SAN FRANCISCO—Two big government worker unions, the Government Employees (AFGE) and AFSCME, cheered a federal judge’s ruling that GOP President Donald Trump and his Office of Personnel Management illegally terminated 25,000 probationary federal workers earlier this year.
But in making his ruling against the firings permanent, U.S. District Judge William Alsup of San Francisco admitted it might have a limited practical effect. That’s because many if not most of the workers have found other jobs. And this ruling, unlike Judge Alsup’s preliminary injunction, did not order the agencies to rehire the workers. The U.S. Supreme Court had reversed that.
Nevertheless, Judge Alsup ordered OPM and the agencies that it forced to fire the probationary workers to remove all derogatory references to their dismissal “for poor performance.” There was no reason for the dismissals—other than Trump’s whim and the fact that those workers were uniquely vulnerable. Either they were new hires or veteran workers who had switched jobs and thus were on a probationary period in their new posts.
Judge Alsup also ordered both Trump’s Office of Personnel Management and the agencies involved—the Departments of Veterans Affairs, Energy, Defense, Agriculture, Interior, and Treasury, the Federal Aviation Administration, and other agencies–to send formal letters to each worker informing them the dismissals were revoked.
Judge Alsup had issued a preliminary injunction against the firings, which were among the first of Trump’s and Elon Musk’s chainsaw hacking of the federal workforce, earlier this year. But his order was halted pending a trial on the merits, and Trump and his personnel office chief lost that, too.
“This is another significant victory for federal employees and for all Americans,” said AFGE President Everett Kelley, a military veteran. “Judge Alsup’s decision makes clear that thousands of probationary workers were wrongfully fired, exposes the sham record the government relied upon, and requires the government to tell the wrongly terminated employees that OPM’s reasoning for firing them was false.
“AFGE, AFSCME and all our partners in this case are proud to lead this fight to preserve our non-partisan civil service and to hold this administration accountable for its unprecedented targeting of American workers.”
Massive employment fraud
In their court filings, the two unions and their allies, including Washington state, had called the firings “one of the most massive employment frauds in the history” of the U.S.
AFSCME President Lee Saunders said Judge Alsup’s ruling “provided relief to AFSCME members who have been targeted and to our communities that rely on strong, dependable public services.”
“The billionaires running this administration have waged an unrelenting assault on working people, illegally trying to eliminate our jobs while using their yes-men in Congress to strip away our health care and essential services nationwide,” the AFSCME chief added.
In his ruling, Judge Alsup was blunt.
“In early 2025, the Office of Personnel Management directed agencies across the federal government to terminate their probationary employees en masse, apart from the highest performers in ‘mission critical’ roles and those within the scope of an OPM-approved exemption. That directive was unlawful. The means used to enforce terminations were also unlawful,” he declared.
The firings stretched from February 12-17. They were carried out via an Office of Personnel Management form letter e-mailed to each worker, Judge Alsup wrote.
“The template letter identified fields for employee names, agency names, dates of appointment, and so on, to be filled in by each agency. It provided a single, specific reason for termination, irrespective of the letter’s ultimate recipient: ‘The agency finds, based on your performance, that you have not demonstrated that your further employment at the agency would be in the public interest. For this reason, the agency informs you the agency is removing you from your position of [TITLE] with the agency and the federal civil service, effective [insert date and time, if necessary].’”
Agencies sought to exempt workers from OPM’s dictate. For example, Judge Alsup wrote the Justice Department sought exemptions for 10,485 workers, and the small National Transportation Safety Board—which employs just over 400 people—said a cut of even 30 probationary workers would both severely compromise its overall mission, to investigate fatal accidents, and to stop three specific investigations in their tracks.
One was the Baltimore Harbor bridge collapse, where a foreign-flag freighter, which lost power, hit the aging Francis Scott Key bridge. It crashed into the channel leading to the harbor, killing six workers on the pavement above, and effectively closing the major East Coast port for days. There were four “probationary” workers toiling in that probe.
Another was when an Army helicopter, flying out of its vertical “lane” near Washington National Airport, crashed into a jetliner. The four soldiers on the copter and 63 people on the plane died. Thirteen “probationary” workers are among the investigators of that fatal crash, NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy wrote.
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