate
Clearly, labor’s usual tactics — filing lawsuits and relying on Democratic Party politicians — will not suffice.
Central labor councils, which are AFL-CIO bodies in cities and counties across the country, must step up and spread the resistance tactics of FUN activists and involve all unions.
It is time to think about defying the Hatch Act, the law that bans strikes by federal employees. We can take a page from labor’s raucous history, when most unions were formed through technically illegal strikes.
Federal employees will need solidarity from all workers, and the situation warrants going all the way to a general strike (also not unprecedented in U.S. labor history).
After all, it’s not like Trump is worried about following laws. And what do we have to lose?
A little perspective
Total yearly pay for all 2.3 million civilian federal employees: $271 billion
Elon Musk’s personal net worth: $360 billion*
*As of March 1, 2025. Source: Forbes
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