President Trump’s policies targeting our federal government programs, our labor rights, and our personal freedoms as U.S. citizens is being met with growing public resistance.
A coalition of more than two dozen leaders from civil rights, labor, and religious organizations held a March on Wall Street on Thursday, Aug. 25, to protest the administration’s assault on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs and on immigration policies that are militarizing our city streets.
“Donald Trump’s attacks on DEI were only the prelude, as he is now dangling threats to take over American cities led by Black mayors,” said the Rev. Al Sharpton, founder and president of the National Action Network, which organized the Wall Street protest. “If we leave him unchecked on DEI, if we do not get out and march, if we do not speak up, he will completely erase the freedoms our parents and our grandparents fought, bled, and died for.”
Joining in the march was AFGE National President Everett Kelley, who reminded protest goers of the true reason for the attacks on the federal workforce.
“Donald Trump retaliated against AFGE and federal employees because we exposed his plan to dismantle and privatize the government, and sell it off piece by piece to the highest bidder,” Kelley told the crowd. “This isn’t about saving taxpayer dollars, it’s about providing gains for Wall Street. When the Trump administration terminates its contracts with its unionized workforce — it terminates its contract with the American people.
Protesting the Termination of Our Contracts
Days before the New York City march, AFGE local and district leaders joined with leaders of the National Democratic Party at a press conference outside the Minnesota State Fair to denounce the Trump administration’s illegal and unprecedented cancellation of collective bargaining agreements at the Department of Veterans Affairs and other agencies on the grounds of national security.
“How is providing high quality health care to our veterans who served in Korea, Vietnam, and past armed conflicts a threat to national security?,” AFGE Local 3669 President Jacob Romans asked the crowd. “Call me crazy but the last time I checked, veterans caring for other veterans isn’t exactly a threat to homeland security.”
Romans, whose local represents more than 1,300 employees at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center, said stripping away their collective bargaining agreement has had a “swift and devastating impact” on the care and treatment veterans are now receiving.
“This isn’t about helping veterans – it’s about abandoning them. It’s about starving the VA of the resources it needs, pushing our heroes into the hands of for-profit hospitals, and padding the pockets of CEOs while veterans wait for care,” Romans said.
District 8 National Vice President Ruark Hotopp said Trump is determined to destroy the federal workforce by breaking worker morale and silencing the unions that hold him accountable.
“The fact of the matter is – unions make the workplace safer. We hold our employer – the federal government – accountable. We protect workers and the public,” Hotopp said. “The agencies that Donald Trump is targeting have nothing to do with national security. What this is really about is dismantling the government, creating chaos, and replacing career nonpartisan experts with party and Trump loyalists who will do nothing but carry out his anti-worker and anti-American agenda.”
Hotopp urged the public to demand that their members of Congress bring to a vote legislation that would restore collective bargaining rights to all federal workers.
While the administration’s attacks have focused mostly on federal government employees, it’s only a matter of time before other workers start feeling the hit, said Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) President Stuart Appelbaum.
“We all understand that an attack on AFGE members is an attack on all workers,” Appelbaum said. “We can’t just sit back and watch. We have to stand up, we have to call them out, and we have to fight back.”
What workers should do: Call your congressional offices and make sure your representative has sponsored the discharge petition to bring the Protect America’s Workforce Act to a vote. This critical bill would overturn Trump’s union-busting executive order and restore collective bargaining rights to all federal workers. A discharge petition would allow the bill to bypass committees and bring a bill directly to the floor for a vote.
Since taking office in January 2025, President Trump has issued a series of unlawful executive orders, and taken several unlawful actions, seeking to shut down congressionally mandated agencies, fire and displace federal workers, outlaw their unions, and gut merit systems protections.
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A federal judge has ordered the Department of Veterans Affairs to reinstate the union contract covering 320,000 VA employees represented by AFGE in a major victory over the implementation of President Trump’s union-busting executive orders.
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As the Department of Homeland Security shutdown reaches the one-month mark with no end in sight, AFGE leaders are calling on Congress to ensure all DHS workers are paid.
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