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For Immediate Release
February, 14 2025, 08:50am EDT
Contact:
Cheston McGuire,Phone:,202-639-6453,Email:,cheston.mcguire,@afge.or,g
Union leader calls mass firings "reckless" and will fight for all impacted employees
AFGE National President Everett Kelley released the following statement today in response to the mass firing of probationary employees:
"This administration has abused the probationary period to conduct a politically driven mass firing spree, targeting employees not because of performance, but because they were hired before Trump took office.
"These firings are not about poor performance -- there is no evidence these employees were anything but dedicated public servants. They are about power. They are about gutting the federal government, silencing workers, and forcing agencies into submission to a radical agenda that prioritizes cronyism over competence.
"Despite OPM's guidance earlier this week advising agencies not to engage in sweeping terminations, the administration has plowed forward. Employees were given no notice, no due process, and no opportunity to defend themselves in a blatant violation of the principles of fairness and merit that are supposed to govern federal employment.
"Agencies have spent years recruiting and developing the next generation of public servants. By firing them en masse, this administration is throwing away the very talent that agencies need to function effectively in the years ahead.
"AFGE will fight these firings every step of the way. We will stand with every impacted employee, pursue every legal challenge available, and hold this administration accountable for its reckless actions. Federal employees are not disposable, and we will not allow the government to treat them as such."
The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) is the largest federal employee union proudly representing 700,000 federal and D.C. government workers nationwide and overseas. Workers in virtually all functions of government at every federal agency depend upon AFGE for legal representation, legislative advocacy, technical expertise and informational services.
(202) 737-8700LATEST NEWS
As Trump Targets AP, Media Urged to Resist Moves Like 'Gulf of America' Renaming
"It's at times like these that journalists need to put down their pens and advocate for accountable leadership," asserted one campaigner.
Feb 14, 2025
First Amendment defenders are calling on media organizations and journalists to stand up to bullying and intimidation by U.S. President Donald Trump, whose administration on Friday confirmed the indefinite exclusion of one of the world's largest news agencies from White House press briefings and Air Force One flights over its refusal to adopt the Republican leader's new name for the Gulf of Mexico.
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Taylor Budowich said that because The Associated Press "continues to ignore the lawful geographic name change" of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, it will be indefinitely banned from White House news conferences and the president's official airplane.
"The level of pettiness displayed by the White House is so incredible that it almost hides the gravity of the situation."
The New York-based AP, which provides news content to roughly 15,000 media outlets in over 100 countries, has explained that, because the gulf is an international body of water, it will continue to call it the Gulf of Mexico because Mexico—whose president on Thursday threatened to sue Google for adopting Trump's name change—and other countries do not recognize the new name.
In contrast, the AP said it will call Denali, the highest peak in North America, Mt. McKinley following a name change by Trump because the Alaska mountain is located entirely inside the United States.
Budowich said the AP's decision on the Gulf of Mexico exposes the agency's "commitment to misinformation."
"While their right to irresponsible and dishonest reporting is protected by the First Amendment, it does not ensure their privilege of unfettered access to limited spaces," he argued.
But critics said the Trump administration's behavior is about a lot more than just a spat over a name change.
"Of course, this is just more petty behavior by a president seeking to punish any news organization that doesn't follow his dictates, regardless of how ridiculous they may be," Timothy Karr, the senior director of strategy and communications at Free Press, told Common Dreams on Friday.
"It's at times like these that journalists need to put down their pens and advocate for accountable leadership," Karr stressed. "They need to advocate for themselves, their colleagues, and for journalism writ large."
"The good news is that more than a dozen of the mass market news outlets have refused to adopt Trump's name change for the Gulf of Mexico," he added. "That's a start. They now need to speak out against his First Amendment threats, despite the consequences. There is much more at stake now than just having access to the White House."
"By defying Trump, the AP has created a rallying point for other organizations and individuals to find their spines and defy him as well."
Writing for Public Notice Friday, Noah Berlatsky commended the AP for "not changing their style to suit the whims of a would-be tin-pot dictator."
"And by defying Trump, the AP has created a rallying point for other organizations and individuals to find their spines and defy him as well," Berlatsky added.
Those include the heads of the White House Correspondents' Association (WHCA) and Reporters Without Borders (RSF), as well as groups like the Committee to Protect Journalists, National Press Club, PEN America, and Society of Professional Journalists.
"The White House cannot dictate how news organizations report the news, nor should it penalize working journalists because it is unhappy with their editors' decisions," WHCA president Eugene Daniels said earlier this week.
RSF USA executive director Clayton Weimers said in a statement that "the level of pettiness displayed by the White House is so incredible that it almost hides the gravity of the situation."
"A sitting president is punishing a major news outlet for its constitutionally protected choice of words," Weimers added. "Donald Trump has been trampling over press freedom since his first day in office."
President Trump banning the Associated Press from an event over their usage of "Gulf of Mexico" instead of "Gulf of America" may seem more absurd than alarming, but Trump's attacks on the free press are no joke.
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— ACLU (@aclu.org) February 11, 2025 at 5:35 PM
Numerous experts highlighted what they called the unconstitutionality of banning a media outlet from press briefings for political reasons.
"The AP—a major news agency that produces and distributes reports to thousands of newspapers, radio stations, and TV broadcasters around the world—has had long-standing access to the White House," Aaron Terr, director of public advocacy at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, wrote on Friday.
"It is now losing that access because its exercise of editorial discretion doesn't align with the administration’s preferred messaging," Terr added. "That's viewpoint discrimination, and it's unconstitutional."
Berlatsky wrote: "As ABC, Meta, the LA Times, The Washington Post, and Google demonstrate, you lose 100% of the fights you preemptively and despicably surrender. The AP has already won an important victory by refusing to change the Gulf of Mexico to some random other name at the whim of a power-mad orange gasbag."
"If any portion of Trump's agenda is to be stopped, we need people and organizations who are willing to defy him and speak truths he doesn't want to hear," he added. "Despite Trump, the
AP still calls the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of Mexico. In doing so, it's reminding us what freedom looks like. It's also demonstrating us that if you don't want to lose your freedoms, you have to use them."
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'There's Power in Fighting Back': Court Battle Halts Purge of Consumer Agency
One attorney cited "credible reports" that a reduction in force and data destruction were "imminent."
Feb 14, 2025
A federal judge in Washington, D.C. announced Friday that the Trump administration has agreed to halt its mass firings at a consumer protection agency, refrain from defunding it, and retain "vast troves" of data while a legal battle plays out.
The National Treasury Employees Union, Public Citizen Litigation Group, and Gupta Wessler LLP sued on Thursday, after employees of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) began getting termination notices earlier this week as part of Republican President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk's purge of the federal workforce.
Reutersreported that "in court on Friday afternoon, union representatives had said they believed the government was planning to eviscerate the CFPB, possibly as soon as the same day, beginning the process of dismissing all remaining staff, canceling the agency's lease, and returning its funds to the Federal Reserve."
In a brief order, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson explained that under a deal reached at the Friday conference, the agency and acting Director Russell Vought "shall not terminate any CFPB employee, except for cause related to the specific employee's performance or conduct" nor "issue any notice of reduction-in-force to any CFPB employee."
Jackson, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, wrote that the bureau and its acting director also cannot:
- transfer money from the CFPB's reserve funds, other than to satisfy the ordinary operating obligations of the CFPB;
- relinquish control or ownership of the CFPB's reserve funds, nor grant control or ownership of the CFPB's reserve funds to any other entity;
- return any money from the CFPB's reserve funds to the Federal Reserve or the Department of Treasury; or
- otherwise take steps to reduce the amount of money available to the CFPB below the amount available as of 4:00 pm on February 14, 2025, other than to satisfy the ordinary operating obligations of the CFPB.
Additionally, the agency and Vought—who formally leads the White House Office of Management and Budget—"shall not delete, destroy, remove, or impair any data or other CFPB records covered by the Federal Records Act," according to the judge.
Celebrating the order on social media Friday, attorney Deepak Gupta said that "we had credible reports" a reduction in force—the government term for layoffs—was coming at the agency long targeted by Republicans and "data destruction was imminent."
U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)—the former law professor who first proposed and then helped build the CFPB—also welcomed the development on Friday while blasting Trump and Musk, who heads the president's so-called Department of Government Efficiency and has a direct interest in destroying the CFPB.
"A judge just blocked Elon Musk and co-president Donald Trump from firing the financial cops at the CFPB who protect consumers from Wall Street scams," Warren said on the Musk-owned platform X. "There's power in fighting back."
As Government Executivereported Friday:
Jackson will hold a hearing on March 3 to determine whether to issue a longer-lasting preliminary injunction on the Trump administration's moves.
Another federal judge acted similarly to restrain the administration's efforts at the U.S. Agency for International Development, where such an order will remain in effect at least through Feburary 21. The agency had placed virtually all of its employees on administrative leave and had ordered its staff abroad to abruptly return home, but the judge unwound both of those actions.
The development in the D.C. court followed another deal on Thursday to prevent the Trump administration from defunding the CFPB. That case was filed by Democracy Forward on behalf of the city of Baltimore and the Economic Action Maryland Fund.
"The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau protects all Americans from predatory and discriminatory practices. It has returned $20 billion back to the American public, yet again, it is unfortunate we have had to resort to litigation to protect this consumer watchdog," Democracy Forward president and CEO Skye Perryman said Thursday. "We are pleased the government has agreed to keep its hands off the bureau's funding until the court can hear this case."
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Trump Executive Order Would Defund Schools That Require Covid Vaccines
Although the move was "largely symbolic" due to lack of such mandates, one expert still warned it is "legitimization of anti-science and anti-vax noise."
Feb 14, 2025
Amid fears of what U.S. President Donald Trump's second term will mean for global health and public education, the Republican on Friday signed an executive order to defund schools that require Covid-19 vaccination for students.
Trump's order bars federal funding "from being used to support or subsidize an educational service agency, state education agency, local education agency, elementary school, secondary school, or institution of higher education that requires students to have received a Covid-19 vaccination to attend in-person education programs," according to a White House fact sheet.
The order, first reported by Breitbart News, also directs the secretaries of education and health and human services (HHS) to develop a plan "to end coercive Covid-19 vaccine mandates, including a report on noncompliant entities and a process for preventing federal funds from supporting educational entities that impose Covid-19 vaccine mandates."
While signing the order in the Oval Office, Trump—who was president during the onset of the pandemic and has received intense criticism for his handling of the public health crisis—said, "OK, that solves that problem."
The White House claimed that "parents are being forced into a difficult position: comply with a controversial mandate or risk their child's educational future." However, according toABC News, Trump's move was actually "largely symbolic" considering that no states currently require K-12 students to have the Covid shots.
The Associated Pressreported that "some colleges started requiring students to be immunized against Covid-19 during the pandemic, but most have dropped the requirements. A few continue to require vaccines at least for students living on campus, including Swarthmore and Oberlin colleges. Most of those colleges allow medical or religious exemptions."
As ABC noted:
One open question is whether the new administration could opt to go beyond Covid vaccines and put pressure on schools to drop requirements for other vaccines.
Currently, all 50 states mandate that students receive certain vaccinations, including to prevent the measles. Many states, however, offer religious exemptions.
"This is anti-vax pandering," Timothy Caulfield, a professor focused on public health and law at Canada's University of Alberta, said of Trump's order. "Still worrisome, however. It is yet more normalization and legitimization of anti-science and anti-vax noise."
The new measure came a day after Senate Republicans voted to confirm vaccine conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as HHS secretary and Trump signed another executive order establishing the Make America Healthy Again Commission.
Also on Thursday, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions held a confirmation hearing for Linda McMahon, the billionaire GOP megadonor and former World Wrestling Entertainment CEO nominated to serve as education secretary, even though Trump has signaled that he ultimately intends to fully dismantle the department.
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