Trump administration sued over order making it easier to fire federal workers | US unions
After one day Donald Trump After his return to office, a leading state labor union filed a lawsuit challenging his administration’s reclassification of thousands of federal workers as political employees.
The executive order signed by the president — which makes it easier to fire public sector workers — amounts to a “dangerous step backward,” according to the National Treasury Employees Union, which represents federal government employees across 37 agencies and departments.
The move, one of several measures Trump announced in the hours after his inauguration on Monday, was quickly criticized as an attack on workers. Trump’s allies also planned his return He claimed To limit 50,000 federal workers who can be fired.
“You have to go through that process before you can undo regulation,” said Will Dobbs-Alsop, policy director at Governance for Impact, a left-leaning think tank.
Upon his return to the White House on Monday, Trump effectively reinstated his position.Table F“, which sought to allow tens of thousands of federal workers to be reclassified. Schedule F changed civil service rules to allow a wide range of career federal employees to be fired without civil service protections, and to reclassify their jobs as political appointments.
“There’s really no such thing, in the vast majority of context, where the evaluator just says, ‘I’m going to treat this law as invalid,’” added Jordan Asher, a policy advisor at Governance for Impact, who has anticipated the legal challenges. “A step…from eliminating the rule to creating these rosters to actually firing people.”
There are about 2.1 million civil service employees in the federal government.
On Tuesday, NTEU presented A lawsuit Against the Executive Order, seeking injunctive relief from its implementation, arguing that the Order wrongly applies personnel rules for political appointees to permanent employees; It deprives federal workers of the due process rights they were promised upon employment and ignores regulations implemented by the Office of Personnel Management.
“Yesterday’s executive order is a dangerous step backwards toward a system of political spoils that Congress explicitly rejected 142 years ago, which is why we are suing to declare the order illegal,” said Doreen Greenwald, NTEU National President. “The employees we represent work for federal agencies working to secure the nation, protect public health, promote economic growth, and protect consumers from fraud.
“Their jobs require training and experience in their chosen field so they can provide the best possible service to all Americans, not pass a political loyalty test.”
Other labor unions criticized the executive order, calling it an attack on federal employees.
“Putting job security for nonpartisan, dedicated public service workers in the hands of billionaires and anti-union extremists is unacceptable,” said Lee Saunders, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), the largest public service union in the United States. United States Public Employees Union. He added: “While we hoped for the best, we will not stand idly by and take these attacks.”
Liz Schuler, President of the AFL-CIO, He said Among the effects of the order – if implemented – would be to harm essential services provided by federal workers, including the care of veterans; ensuring that families receive social security payments; Protection of airports and passengers; Food inspection and disaster relief. “President Trump’s attack on federal employees began on his first day in office,” she said.
