The United States federal workforce is facing an existential crisis. In the wake of Donald Trump’s re-election, the announcement of his administration’s so-called “DOGE meme office” to overhaul — or rather, dismantle — federal agencies is not just a reckless policy proposal. It is a calculated effort to gut the very infrastructure that keeps our government functioning.
Coupled with the appointment of unqualified cabinet secretaries seemingly selected for their antagonism toward the agencies they are set to lead, this agenda poses a clear and present danger to the integrity of public service. Understandably, many federal employees — particularly those within the Department of Justice — are rumored to be eyeing the exits. Trump’s well-documented penchant for retaliation against perceived enemies makes staying in the trenches of public service feel like a risk to their careers, reputations, and worse.
But now, more than ever, we need those very public servants to stay. To those in the federal workforce: Don’t stand aside. Stand together.
A Direct Assault on Public Service
The rhetoric and stated goals of Trump’s “DOGE meme office,” championed by allies like former Republican presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy, underscore the severity of the threat. Ramaswamy has declared his intention to slash the federal workforce by 75 percent, calling it “a managerial cancer on our republic.” The DOGE initiative — Disrupt, Overhaul, Gut, and Eliminate — is a cynical branding exercise cloaked in tech-world language but designed to decimate the vital functions of our government.
This stands in stark contrast to the message of just over a decade ago, when the Obama administration called for Americans to join public service, viewing government work as a noble path for those who sought to serve their country and strengthen its institutions. That call to action celebrated the role of federal workers in tackling challenges like access to high quality education, securing health insurance for America’s most vulnerable populations, and perhaps most importantly of all-protecting average Americans from the runaway greed of billionaires that led to the 2008 global financial collapse.
Just how bad were things the last time a Republican president allowed the financial sector unchecked freedoms and kept federal regulators from protecting our citizens? Well, in 2008, the world’s billionaires were worth a combined $4.4 trillion, US unemployment was at 5.8 percent and there were 2.3 million homes foreclosed.
By 2011, the billionaires were doing just fine. With a combined net worth of $4.5 Trillion they had fully recovered from the global financial crisis. Meanwhile, the average American was still hurting with an 8.9 percent unemployment rate and 2.7 million homes foreclosed.
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The average American family hadn’t fully recovered until 2015, when unemployment reached 5.3 percent and foreclosures fell under 1 million per year. Over the 7 years it took American families just to get back to where they started, the world had gone from 469 billionaires to 1,826 and their combined net worth ballooned from $4.4 trillion to $7.05 trillion.
We learned the value of our public servants in the Obama era. The passage of the Dodd-Frank act in 2010 placed strong guard rails on the behaviors of the Bush-era “Too big to fail” banks and created the first government agency with the specific goal of providing financial protection to American consumers.
This DOGE nonsense isn’t about getting the government out of your lives, my friends. It’s about getting the government out of THEIR economy. Not the economy of the average American who suffered for seven years after the collapse of billionaire-run investment banks, the economy of those billionaires who recovered in two years. Who thrived while we struggled.
By slashing the federal workforce, they aim to leave that billionaire economy behind and create a trillionaire economy. It’s an all-out attack on the civil servants who ensure the nation’s laws are enforced, our citizens are protected, and our values are upheld.
The Temptation to Leave
For many federal employees, particularly those at agencies like the DOJ, IRS, and Treasury, the temptation to leave ahead of the Trump-Musk-Ramaswamy assault on their careers is very real. The thought of weathering four years of politicized decision-making, retaliation, and erosion of professional standards is daunting.
But voluntarily hollowing out the federal workforce will do far more harm to our country and more rapidly erase the life’s work of our career civil servants. Abandoning the field now would hand victory to those who aim to dismantle public service altogether.
Moreover, Trump has a record of blustery threats that aren’t actually followed with real consequences. He threatened tariffs against Carrier corporation in 2016 and Ford Motor Company in 2017, as well as anti-trust enforcement against Google in 2018. In none of these cases did his government actually take policy action against these companies. It is also worth pointing out, on the topic of politicians delivering on promises, that it was President Biden’s DOJ that actually began aggressive anti-trust enforcement against Google this year.
Whether the threats to their careers are overblown or not, the pressure and stress are real. So what can federal workers do? They can fight back—not as individuals, but as a united front. Now is the time to turn to unions. Federal employee unions, like the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), are the most powerful tool available to protect jobs and resist retaliatory practices.
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Unions have historically been the backbone of workers’ rights in the United States, and they remain essential to defending the federal workforce. They provide legal representation, collective bargaining power, and a platform for organizing against harmful policies. By standing together, federal employees can push back against efforts to erode their rights, their jobs, and the institutions they serve.
The 2007 collective bargaining agreement (Warning: only click this link if you enjoy reading 74 page contracts over lunch, like I do) with EPA employees provided expanded protections against hazardous substances, enabling them to perform critical disaster response work more effectively.
The 2023 agreement between the AFGE and Department of Veterans Affairs eased hiring, enabling the agency to more quickly fill critical patient-care vacancies, and modernize systems and training practices to expedite medical care to veterans. All of this in response to the Biden Administration’s PACT Act, which expanded VA benefits for veterans exposed to toxic substances during their military service.
Unions have a powerful track record of not only supporting the rights of federal workers, but of helping those public servants secure better outcomes for the citizens they serve. And they can be a powerful ally for you today in the battle to come against this nonsensical DOGE effort to gut services to taxpayers and open up the billionaire economy.
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A weakened federal workforce makes it easier for those in power to act without oversight, to serve themselves rather than the people. We need you at your posts now, more than ever, to serve as a bulwark against corruption, cronyism, and authoritarianism. Leaving may feel like the safest option, but it will not make the consequences of this administration’s agenda disappear. By standing together, you can resist efforts to erode the institutions you serve and protect the nation from the chaos that would follow their collapse.
As federal employees, you are not alone. Millions of Americans value your work and stand with you in your commitment to public service. And you have the power of unions at your back—organizations dedicated to ensuring that your rights, your dignity, and your jobs are protected.
This is a moment for courage and solidarity. Public service has never been easy, and in these times, it is harder than ever. But history has shown us that when workers stand together, they can achieve what seems impossible.
Don’t stand aside. Stand together. Your work is essential, your voice is powerful, and your unions are your strongest allies in the fight to defend our government and your friends, neighbors, and fellow citizens.
