Attack on federal workers is an attack on all workers
The Trump-Musk axis has never been shy about the fact they wanted to bust up federal organized labor.
The Trump campaign made a lot of promises about the sort of hell they would unleash on federal workers and their unions. Since the inauguration, the Trump administration has followed through on that promise to the private sector and his fascist base.
Since he took office, Trump has issued executive orders aimed at slashing federal jobs and weakening federal labor unions. These orders have included a return-to-work order, a hiring freeze, a deferred resignation program, and the restoration of policies that make it far easier for federal agencies to terminate career workers.
Targeting organized labor
If the previous Trump administration’s labor policy is any indication, this is just the beginning. All unions in the federal sector are braced for executive orders and regulations that will remove local unions from their offices on government property, ban the deduction of union dues from paychecks, and severely limit the amount of duty time given to union officials to represent their fellow workers.
With these attacks, Trump, and the ruling class more broadly, hope to break any organization that would see federal money spent on its workers or social programs rather than war or kickbacks for billionaires.
Not only will the federal government save money to invest in the war machine, the cumulative effect of these policies is to function as a de-facto massive layoff. With this level of layoff, the labor market will be flooded with experienced workers in various professions. It’s not as if the U.S. jobs market is booming currently. For months, more and more people have had trouble finding a job. Capitalist economists have described it as a “low fire low hire” job market. This translates: “We know nobody can find a job but we don’t want to admit that we are also laying people off.”
Since December, Meta, Microsoft, Workday, Amazon, Intel, JP Morgan, and Chevron have announced layoffs. Now, the federal government, via Elon Musk’s DOGE, will join the fray through literal layoffs, disciplinary removals, and employee buyouts called “deferred resignations.”
Federal unions fight back
With a flooded labor market and a federal policy offensive against public and private sector unions, the Trump administration escalates its variety of fascism and looks to completely break what is left of organized labor in the federal sector and beyond. All there is left for the working class to do is fight back.
To that end, federal sector unions have attempted to challenge this wave of Trump policies in the courts and to some extent, in the street. The American Federation of Government Employees, the largest federal union, has already joined or initiated lawsuits against Trump and DOGE for these policies. Further, AFGE has issued guidance that its members should refuse any deferred resignation offer. The slogan on this issue has become “hold the line.” AFGE represents over 600,000 workers across the country, with 300,000 members in the federal sector alone.
On Feb. 11, AFGE held a rally on Capitol Hill to confront Trump and Musk’s attacks on federal workers. Representatives from American Postal Workers, AFSCME, Unite Here, the Office of Professional Employees International Union, and the United Steelworkers all joined AFGE in this demonstration of several hundred unionized workers.
The message was clear: All workers must stand up to these attacks from Trump and Musk. This means organizing and defending their contracts to the letter. While the leadership of AFGE is heavily entrenched in the Democratic Party, this should not stop the progressive movement from coming to the defense of it as a workers’ organization.
Trump wouldn’t be attacking AFGE and the other federal sector unions if they didn’t curb the efforts of the ruling class to some extent. In this period of rising fascism, it is important to stand by unions as they face this assault. An organized workforce is never a bad thing.
AFGE staff union fights for their rights
With that said, support for AFGE’s mission cannot stop the workers who are employed at AFGE as staff from asserting their own rights as a union and as workers. In fact, the reason union staff are asserting their contractual rights and challenging AFGE upper management’s hypocrisy is exactly so they can better assist the AFGE members in their fight against Trump and Musk.
Since the November election, AFGE’s upper management has increased its attack on its own workforce, which is represented by OPEIU Local 2. AFGE management has forced its employees back into the office 80% of the time after bargaining for 50% of the time. Further, the AFGE national president has continued to threaten layoffs and buyouts against its own staff. In general, AFGE’s upper management and human resources have worked to scuttle the attempts of their staff union to represent the workers.
Due to these attacks, OPEIU Local 2 has mobilized to challenge these attacks on their contract. The day before AFGE’s rally, AFGE’s staff held a picket line where they demanded that AFGE “fight Trump not its staff” and to “respect the contract.” Well over 100 people showed up to the informational picket, including AFGE staff and members.
While these AFGE attacks on their staff are hypocritical and anti-worker in themselves, they should not stop workers and progressives from supporting AFGE overall, particularly the rank and file, in their fight against DOGE fascism. The struggle of the OPEIU-represented workers aims not to hurt AFGE but to improve representation and put AFGE in a better position to fight Trump.
The moral of these stories should not be to worship or condemn outright any particular workers’ organization. The lesson to be taken from these two struggles is to support worker organizations at all levels in their fights for not just better conditions, but existence.
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