The AFL-CIO and several of its affiliated government employee unions, last Wednesday, launched a legal action over fears that Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is on the cusp of unlawfully gaining access to data about millions of federal workers.
The DOGE has instituted sweeping changes to the executive branch in the first weeks of President Trump’s administration, including moving to dismantle the US Agency for International Development and to access the Treasury Department’s payment system.
A mass protest took place on Wednesday afternoon at the Labour Department headquarters in Washington DC.
The new lawsuit follows a series of recent legal actions filed against DOGE claiming it is taking broad aim at the federal bureaucracy without any legal authority.
The complaint reads: ‘DOGE seeks to gain access to sensitive systems before courts can stop them, dismantle agencies before Congress can assert its prerogatives in the federal budget, and intimidate and threaten employees who stand in their way, worrying about the consequences later.’
Wednesday’s lawsuit was filed by the AFL-CIO and its affiliates – the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE); the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), the Service Employees International Union (SEIU); and the Communication Workers of America (CWA) – as well as the Economic Policy Institute, a think tank.
The plaintiffs are represented by Democracy Forward Foundation, a legal organisation that has filed eight lawsuits against the new administration’s actions.
It’s the latest sign of the AFL-CIO stepping up its anti-Musk push as he exerts extensive influence on Trump’s administration after pouring millions of dollars into boosting the president’s election campaign. Earlier in the day, the AFL-CIO unveiled a public campaign called the ‘Department of People Who Work for a Living.’
AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler said: ‘The government can work for billionaires or it can work for working people – but not both.
‘Musk is just getting started. And he has already tried to force workers doing essential services — air traffic controllers even after the tragedy at Washington National Airport – to retire, gained access to the Treasury Department’s payment system with everyone’s private data, and is declaring entire government agencies like USAID shut down and blocking workers from accessing the building and their email.
‘We will hold DOGE and Elon Musk accountable because we are certain that the people who keep our food and medicine safe know more about how to make government efficient than an outsider whose companies benefit from the very agencies he is infiltrating.’
In a statement Service Employees International Union (SEIU) President April Verrett said: ‘The dedicated civil servants at the Department of Labour work tirelessly to protect workers of all backgrounds against wage theft, discrimination, and harassment of all forms.
‘They enforce the law to ensure our workplaces are safe, we receive the overtime pay and sick leave that we’re entitled to, and that whistleblowers do not face retaliation.
Most importantly, they protect our right to form unions and fight back against bad bosses who violate the law to exploit workers who are simply trying to feed their families, pay the rent or serve their communities in essential jobs.
‘That’s why SEIU is proud to join our union siblings at AFL-CIO, AFSCME, CWA, AFGE and the Economic Policy Institute in filing our second lawsuit this week to stop this gross overreach.
‘We won’t stop until working people are made whole once again. Our personal data must be truly secure, our rights on the job must be protected, and anyone who directed these dangerous schemes must be held accountable.’
Meanwhile, Over 10,000 King Soopers workers from 77 stores in Colorado started a two-day strike last Thursday, after 96 per cent of union members across the state voted to approve the action.
United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7 workers have been in contract negotiations with King Soopers, which is owned by grocery giant Kroger, since October.
The contract union members have been working under expired at the end of January. Kroger also operates City Market stores in Colorado.
The strike comes after the union filed several Unfair Labour Practice complaints with the National Labour Relations Board related to issues with negotiations.
The complaints allege King Soopers illegally interrogated union members about bargaining, refused to provide data related to pricing and staffing the union needed to consider proposals in negotiations, and threatened union members with discipline for wearing union gear, among other violations.
UFCW Local 7 negotiators want higher staffing levels and wages to meet the cost of living in Colorado.
The union said Kroger proposed cuts to health care benefits, as well as the pension programme and retiree health care benefits to pay for ‘meagre wage increases for a few workers.
Kroger gave the union a ‘Last, Best, and Final Offer’ in mid-January that would provide a $4.50 per hour raise over the life of the contract ‘for Top Rate associates’, department heads and pharmacy technicians, according to information posted on a King Soopers website about negotiations with the union.
It also would expand a labour management committee within the company to ‘include discussions about staffing concerns, creating a collaborative platform to address associate feedback’.
The company described it as ‘our strongest and most comprehensive proposal to date’.
More than 8,000 Colorado King Soopers workers went on strike for just over a week in 2022 during negotiations on the three-year contract that expired at the end of January.
A King Soopers worker filed a class action lawsuit in November alleging Kroger and Albertsons, which operates Safeway stores in Colorado, illegally colluded by entering into a ‘no-poach’ agreement during the strike.
The previous contract had a ‘no strike clause’, but after it expired, the union initiated strike-authorisation votes around the state.
Workers went on strike at unionised King Soopers stores in Adams, Arapahoe, Broomfield, Denver, Douglas, and Jefferson counties, as well as in Boulder and Louisville.
- Elsewhere, National Education Association President Becky Pringle released the following statement reacting to Donald Trump’s Executive Order pushing to end the Department of Education
Pringle said: ‘Most of us believe every student deserves opportunity, resources, and support to reach their full potential no matter where they live, the colour of their skin, or how much their family earns.
‘Congress created the Department of Education, and only Congress has the power to end it.
‘Students across the country benefit from programmes run by the Department of Education, especially lower-income students in rural, suburban, and urban communities, students who qualify for federal grants or loans to receive career training or attend 2 and 4 year colleges, and students with disabilities.
‘Trump’s power grab could steal resources for our most vulnerable students, explode class sizes, cut job training programmes, make higher education more expensive and out of reach for middle class families, take away special education services for students with disabilities, and gut student civil rights protections.
‘Americans did not vote for, and do not support, ending the federal government’s commitment to ensuring equal educational opportunities for every child.’
- The Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) issued a statement on Friday condemning the deportation of Indian migrants from the United States.
CITU stated: ‘CITU condemns the inhuman undignified treatment being meted out to the deported immigrant Indian workers by the US government by handcuffing, chaining their legs, etc.
‘CITU notes with contempt the shameful silence of the Indian government to such atrocious and heinous treatment of the US administration to immigrant Indian workers on the plea of so-called illegality and demands that the Indian government act immediately to stop such an inhumane process perpetrated by the US.
‘Governments like that of Colombia and others have reacted strongly against such inhumane treatment of the immigrants from their respective countries and took initiatives in respect of their deportations,’ said CITU.
‘But the Indian government is shamefully silent, exhibiting its servility and helplessness before the USA, which is condemnable as well as unpardonable.
‘With this indifferent attitude of the Indian government, around 20,000 Indian immigrants said to be illegal immigrants could be deported, will have to face further humiliating and oppressive treatment. This cannot be tolerated.’
