Department of People Who Work for a Living
DPWL recently held nationwide hearings to amplify workers' voices on federal policy. Participants expressed deep concern over cuts to federal jobs and services, criticizing the Trump administration’s disregard for civil servants and attacks on protections for working people.
Federal unions—and all unions—are under attack.
The Trump administration took its most blatantly anti-worker, anti-union action yet: an executive order stripping the right to organize from hundreds of thousands of federal workers at more than 30 agencies. If President Trump can cancel union contracts, no worker in America is safe.
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Take action with AFL-CIO
Working people around the country are taking action. Check out these ways to get involved!
Issues
Navigate the issues below to learn how unelected billionaires and their agenda is affecting working people.
Federal Workers
Federal workers are the heart of our government, ensuring that critical services like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, the Department of Veterans Affairs, disaster relief and national defense run smoothly. They run our national parks, inspect our food and medicine, and keep us safe from crime, accidents and disasters.
Cuts to the federal workforce jeopardize these services, affecting millions of Americans who rely on the government to protect and secure their well-being.
Immigration
One in five workers in America wasn’t born here. Immigrants are America’s workers, vital to the fabric of our communities, our economy and our labor movement.
The labor movement supports comprehensive immigration reform that fully protects America’s workers, reduces the exploitation of immigrant workers and reduces employers’ incentive to hire undocumented workers rather than U.S. workers. But stoking fear about immigrants, raiding schools and hospitals, and mass deporting people whose labor makes our country prosper is not only a betrayal of our values—it’s also a recipe for economic disaster.
Labor Law
President Trump has effectively shut down the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).
The NLRB—usually led by five board members—holds union elections, investigates allegations, and resolves cases of wrongdoing brought by workers, unions or employers.
The president illegally fired a member of the labor board, Gwynne Wilcox—the first Black woman to serve on the NLRB. There are now only two sitting members of the board, which leaves it one member short of the minimum number needed for any decision-making. And by firing Wilcox, because he didn’t like her decisions, he destroyed the board’s independence.
Tax and Budget Policy
Proposed Spending Cuts Would Cut Workers’ Health Care and Jobs to Pay for Tax Cuts for the Rich
Budgets are about more than just dollars and cents listed on a spreadsheet—budgets are about our values. We saw Trump’s budget priorities during his last administration: billions in proposed cuts to Social Security. Billions in proposed cuts to Medicaid. Billions in proposed cuts to public schools. Billions in proposed cuts to food assistance programs.
At the same time, the last Trump administration had plenty of money for a tax bill in 2017 that delivered trillions of dollars in special tax breaks to billionaires and giant corporations. Now the Trump administration is looking to make those tax breaks for the rich and powerful permanent in 2025.
Where in the U.S. are government workers?
Where do government workers live? The answer may surprise you. While many assume most federal workers are based in the Washington, D.C., area, 85% of federal employees live throughout the country, with large concentrations in states like California, Texas, Florida and Georgia. Cuts would be felt nationwide, hurting local economies and services.
About one-third of federal workers are military veterans who continue to serve our country in these roles. Cuts to the federal workforce would immediately put thousands of veterans out of work.
In our own words
Click through the carousel to read the stories of ordinary workers who make our communities run, and see how they’re being affected by DOGE and the Trump administration’s executive orders.
We’re a military family and rely on workplace flexibility for me to keep my job. We are currently stationed in [redacted] and rely on two incomes to make ends meet.
They’re already affecting my work. We don’t have the resources to do what they want us to do and they demonize us every day.
As a federal employee, a hostile administration makes me fearful that my job could be terminated at the stroke of a pen. As the majority breadwinner, this would make us homeless in months.
As an Indigenous, disabled veteran, working with a hostile administration puts my work and my family’s life in jeopardy. I gave up my youth in service to this country, and to have that sacrifice dishonored by the people in D.C. is a punch in the gut.
I spent nine years in grad school, five years in post doc. I’ve wanted to work for [the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration] (NOAA) a long time. If I cared about money, I would have gone to Wall Street, but I care about our environment and our people. And NOAA provides a lot of services to Alaska, the rural and coastal communities here really get a lot of information from us, and I’m worried.
I'm sad that I lost my job. But I'm also sad I'm not going to be able to help these people anymore who desperately need it.
Trump’s gone on the attack against American workers, and we are watching hard-fought gains erode before our eyes.
I suffer from mental health issues, general anxiety, OCD and depression. Working from home, [I] was supported by my doctor and psychiatrist due to how it helped me cope and work. Now that is being taken away.
My job was updating the publicly accessible water data, which helped everything from topographic maps to conservation to agriculture, everything. Myself and 12 other probationary employees were let go... I was ONE week away from being off probation.
When my husband loses his job, I will not be able to support our family on my income....My entire paycheck just covers the cost of daycare for our 3-year-old son, who is also a budding naturalist and fisherman. The identity of our family is tied to the protection of the Great Lakes. Who will be there to protect 84% of North America's freshwater resources when we're gone?
I have 20 years of federal service that I’m terrified will be taken from me, destroying my retirement benefits. I have a family to support. I’m up all night with my PTSD, exasperated by the stress this man is causing me and so many others.
I have a nephew who served 4 years in Iraq, then, due to his outstanding service as leader of a battalion and at the request of the Army, he spent 4 years training other Army personnel in Germany instead of coming home. Once he completed the training, he came home and went to work for the EPA. Now he's received the notorious email requesting him to quit. This is not the respect or appreciation he deserves for serving his country in the finest fashion.
My mental health has been negatively impacted. I live in constant fear and instability. Constantly checking emails. Praying I’ll be able to keep my career I’ve worked so hard for and retirement.
I was terminated from my role as a Research Fish Biologist....It seems that fisheries science will no longer be valued in the U.S. This termination will also cost me and my family financially.
I work for a tribal college and university that is held in trust by the government....Because most faculty and staff were let go, this leaves our already underfunded, understaffed university vulnerable, and it’s certain we as a university will experience many negative impacts. Students will be most affected. The quality of education will go down, and the struggles we've already had and endured for generations will become even more unmanageable.
My brother and his wife made tremendous sacrifices to join USAID, leaving successful careers....They packed up their home, took their three young children and moved across the world, committed to making a difference. Less than a year later, they wake up to daily uncertainty. With little communication and even fewer instructions, they are left in limbo. We now have real concerns for their safety.
I am a behavioral health nurse....I’m terrified every day, my stomach hurts. I’ve even been having chest pains. How am I supposed to give my patients everything they deserve when I’m barely functioning myself? I would urge this administration to maybe sit down and speak to the government employees and see what they do and how important it is.
As a teacher of 30-plus years, my Pell Grant and other scholarships helped get me through college. The Department of Education should not be dismantled by Musk. We did not elect him, and you’re hurting our children and country.
I am a retired public school teacher and current volunteer tutor in a public school, and I am watching the plans to destroy the Department of Education. They don’t care about disadvantaged children like the ones I taught and still teach. It is painful to contemplate, and we all need to stand against it and the rest of the horrible actions they have taken for the benefit of billionaires.
I’m a public school teacher who cares passionately about the safety and well-being of my students. I’m sick and tired of this administration making up ridiculous lies about what is taught in schools when our goals are simply to create curious and joyful lifelong learners and responsible, compassionate members of society.
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