Labor unions are celebrating a legal win to the White House’s billionaire takeover. California federal Judge William Alsup ruled on Thursday that the Trump administration must retract notices that led to the mass purge of thousands of federal workers,” though he stopped short of ordering a halt to the firings,” The New York Times reported. This decision marks another loss for the White House this week and a win for working-class Americans.
In the court order, Alsup called the Office of Personnel Management memo “illegal, should be stopped, and rescinded.” While the OPM is meant to give agencies guidance, it’s not meant to take action as it did with the memos. Alsup also said he would set a date for an evidentiary hearing and bring in Charles Ezell, the acting director or OPM, to testify about the memos under oath.
Though Alsup “did not believe he had the power to grant a more expansive restraining order requiring agencies to halt planned layoffs,” the unions driving the lawsuit praised Alsup’s temporary halt in multiple statements.
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“This ruling by Judge Alsup is an important initial victory for patriotic Americans across this country who were illegally fired from their jobs by an agency that had no authority to do so,” said Everett Kelley, National President of the American Federation of Government Employees. “These are rank-and-file workers who joined the federal government to make a difference in their communities, only to be suddenly terminated due to this administration’s disdain for federal employees and desire to privatize their work.”
“We know this decision is just a first step, but it gives federal employees a respite. While they work to protect public health and safety, federal workers have faced constant harassment from unelected billionaires and anti-union extremists whose only goal is to give themselves massive tax breaks at the expense of working people,” said American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees President Lee Saunders.
Kelley, along with other union presidents, has been the first line of defense against the Department of Government Efficiency’s antics to gut the government. On Sunday, AFGE was part of a lawsuit filed against the “What did you do last week” email sent to over 2 million federal employees that threatened termination.
As Daily Kos reported earlier this month, lawsuits have shown to be the best—and perhaps only—way to stop Trump and Musk’s illegal and unconstitutional policies.
The legal battle is set to escalate further. Amidst the backlash, Musk and Trump are reportedly preparing to issue its second degrading directive, another work accountability email to federal employees scheduled for Saturday.
The details of the email are unclear, but labor groups have expressed concerns over it, with Kelley calling it “cruel and disrespectful.”
The ruling marks the second legal blow to the Trump administration’s federal workforce policies this week. On Tuesday, another federal judge in Washington, D.C., indefinitely suspended the administration’s freeze on federal funding, which had halted nearly $2 billion in allocations to states. However, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts sided with Trump when he issued a temporary stay, blocking the release of the funds while the case is under review.
With multiple court battles underway, labor unions and federal employees are bracing for a prolonged fight against what they see as an unprecedented assault on the civil service.
Trump and Musk may be hellbent on turning the federal workforce into their political punching bag, but the courts—and the unions—aren’t having it. If these two rulings this week prove anything, it’s that the billionaire class doesn’t get to bulldoze federal workers without a fight from those most impacted.
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