Federal agencies spent years recruiting and developing the next generation of public servants, but Presidents Musk and Trump on Feb. 13 directed agency heads to fire nearly all probationary employees, throwing away the very talent that agencies need to function effectively in the years ahead.
“This administration has abused the probationary period to conduct a politically driven mass firing spree, targeting employees not because of performance, but because they were hired before Trump took office,” said AFGE President Everett Kelley. "These firings are not about poor performance – there is no evidence these employees were anything but dedicated public servants. They are about power. They are about gutting the federal government, silencing workers, and forcing agencies into submission to a radical agenda that prioritizes cronyism over competence.”
As of March 2024, the most recent data, about 220,000 workers had less than a year on the job. The chronically understaffed Department of Veterans Affairs has dismissed over 1,000 probationary employees, a slap in the face to the veterans they serve. VA Secretary Doug Collins somehow believes firing the employees hired to take care of veterans is “the right call to better support the veterans.”
The Forest Service dismissed 2,400 new employees. Thousands of probationary employees at the Department of Education, the Small Business Administration (SBA), the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the General Services Administration (GSA), and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) were also let go despite OPM's own guidance earlier in the week advising agencies not to engage in sweeping terminations.
Many of these employees have never received negative feedback about their work, but the letters they received cited their performance as a reason for termination.
"The Agency finds that you are not fit for continued employment because your ability, knowledge and skills do not fit the current needs, and your performance has not been adequate to justify further employment with the Agency," said the letters sent to new hires.
Elon Musk, who leads the purge and stands to benefit from the demise of agencies investigating him and his companies, called for the elimination of entire agencies.
“I think we do need to delete entire agencies as opposed to leave a lot of them behind,” Musk said. “If we don’t remove the roots of the weed, then it’s easy for the weed to grow back.”
AFGE vowed to fight these firings every step of the way.
“We will stand with every impacted employee, pursue every legal challenge available, and hold this administration accountable for its reckless actions,” Kelley added. “Federal employees are not disposable, and we will not allow the government to treat them as such.”
In a major victory for AFGE, allies, and federal workers, a judge in California ordered the Trump administration to reinstate probationary employees fired at six agencies.
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AFGE and allies last week filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration for unlawfully and unilaterally terminating a negotiated union contract, which protects approximately 47,000 Transportation Security Officers (TSOs) across the country.
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Week 8 saw the economy in chaos while Trump and Musk attacked the Education Department, Environmental Protection Agency, Social Security, and Medicare.
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