Feds brace for return of Trump personnel policies

Federal employee groups said Wednesday that they stand ready to work with president-elect Donald Trump’s administration when he returns to the White House in January, though they are under no illusions that he or his allies will feel the same.

“The election of Donald Trump as the next president of the United States is not the result our union was hoping for,” said Everett Kelley, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees in a statement. “Nevertheless, federal employees are sworn to uphold the law and the Constitution, and they will continue to do their jobs regardless of who sits in the White House.”

Labor groups expressing a willingness to work with an incoming president’s administration is nothing new—officials typically want to try to develop a relationship before becoming adversarial toward management. But after Trump’s first term was marked by numerous efforts to reduce labor power at federal agencies, leaders of employee groups acknowledge that the chances of a cooperative relationship are slim.

“Despite President-elect Trump’s track record with federal employees and unions, the National Treasury Employees Union will make every effort to work in good faith with his upcoming administration,” said NTEU National President Doreen Greenwald. “However, we are fully prepared to work with our allies in Congress and use all the tools we have to fight any and all actions taken by his administration that would harm frontline federal workers, our ability to represent them or their ability to serve the American people.”

Matt Biggs, national president of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, told Government Executive, said he is already hearing from some members who are considering leaving federal service, including some in local union leadership positions.

“It feels different—in 2016, he was still something of an unknown,” he said of employees potentially eyeing the exits. “Now we have Trump’s first term anti-union executive orders and Schedule F on top of that, and we have Project 2025, the blueprint of exactly what they’re going to do. So it doesn’t take a lot of imagination to figure out exactly what they have planned.”

Kelley likewise vowed to fight on behalf of the 800,000 federal workers represented by AFGE against any proposals to undermine unions and civil service protections.

“Make no mistake: our union will not stand by and let any political leader—regardless of their political affiliation—run roughshod over the Constitution and our laws,” he said. “During President Trump’s first term, his administration attempted to gut many of our negotiated union contracts, downsize and relocate federal agencies at great disruption and cost to taxpayers and replace tens of thousands of nonpartisan civil servants with political appointees who would blindly do his bidding. Federal and D.C. government employees should be able to do their jobs without political interference, without violating their constitutional oath and without breaking the law—and as their elected representative, we will do everything in our power to make sure that’s possible.”

And with the control of the House still up in the air of as Wednesday afternoon, Biggs said unions should continue to cultivate relationships with the few pro-labor Republicans in Congress.

“We can easily see a scenario where some really bad legislation can come down that we will have to actively work to defeat, and there are that critical handful of labor-friendly Republicans, and we’ll have to really rely on them if Republicans continue to control the House,” he said. “We’re not in mourning or anything. As a union that represents federal employees, we have to prepare to defend our members. We’re taking a business-like and practical approach to this.”