Typically we don’t enter into the labor relations of the public sector, but there is so much going on with federal employees, the executive branch, labor law, labor policy and federal labor unions that we thought it would be worth some analysis. There are definitely some things to keep an eye on.
The question of whether a government should be run like a business has been asked plenty, both during Trump’s first administration and the current one. The current quest for streamlining the federal bureaucracy, however, has run amuck. That isn’t a partisan take but one that can be gleaned by watching waves of rollbacks, lawsuits, and incoming union responses.
The Rollbacks Begin: Tens of thousands of probationary workers and decades-long employees were laid off with reports soon surfacing that essential nuclear weapons experts and infectious disease scientists were accidentally fired by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) on a mandate from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Cue the scrambles from the multiple federal agencies to attempt rehires. Then this week, the Centers for Disease Control emailed 180 laid off workers and told them to come back to work. Talk about push and pull.
A lawsuit avalanche: Workers are taking legal action. That includes a pair of fired Equal Employment Opportunity Commission commissioners, presumably let go over Trump’s executive order rolling back DEI, and ousted NLRB board member Gwynne Wilcox, for whom a reinstatement could present a Catch-22 dilemma for the currently paralyzed board itself.
Late this week, a federal judge called out the Trump administration for firing Wilcox without cause in an “extreme” attempt to expand presidential power. The judge also indicated that she is leaning in favor of reinstating Wilcox while acknowledging that her ruling would be “merely a speed bump for you all to get to the Supreme Court." If Wilcox receives her job back, this will restore the quorum needed for the NLRB to begin ruling on workplace disputes again, albeit in a less “activist” capacity than under Biden.
Additionally, a district judge reversed the “illegal” firing of Merit Systems Protection Board member Cathy Harris, whose job actually involves handling agency-and-worker disputes including appeals of firings.
Labor unions have also sued over job losses, and another judge deemed probationary firings illegal regarding several federal agencies. That judge further ruled that the OPM doesn’t hold Congressional authority to hire or fire within other federal agencies.
And The Rollbacks Continue: Are you ready for a real head scratcher? On March 4, OPM abruptly altered their own memo on the large-scale reduction of probationary employees to insert this disclaimer: “Please note that, by this memorandum, OPM is not directing agencies to take any specific performance-based actions regarding probationary employees. Agencies have ultimate decision-making authority over, and responsibility for, such personnel actions." It looks like OPM is attempting to back away from the fact that these firings have happened at all.
In response to this edited memo, the American Federation of Government Employees, which claims to represent 800,000 workers, has accused OPM of essentially admitting that these firings were illegal.
The takeaways: The current attempt to run the government “like a business” might be demonstrating how not to run private labor practices.
For example, most companies wouldn’t think of sending a Saturday night email instructing workers to list weekly accomplishments or lose their jobs. Sure, several agencies, including the FBI, told their workers to ignore that very real email, although this hasn’t lessened the confusion and fear felt by federal workers, who were already privy to messy ROI procedures.
Along with the mass firings, these actions, if taken by private employers, would sow enough distrust that workers could jump at a union coming along to volunteer their assistance. What has transpired in the government could easily lead to more union activity in the private sector.
