A union representing engineers is one of three additional labor groups that filed Oct. 21 to join a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s efforts to furlough employees laid off during the government shutdown, bringing to eight the number of unions challenging the administration’s efforts. The layoffs have been temporarily blocked by a judge, but the head of the White House Office of Management and Budget has indicated that more than 10,000 workers could be targeted.
Two unions, the American Federation of Government Employees and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees initially filed the lawsuit on Sept. 30 — just before the shutdown began on Oct. 1 — in U.S. District Court in San Francisco in response to the Trump administration’s plans to lay off thousands of workers during a credit lapse. The layoffs violate the Administrative Procedure Act, the unions argue, writing in the complaint, “The Trump administration has made unlawful threats to dismantle essential federal services and functions provided by federal personnel, deviating from historical practice and violating applicable laws, if a shutdown occurs.”
The Trump administration has argued that its agencies have discretion in deciding whether a “reduction in force” (RIF) is necessary.
Other unions moved to join the case this month, and now the National Union of Treasury Employees, the American Federation of Teachers and the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE) have also asked the court to join the suit.
IFPTE represents engineers and other professional technical and administrative workers with both public and private employers. Members of its federal government work in agencies such as the US Navy, NASA, the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory, the Department of the Interior, the Government Accountability Office, and the Tennessee Valley Authority. Fourteen of its locals represent employees of the US Army Corps of Engineers, although the Corps was not among the federal agencies joining the suit.
“This joint action reaffirms two truths: that organized labor is leading the fight against the administration’s unprecedented and illegal attack on federal workers’ rights, and that the more cruel and outrageous their attacks, the stronger we stand in solidarity,” IFPTE President Matt Biggs said in a statement. “The whole game plan of our opponents is to divide us, demoralize us and defeat us, but we will prevail by taking a stand in every place available, including the courts.”
In past government shutdowns, employees have been temporarily laid off. But before the current shutdown, Russell Vought, the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), directed agency heads to go further and conduct a “reduction in force” (RIF) for employees, programs, projects and other activities that face discretionary funding lapses and are “not consistent with the president’s priorities.”
On October 10, Vought tweeted that “RIFs have begun.” Estimates provided by the OMB in court filings have varied, but Vought said in a podcast this month that the layoffs “will probably end up being north of 10,000.”
District Court Judge Susan Illston, the federal judge overseeing the case, issued a temporary restraining order on Oct. 15 blocking the Trump administration from issuing or carrying out any RIFs affecting union members in the suit, for now.
The administration has also sought to halt or cancel funding for projects through the Department of Transportation, the Department of Energy and the Army Corps of Engineers since the shutdown began.
Meanwhile, the government shutdown continues with little sign that either side is willing to budge. So far, the Senate has failed to meet the 60-vote threshold to pass either the Republicans’ stopgap spending bill to keep the government open, which did pass the House, or the Democrats’ similar bill that would also extend health care subsidies that are due to expire at the end of the calendar year.
Lawmakers in both parties have blamed it across the aisle, but the shutdown has also taken an unusual political slant, as federal agencies have shared messages blaming Democrats, a possible violation of the Hatch Act, which places limits on the political activities of federal employees. President Donald Trump has repeatedly said the layoffs would target “Democratic programs and agencies.” “And they will never come back in many cases,” he said on October 14.
