Nearly every week there’s a new press report on how the Trump administration is trying to undermine the public servants who are entrusted to carry out our most critical government programs and policies.
There are far too many examples to list, but here are some of the more egregious examples:
- The White House is seeking to dismantle the federal personnel office and assert direct control over non-political employment issues affecting federal workers, including compensation, health and retirement benefits, and rules that ensure employees are hired and fired based solely on merit.
- The administration is attacking the rights of federal employees to organize and bargain collectively at the worksite by seeking the authority to kick union members out of the union and make it difficult for union members to renew their memberships, while also attempting to financially hinder federal unions by eliminating the option for employees to deduct their union dues from their paychecks along with insurance premiums, charitable contributions and similar recurring payments.
- Political appointees are replacing previously negotiated union contracts with illegal management edicts that prevent a union from carrying out its representational obligations at multiple agencies, including the Department of Education, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Social Security Administration.
- Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie has proposed stripping language from the union contract that protects medical professionals and other staff who blow the whistle on mismanagement or other violations that could threaten patient safety and prevent veterans from accessing vital services.
- Department heads are relocating two U.S. Department of Agriculture agencies and the Bureau of Land Management headquarters from Washington, D.C., to new locations more than 1,000 miles away, in a transparent attempt to force out career employees and minimize their work.
As these examples make painfully clear, this administration has a simple mission: destroy labor unions and take away workers’ union rights, even if that means weakening vital government programs.
The labor contracts unions negotiate with federal agencies are the only thing preventing this administration from dismantling programs it doesn’t believe in, firing employees for any reason or no reason at all, and selling off chunks of the government to private corporations and special interests.
These attacks reverberate beyond the federal employees and labor unions that are the direct target. They threaten the separation of powers that help ensure our government works for the people in a fair and efficient manner.
There is precious little time left to stop the administration from declaring an all–out war on federal workers. Court challenges filed by our union, the American Federation of Government Employees, and others have so far prevented the White House from legally enforcing three executive orders, issued in May 2018, that are designed to annihilate federal unions. But time is running out, and this administration has demonstrated it has no issue defying court injunctions or violating the law to get its way.
That’s why hundreds of federal employees and allies from across the country are gathering in Washington on September 24 to protest these attacks, stand up for government workers’ voice on the job and in our democracy, and defend the work public servants perform on our nation’s behalf every day. The “Fed Up? Rise Up!” rally is being organized by the four unions that represent the majority of federal workers: the American Federation of Government Employees, the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, the National Federation of Federal Employees and the National Treasury Employees Union. Our protest will put pressure on the White House to stop the attacks on federal workers, their contracts and their voice at work.
This isn’t just do-or-die time for federal employee unions, for our collective bargaining rights and for the work we do on the public’s behalf every day; nothing less than the future of our democracy is at stake.
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
Last week, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy