Federal Civil Servants Fight for their Careers

The first few weeks of the second Trump administration have proven a challenging time for federal civil service employees.  On the first day of Trump’s second term, the federal Office of Personnel Management sent a memo to all federal employees encouraging them to take what it called a “fork in the road” “deferred resignation” option, and to take “more productive” jobs in the private sector. Special government employee Elon Musk and his 19-year old software engineers have gained access to all kinds of government databases, including personnel records, individual financial data and other files normally kept private.  On February 3, another memo from the Office of Personnel Management instructed federal agency managers to ignore recently ratified collective bargaining agreements, including provisions for telework.  Civil servants, however, are not taking this lying down.  The American Federation of Government Employees, the largest union representing federal government employees, recently saw its membership exceed 325,000 – the largest in its history.  The union has joined other unions in suing the Trump Administration for reneging on its contractual obligations and has started to win in court.  Nicole Cantello is the President of AFGE Local 704, representing professional EPA scientists based in Chicago. Nicole joined Monday Buzz host Brian Standing on February 17.

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