AFL-CIO Condemns Rule Change that Will Allow Trump Administration to Purge Dedicated Federal Workers in Favor of Political Loyalists

AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler released the following statement in response to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management’s final Schedule Policy/Career rule, which would reclassify hundreds of thousands of federal employees, making it easier to fire and replace them later with political loyalists:  

"The Trump administration’s rule change is yet another maneuver to purge federal workers who have spent their careers serving the public good and either replace them with political loyalists who will only serve the president’s agenda, or not replace them at all, starving our essential government services that people need to survive. Straight out of Project 2025, this effort to politicize federal workers and the services they provide would deprive our country of expertise and discourage remaining workers from speaking out against waste, fraud, and abuse for fear of retaliation.

On day one, President Trump abandoned his promise to focus on making life more affordable for workers and launched a mass union-busting campaign that has already forced an estimated 300,000 federal workers off the job and ripped up the contracts of around 700,000 more. This administration’s chaos has already put critical services at risk, from longer wait times and staffing shortages at Veterans Affairs hospitals to threats to food safety and disaster response.

The labor movement stands with federal workers. We’ll see Mr. Trump in court."