Donald Trump began his second presidency determined to shut down U.S. government programs, which his billionaire cronies say get in the way of making ever-growing profits. For example, regulations limiting pollution had to be sharply cut back because enforcing them would cost big corporations money. In addition, the Trump administration, in an effort to fund tax cuts for billionaires, has sought to cut expenditures on social benefit programs like Medicaid, Food Stamps, student loans, medical services to veterans, disaster recovery services and many more. He even tried to turn off telephone-based customer service at Social Security and Medicare to slow the processing of complaints and claims, especially for disability.
A key element of Trump and Elon Musk’s DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) drive to cripple programs they hate has been to fire thousands of the federal employees who keep these programs running. DOGE and the White House have moved to abolish agencies, including the Department of Education. They are attempting to fire 75% of the scientists who study pollution and climate change at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Throughout the federal government, it is estimated that Trump and Musk have already eliminated 281,000 jobs. The jobs of Post Office employees are also under threat as recent management shakeups directed by Trump indicate he’s considering selling off or contracting out parts of the postal system to private companies like United Parcel Service (UPS). Trump’s plans to cut federal budget grants that support education and social services threaten to eliminate thousands of jobs at the state and local level.
To force these cuts through quickly, Trump announced on March 27 that he was abolishing union collective bargaining rights for over one million federal employees. He also voided their contracts, which on paper provide protection against arbitrary firings. The unions affected, primarily the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) have sued to restore their collective bargaining rights and to stop some of the firings. Lower-level federal courts have ordered Trump and DOGE to slow or temporarily suspend some firings. The Supreme Court, however, with its reactionary majority of justices, is expected to uphold the Trump administration’s power to carry out what the law calls Reductions in Force (RIFs), even if the Court says Trump should have discussed his plans with the unions before carrying them out. For his part, Trump has suggested he would allow bosses of government departments to discuss working conditions with unions that withdraw their lawsuits against his firings.
Throughout its history, AFGE has never expressed much militancy. AFGE locals vary significantly in how assertive they are with management in the departments where they are organized. AFGE had a negligible existence before 1962 when the Kennedy administration, eager to strengthen Democratic Party influence over federal workers, allowed AFGE to negotiate working conditions but not wages and benefits. When Trump took office, AFGE members constituted about 39% of the workers in their departments. In some small departments, like the EPA, membership was a lot higher, approaching 100%. After Trump voided AFGE’s contracts, which provided for automatic dues deductions, two-thirds of its members signed up to pay their dues electronically, showing that a majority of federal workers are willing to defend their unions in the face of Trump’s attacks.
But if AFGE union members know a lot is at stake, their top union officials don’t seem to be gearing up for an all-out fight. They did not endorse the May Day demonstrations organized under the slogan “workers over billionaires,” or use them to encourage their members still on the job to push back against Trump’s agenda. The American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), which represents state and local government workers, many of whose jobs are also threatened by Trump’s proposed budget cuts, also did little to turn out members for May Day. The big private sector unions, like the United Auto Workers and the construction unions, also mostly stayed on the sidelines. In contrast to the hesitation of top union leaders, some AFGE locals, very visibly in Philadelphia and Los Angeles, brought contingents of their members to the May Day demonstrations. The American Postal Workers Union (APWU) also called on its members to join in the May Day protest. These actions by some unions and groups of workers may signify that some members are pushing back against the timidity of the official leaders.
At some point, it will become obvious that all the lawsuits that unions have filed will at best only slow down Trump’s attacks. What then? Outside of efforts to get their members to the polls, U.S. unions have only rarely mobilized the workers they represent around political issues. And on the rare occasions when some unions mobilized their members, for example in the early days of the Civil Rights Movement to protest Jim Crow, it was only because there was already widespread support for action among many Black members of those unions.
The recent big demonstrations show that opposition to Trump is growing but, as of now, have had little impact on Trump and his accomplices. It could be different if angry workers begin to organize with their co-workers at their workplaces. The growth of organized opposition in the working class expressed with rallies at workplaces and in mobilizing workplace contingents for demonstrations could eventually lay the basis for work stoppages to protest Trump’s attacks. It is completely illegal for federal government workers to strike and the law allows bosses to fire private sector workers who strike over political issues. However, if opposition to Trump’s billionaire agenda is massive and determined, movements can successfully defy the law, no matter how unjust.
At the start of the Reagan administration in 1981, working people faced a challenge similar to today, when Reagan fired the air traffic controllers for daring to strike. The big unions, such as the Teamsters and the United Auto Workers, flinched from an all-out fight to defend workers rights, and the battle was lost. That defeat was a green light to every corporation and right-wing politician who wanted to cut wages and take away benefits. If Trump’s attacks on federal workers succeed, there is no telling what the bosses and right-wing politicians will try to do next. If, on the other hand, organized workers’ action stops Trump’s attacks, workers could then use their newly found power to turn the whole society around, so that workers and not billionaires could determine how the wealth that our work creates is used.
