A case filed by AFSCME, UNAC and others is shining a light on just how unlawfully the administration is treating federal workers.
A federal judge in San Francisco ruled last week that the Office of Personnel Management’s (OPM) direction to do mass firings of probationary federal employees was illegal and must stop immediately. That ruling offers U.S. government employees a break after weeks of harassment from the new administration.
Judge William H. Alsup, of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, granted a temporary restraining order against OPM, ruling that OPM has no authority to fire probationary workers across the government.
Alsup’s decision came in a case filed by AFSCME, the United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals (UNAC/UHCP, AFSCME), the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), AFGE Local 1216, and a number of allied nonprofit organizations.
“We know this decision is just a first step, but it gives federal employees a respite,” said AFSCME President Lee Saunders in a press statement. “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. We will continue to move this case forward with our partners until federal workers are protected against these baseless terminations.”
In a hearing, Alsup said that when federal agencies fire employees for no reason, “that’s just not right in our country,” adding that we can’t “run our agencies with lies.” He also said that OPM “does not have any authority whatsoever under any statute in the history of the universe to hire and fire employees at another agency.”
AFSCME and its partners filed the case on Feb. 19 after OPM ordered federal agencies to fire employees who are within one or two years of employment with the federal government. AFSCME and other unions called the move “one of the most massive employment frauds in the history of this country.”
The lawsuit argues that the firings were based on false pretenses and violate federal law. OPM acted unlawfully by directing federal agencies to use a standardized termination notice falsely claiming the targeted workers were poor performers.
AFSCME’s Get Organized campaign seeks to stop anti-union extremists and their billionaire friends from destroying the public services we provide and rolling back laws that protect our health and safety at work, our job security and even our freedom to join our union.
It’s time for workers to Get Organized. It’s time to GO.