How federal workers are mobilizing against Trump, Musk, and DOGE

[ResidentialBusiness]

Over the past month, as Elon Musk began to chaotically dismantle government agencies through the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), federal workers started to mobilize to fight back. One step is happening today, February 19: In a national day of action, workers will be protesting in front of federal buildings and Tesla dealerships, along with citizens who want to show support for the work that federal agencies do, from consumer protection to cancer research.

“The message is that we need to save our public services from billionaires who want to defund them,” says Mark Smith, an occupational therapist at the VA hospital in San Francisco who is president of the local chapter of the National Federation of Federal Employees, a union that represents more than 100,000 workers and is part of the Federal Unionists Network, a movement of rank-and-file workers that’s independent from union affiliations and has been quickly growing since Musk got to D.C.

At a protest in front of the Tesla showroom in San Francisco, federal workers will be joined by citizens who benefit from federal services—including veterans who get healthcare from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA); tenants who get housing from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD); consumers who get the benefit of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), which Musk has all but gutted; and people who appreciate the clean air and water provided by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

“All of us will be out there just trying to show that we’re not going to be quiet,” Smith says. “We’re going to stand up and we’re going to fight back.”

Though some of the protests are happening in front of Tesla stores, Smith emphasizes that they stand in solidarity with workers at Tesla factories. “What Musk is doing to us right now is the same thing he has done to Tesla workers in the factories in California,” he says. “In 2017, he tried to lay off a bunch of Tesla workers and say that it was for performance so they could get around the California rules around layoffs,” he says. “That’s a playbook he’s well-versed in.”

DOGE plans to access Department of Labor (DOL) data, though unions fought against it. The DOL previously had 17 open investigations into Tesla and SpaceX. OSHA, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, has fined Musk multiple times for safety violations. (OSHA, which has a database containing whistleblower information, is yet another agency DOGE is reportedly targeting.) “I think it behooves all of us to stand up together and say that we’re not going to let Musk drag us back to the 19th century in terms of working conditions,” Smith says.

The group also wants to help the public understand that federal employees aren’t just bureaucrats pushing paper. “Federal workers are park rangers. Federal workers are VA nurses. Federal workers are the folks who get your social security checks out on time,” says Smith. “Federal workers are wildland firefighters putting out the massive fires in California and wherever else. Federal workers are scientists and researchers looking at cancer.”

Many different unions represent different groups of federal workers. Those unions have also been growing—Smith says that his own union has seen more sign-ups in the past two weeks than over the past six months. Federal unions have multiple lawsuits underway against DOGE’s work. But the informal Federal Unionist Network, also known as FUN, is helping connect workers across agencies, and educating workers who are new to unions, about how to take collective action.

Already, as DOGE has paralyzed agencies like USAID and the CFPB, it’s led to real-world consequences. (In one of many examples, tens of millions of dollars’ worth of emergency food aid, grown by U.S. farmers, sat in ports and warehouses last week waiting to spoil after DOGE virtually shut down USAID.) Some federal employees who have already left, particularly at higher levels of management, have taken valuable institutional knowledge with them that can’t easily be replaced. Many in the newest generation of federal workers, who’ve faced layoffs, have likely decided to find work in the private sector instead.

It’s understandable, of course, for federal workers to be afraid of DOGE and feel powerless. But Smith says that they need to recognize the strength of working together. “Our national unions and other groups are doing the hard work of lobbying and filing lawsuits, but at the end of the day, workers acting together is really how we can exercise our power,” he says.

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