As sweeping cuts continue thought the federal government under the Trump administration and Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, the nation’s largest federal employee union is fighting back.
The American Federation of Government Employees District 8 Vice President Ruark Hotopp represents over 18,000 federal workers in Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, and the Dakotas. He told Vineeta Sawkar on the WCCO Morning News they are suing the administration over the right of workers to challenge their employer in court after being let go.
"What we've seen out of these termination letters, is that they all cite that these employees are poor performers," Hotopp explains. "However, their performance appraisals say otherwise. They're making something up so they can try to justify the action and try to somehow make it legal."
This suit is just one of many seeking to block President Donald Trump and Musk‘s effort to shrink the federal workforce.
Hotopp says in resignation offers to federal employees they are being asked to waive their right to challenge their employer in court - and that's part of what their suit will be disputing.
"We believe that the approach here being taken by President Trump and his co-president Elon Musk is an approach of terrifying and terrorizing the workforce, and trying to make our lives so miserable that we'll all just quit," he says.
Hotopp added that despite recent claims by the administration, firings have not been limited to probationary workers.
The lawsuit alleges that OPM’s egregious firings were made on false pretenses and violate federal law, including the Administrative Procedure Act and other statutes defining federal employment and OPM’s role. These firings were executed across federal agencies, based on directives from OPM.
Meanwhile, the turmoil that enveloped the federal workforce over the last few days is unlikely to cease anytime soon as the U.S. government’s human resources agency considers how to fulfill demands from Musk and the Trump administration.
“Elon Musk's latest email fiasco is yet another example of the chaotic and callous treatment of federal employees that has been the hallmark of Trump’s second term<" American Federation of Government Employees National President Everett Kelley says in a statement. "It was nothing but a cynical attempt to demean federal workers and terrorize them into quitting."
The Office of Personnel Management told agency leaders Monday that their employees did not have to comply with a Musk-inspired edict for workers to report their recent accomplishments or risk getting fired. But later that evening, OPM sent out another memo suggesting that there could be similar requests going forward — and workers might be sanctioned for noncompliance.
“Agencies should consider whether the expectation for employees to submit activity and/or accomplishment bullets should be integrated into the agency’s Weekly Activity Report,” wrote acting director Charles Ezell. He added that “agencies should consider any appropriate actions regarding employees who fail to respond to activity/accomplishment requests.”
OPM originally sent employees an email over the weekend with the subject line “what did you do last week?” Recipients were asked to respond with “approx. 5 bullets of what you accomplished.”
President Donald Trump did little to clear up the situation while talking to reporters in the Oval Office on Tuesday.
“It’s somewhat voluntary,” he said, but added that “if you don’t answer, I guess you get fired.”
Trump repeated his claims that taxpayer paychecks were going to nonexistent employees and said that workers could have additional opportunities to report their activities.
“If they don’t write back, they end up eventually losing their job,” he said.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that more than 1 million employees had responded to Musk’s request, which would be less than half of the estimated 2.4 million people in the federal workforce, according to U.S. statistics. She said the idea came directly from Musk, who used similar management tactics at his own companies, and she said that the administration was “working as one unified team.”
The Associated Press contributed to this story.