By ERNIE GOTTA
Unionized federal employees are facing a real crisis due to serious attacks by the Trump administration. These attacks threaten the very existence of federal unions and collective bargaining rights that provide good wages and working conditions. This threat should put all union workers on notice.
Why does Trump need to smash the federal employee unions? The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) alone represents over 820,000 workers in nearly every agency of the federal and D.C. governments, spread across 900 local unions. AFGE and other unions that organize federal workers represent a massive obstacle to the anti-worker/pro-corporate project being carried out by Trump that was first outlined by the Heritage Foundation in Project 2025 and is being realized with Executive Order 14251.
What does Project 2025 propose? It proposes to eliminate 1 million federal jobs, privatize federal agencies, make deep cuts to federal worker pay and benefits, and discriminate against people of color and LGBTQIA+ people. But in order to do this they have to smash the federal employees’ unions. The Trump administration often keeps these Reduction in Forces (RIF) notices secret. Some agencies have made cuts by incentivizing departures or natural attrition. The State, Veteran Affairs, Education, and HHS departments are all moving forward with mass layoffs. The total number of agencies that will be impacted is unclear but ranges from between 40 to 70 RIF actions that will impact 17 to 19 agencies.
Deep attacks
Citing Executive Order 14251, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has moved forward with terminating the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) of the majority of union members in the department. In a press release on Aug. 6, VA Secretary Doug Collins said, ““Too often, unions that represent VA employees fight against the best interests of Veterans while protecting and rewarding bad workers. We’re making sure VA resources and employees are singularly focused on the job we were sent here to do: providing top-notch care and service to those who wore the uniform.”
AFGE President Everett Kelley responded, “The real reason Collins wants AFGE out of the VA is because we have opposed the Trump administration’s plan to dismantle veteran health care through the cutting of 83,000 jobs, successfully fought against the disastrous and anti-veteran recommendations … that would have shut down several rural VA hospitals and clinics, and consistently educated the American people about how private, for-profit veteran health care is more expensive and results in worse outcomes for veterans,”
Billionaire Secretary of Education Linda McMahon has put the Department of Education on the chopping block. While she wants to completely dismantle the department, the Supreme Court has cleared the way for the Trump administration to slash 1400 jobs, or nearly half of the department. AFGE Local 252 President Sheria Smith responded in a statement on the union’s website, “Let’s be clear, despite this decision, the Department of Education has a choice—a choice to recommit to providing critical services for the American people and reject political agendas. The agency doesn’t have to move forward with this callous act of eliminating services and terminating dedicated workers.”
On July 15, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), headed by conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is planning a new round of layoffs on top of the 10,000 workers who lost their jobs on April 1. In total, HHS is planning to lay off some 20,000 workers. According to The Guardian, nearly 3000 positions at the State Department have been eliminated through layoffs and voluntary departures this year. More than 250,000 federal employees overall have already left government service via early retirements or buyouts.
What are the union attacks about?
These attacks are not about curving government spending. The Trump administration is spending huge amounts of money on war, deportations, and policing. The government is setting itself to spend loads of cash through Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill.” The bill shells out $150 billion, giving ICE a larger budget than most of the world’s militaries. Mike Winters of CNBC reports, “President Donald Trump’s “big beautiful” tax-and-spending bill, which he signed into law on July 4, is forecast to increase federal deficits by at least $3.4 trillion over the next decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office. That’s on top of the gross federal debt, which has climbed to more than $36 trillion, up from about $23 trillion in early 2020—an increase of over 50% in just five years, driven by pandemic relief, rising entitlement costs and persistent deficit spending.”
Taking away the CBA will allow government agencies to more easily fire or lay off workers, slash wages, and cut benefits. The attacks on the federal unions can serve as an opening volley that will provide the bosses an opportunity to go after state and private sector workers in order to maximize profits for the capitalist class. How can trade unionists stop this process?
What way forward for federal workers?
The AFGE and other unions are relying on Democrats and a capitalist court system to fairly address their grievances. Historically, the Democrats and U.S. court system have often ruled in favor of the corporate bosses. Courts have levied injunctions against picketing workers, arbitrated in favor of the bosses over unjust firings, and much more.
Democrats continue to tell unions to focus on legislation or trust in the courts. While the unions exhaust the path through the courts, they also have a responsibility to wage a mass struggle in the streets. Why are there no picket lines, strikes, fundraising, education, and mass marches? Why have the AFGE and the AFL-CIO not made a call for every union worker to go into the streets to oppose the Trump’s attacks?
Today more than ever we need a fighting and democratic trade union that uplifts the voices of rank-and-file workers, breaks their reliance on Democrats and the courts, and builds an independent working-class movement. We need a movement that is able to link the attacks on federal workers with the broader social struggles and win over industrial, logistics, and other workers in the private sector that can have a big impact by shutting down capitalist profits at the point of production.
