Worker Rights Threatened at the Department of Labor - The American Prospect

[justaprogressive]

When the boss declares open season on the workers, it’s deeply concerning. When that boss is the president of the United States, it’s unconscionable.

For the last few months, the world’s wealthiest man, Elon Musk, has carried out orders from President Trump to be “aggressive” toward federal employees. Federal workers have endured bullying, name-calling, and sweeping, often illegal, actions to strip them of their rights and even their jobs. The damage has been significant, and it’s far from over.

Trump and Musk’s chain saw approach to getting rid of federal employees initially failed. The first big wave of firings targeted probationary employees in the first years of their jobs—nearly 25,000 of them. That is being challenged in court. In an embarrassing example of how Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency is causing waste and abuse rather than stopping it, many of those employees were brought back to work when the administration realized that many federal employees, even those in their first and second years on the job, were really needed. Federal agencies have been spending time and money putting the things Musk broke back together again.

In addition to firings, Musk’s initial strategy was to get federal employees to give up their jobs, throwing money at them to nudge them out. This “Fork in the Road” approach also failed to cut federal employees in the numbers Musk wanted. Musk’s belief that federal employees would walk out if offered sufficient payment turned out to be wrong because, as it turns out, federal workers are deeply committed to the public service they’ve chosen and to the oaths they took. Federal employees already made the decision to forgo higher salaries in the private sector in favor of serving others—something the “we need to run government as a business” people cannot comprehend.

https://prospect.org/labor/2025-04-25-worker-rights-threatened-department-of-labor/