Local lawmakers, unions scramble to support federal workers harmed by Trump cuts

April 25, 2025 by

Members of the Minnesota Association of Professional Employees (MAPE) held informational picketing in support of about 170 employees at the Department of Health who have been laid off as a result of federal funding cuts.

Unions, local lawmakers and community volunteers are acting to support Minnesotans ensnared by the Trump administration’s reckless attempt to gut the federal workforce.

“If the Trump administration turned you away, Minnesota wants you,” Gov. Tim Walz said, announcing a new one-stop website with referrals to state employment openings, resources for veterans and tips for accessing state unemployment insurance benefits.

DFL legislators, meanwhile, have introduced bills that would bolster the safety net for workers navigating the federal chaos.

One measure would guarantee unemployment benefits for workers who accepted the so-called “fork-in-the-road offer” from Trump megadonor Elon Musk, head of the administration’s “DOGE” team.

Jacob Romans, president of American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) Local 3699, which represents 2,300 VA hospital workers, praised the proposal. He called it “legitimate” to question whether DOGE and the Trump administration would honor terms of the buyout through Sept. 30, as originally promised.

Another bill would establish a relocation bonus program for veterans who have been fired by the Trump administration, incentivizing public employees to continue their public service in Minnesota. Veterans make up roughly 30% of the federal government’s workforce.

Some House DFLers are also pushing a measure to tack on a 13-week extension of unemployment benefits for government workers whose federal benefits expire.

“We want to make sure that these dedicated public servants stay here in Minnesota and are not forced to leave their communities and find work elsewhere,” Rep. Pete Johnson of Duluth said. “But the goal is clear – make the job unbearable for workers so that they leave.”

“What we are trying to do is absorb some of the shock and the impact of the Trump-Musk actions, and protect Minnesota’s economy,” Rep. Greenman of Minneapolis said. “Right now our job is to protect Minnesota with the power that we have.”

Unions, too, have stepped up their advocacy on behalf of federal workers. As their attorneys continue fighting Trump’s war on the federal workforce in court, unions announced a new partnership that aims to connect individuals impacted by the cuts with free legal support.

The Rise Up Federal Workers Legal Defense Network, backed by the AFL-CIO and several federal government unions, put out the call for attorneys to volunteer their services to advocate for workers who have seen their rights violated – and careers upended – by the Trump administration’s recklessness.

“Attacks on federal workers are attacks on all workers and on the essential services that our communities rely on daily,” AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler said. “Getting these workers the justice they deserve in the face of this onslaught will take all of us.”

Anna Chu, executive director of We The Action, an organization that connects volunteer attorneys with community initiatives, said lawyers are “uniquely positioned” to assist federal employees in this moment.

“This is a moment for lawyers to support the federal workers who serve us all,” Chu added.

Tens of thousands of federal workers have been laid off, put on administrative leave or left their jobs since Trump took office. Over 18,000 federal employees reside in Minnesota.

– Michael Moore, Union Advocate editor

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Senators push back against Trump’s union-busting

March 11, 2020 by

Minnesota Senators Tina Smith (L) and Amy Klobuchar

In his administration’s latest swipe at federal unions, President Trump last month gave Defense Secretary Mark Esper unprecedented authority to strip collective bargaining rights from nearly 750,000 civilian workers at the agency.

Democratic senators, including Minnesota’s Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith, urged Esper in a letter last week “to exercise great restraint” with his new authority and avoid setting a “dangerous precedent.”

Smith, a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, said Democrats are committed to making sure the Department of Defense (DOD) continues bargaining with civilian workers, as it has for the last 60 years.

“As union members know, sometimes you have to fight to win fair treatment,” Smith said. “My colleagues and I are right there fighting with (union members), and that’s why we’re pushing back on the administration’s efforts to undermine collective bargaining.”

DOD workers potentially impacted by the new policy include janitors, firefighters, food-service workers, teachers, depot maintenance technicians, welders and other professionals. Their collective bargaining rights, Trump claimed in a document published in the Federal Register, could be “incompatible” with the agency’s “national security mission.”

Democratic senators aren’t buying it.

“There’s simply no evidence that this is true,” Smith said. “In fact, my Democratic colleagues and I believe having a unionized workforce actually enhances the security of our nation.”

In their letter to Esper, the senators point out that federal unions have helped expose health and safety hazards at the DOD, and rid the agency of “waste, fraud and abuse on the part of contractors.”

Federal employees gained the right to join a union and bargain collectively in 1962, when President Kennedy issued an executive order. Presidents since then have used executive power to narrow or, sometimes, expand the pool of federal workers eligible to join unions.

But a White House memo leaked last fall revealed Trump was weighing a much more drastic use of executive power: purging the federal workforce of unions altogether.

“Government unions impede the efficiency of federal operations and direct the government to put the interests of government employees first,” the memo reads. “Curtailing collective bargaining in government serves the public good.”

Nearly 500,000 DOD workers are currently covered by union contracts, including 300,000 represented by the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE). Everett Kelley, AFGE’s national president, called it insulting for the Trump administration to suggest the bargaining rights of civilian employees, who support the military during wars and other conflicts, somehow threaten national security.

“More than a third of these workers are veterans, and it’s an insult to these employees’ military service and their continued service to their country for the administration to claim that their union affiliation somehow threatens our national security,” Kelley said.

In their letter to Esper, senators note that collective bargaining has helped establish the department as an attractive employer, with fair wages and benefits, and attract highly skilled workers.

“In short, we believe that the Department’s unionized workforce has enhanced our security, not detracted from it,” the senators wrote. “President Trump’s Memorandum arbitrarily and needlessly threatens this positive relationship.”

Filed Under: Labor Voices, Politics Tagged With: , , , , , ,

In Minneapolis, hundreds rally against Social Security’s closed-door policy

August 28, 2014 by
U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison (R) leads a rally outside the Social Security office in Minneapolis, which has reduced its service hours.

U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison (R) leads a rally outside the Social Security office in Minneapolis, which has reduced its service hours.

Doors to the Social Security Administration’s field office in Minneapolis were locked at 3 p.m. yesterday, and they could stay locked permanently – in Minneapolis and at field offices across the country – if the federal agency gets its way.

That’s the warning sounded by federal workers rallying on the street outside the Chicago Avenue office yesterday.

About 200 members of the American Federation of Government Employees, holding a convention in Minneapolis this week, rallied with federal lawmakers and local retirees, raising awareness of Social Security’s plan to close hundreds of local offices just as the number of Social Security-eligible Americans is about to hit its peak.

AFGE President David Cox speaks to the crowd in Minneapolis.

AFGE President David Cox speaks to the crowd in Minneapolis.

Already, the Social Security Administration has closed 80 community offices nationwide, AFGE President David Cox told demonstrators, and “they’re looking to shutdown all the rest.”

A report released earlier this year by the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging found the agency had shed 11,000 workers and closed 553 contact stations over the previous three years, and “had reduced or eliminated a variety of in-person services” at a time when Baby Boomers are filing claims in record numbers.

Social Security provides financial assistance to elderly, disabled, widowed and orphaned Americans, “people who through no fault of their own cannot provide for themselves,” Cox said. AFGE members who staff Social Security offices – and the Americans who rely on them – are baffled by dwindling federal support for “the most popular government program in our nation’s history.”

Marie Milsten-Fiedler of Minneapolis relies on face-to-face service provided by Social Security employees.

Marie Milsten-Fiedler of Minneapolis relies on face-to-face service provided by Social Security employees.

Social Security Administration officials have said office closures and staff cuts are part of a plan, known as Vision 2025, to transition most of the agency’s face-to-face services online and to call centers. But the plan does not sit well with Social Security beneficiaries like Marie Milsten-Fiedler of Minneapolis, who called it “pennywise and pound foolish.”

“Not all of us have the ability to pay for computers or Internet access,” Milsten-Fiedler said. Filing for benefits “is a major life changing event. It is extremely stressful, and folks should not be stuck alone in front of a computer screen. People should be available to help us through it.”

Professionals also are needed to protect against Social Security fraud. Milsten-Fiedler said she had to show several forms of identification in order to begin receiving her Social Security benefits. “How’s that going to happen over the Internet?” she asked.

Dana Duggins, an officer with the AFGE’s Social Security branch, said 95 percent of claims submitted over the Internet result in error, and reports of fraud are on the rise.

About 200 AFGE members joined the rally outside the Minneapolis Social Security field office.

About 200 AFGE members joined the rally outside the Minneapolis Social Security field office.

“We think the agency has put the cart before the horse,” Duggins said. “They don’t have the safeguards in place to protect the public. What’s worse is that Social Security staff are expected to push this system, knowing that it is hurting the American public.”

As the rally proceeded, several people approached the Social Security office, only to turn around after seeing the “Closed” sign. Before the rally began, U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison told demonstrators, he encountered a woman who had traveled by bus to the office from Plymouth, “which I’m telling you is not close.”

“We need to make sure people who need Social Security have an open door when they show up to get Social Security,” the Minneapolis DFLer said. “If they can give a big tax cut loophole to some oil company, then they can open this office.”

House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland also attended the rally. He thanked activists for standing up on behalf of “millions of people who worked hard, who made America great, who invested in the Social Security program and want to walk through that door during normal working hours.”

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