WASHINGTON—New rules require all applicants for federal government jobs to write an essay explaining how, in the job they seek, they will carry out President Trump’s agenda.
The rules, typical of those promulgated in autocratic and fascist dictatorships, follow, however, a major loss by Trump in the courts that have reinstated the collective bargaining rights of the airport screeners, taken from them by Trump soon after his election to a second term. The Government Employees (AFGE) say they have won that one battle, even though the new rules requiring written essays may end up being a loss for them. Regardless, they continue their determined and ongoing battle against the Trump administration’s attacks on federal workers.
The restoration of collective bargaining rights occurred in U.S. District Court in Seattle on June 2, but Trump’s Department of Homeland Security didn’t get around to acknowledging it until June 5. Judge Marsha Pechman had ordered agency Secretary Kristi Noem to restore the collective bargaining agreement with AFGE covering the nation’s 45,000-47,000 Transportation Security Officers, the airport screeners.
“Noem has not explained why collective bargaining has threatened the safety of the transportation system or travelers in America,” Judge Pechman wrote.
The potential loss occurred on June 4, with a June 5 deadline, when Trump’s Office of Personnel Management—his HR department for the entire government—posted a new set of rules for who and how to apply for federal jobs. Before Trump’s depredations, the government employed around 2.2 million workers, but at least 175,000 took buyouts or were arbitrarily fired.
One personnel rule requires essays from applicants on how they would carry out the administration’s policies. Another mandate is that agencies prefer applicants from trade schools, community colleges, home-studied secondary school graduates, and religious and charter schools.
It tells personnel officers to downgrade applicants from four-year universities, especially elite schools such as those in the Ivy League, and applicants with specialized expertise.
And every applicant starting at GS-5—the lowest rung on the federal salary scale—would have to write the essays, which would be a key to whether Trump would hire them or not.
The personnel developments in the Seattle court and the hiring rule are reminders of Republican Trump’s ongoing hatred of career federal workers. The president repeatedly calls them “the deep state” and questions their loyalty. The workers, unionized or not, swear oaths to uphold the U.S. Constitution.
So did Trump, twice. AFGE and other unions repeatedly challenge him for violating his oath of office.
The battles are also part of Trump’s campaign, backed by both the radical right and the corporate class, to centralize all power and decision-making, even down to the lowest level, in his hands.
Opens door for corporate criminals
That “unitary executive” power of the presidency would open the door for corporate criminals to influence all decision-making through secret lobbying and not-so-secret campaign contributions and other funding of presidential projects and priorities.
Exhibit A of that clout was the now-ended tenure of multibillionaire Elon Musk at the head of Trump’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency. Musk bought that—and a role for several months as Trump’s puppeteer—through more than $288 million in campaign contributions.
Until Musk’s chainsaw through federal agencies became toxic to Trump, the president willingly signed off on the carnage. Now the two have split, as even red state voters are yelling about the damage to everything from Social Security phone lines to weather forecasts.
Judge Pechman agreed with AFGE’s argument that Secretary Kristi Noem suddenly, arbitrarily, and unconstitutionally stripped the TSOs of their federal contract, which runs through 2031, and the rights it protects, including due process guarantees against arbitrary firings, implemented grievance procedures, and increased benefits. It doesn’t regulate pay. That’s on a government-set scale.
AFGE won the pact during the Democratic Biden administration. The judge said dumping it was a clear case of Trump retaliation for the union’s activism in defending its members, and granted an injunction to roll back the Trump regime’s contract revocation.
Suddenly eliminating the contract likely violated workers’ constitutional due process rights, since the workers—the screeners—had “a reasonable expectation the contract would remain in place,” the judge wrote. To dump it, the Trump government had to go through long, proper procedures. It didn’t.
Trump also hasn’t followed legalized procedures in arbitrarily declaring 30 other union contracts around the government null and void. AFGE and other unions are challenging those moves in court.
The potential loss to AFGE this week, though, had nothing to do with contracts.
Instead, it covers personnel hiring and firing rules, promulgated by Trump’s Office of Personnel Management and then put out for public comment, with very short notice, in the Federal Register.
Not only does the personnel office make the essays—a form of loyalty statement to Trump—a hiring requirement, but it says the president can fire workers on five days’ notice, not 30 days.
AFGE President Everett Kelley, a military veteran, slammed the new hiring and firing rules, especially the essays.
“Federal employees should be hired based on their ability to do the job and their commitment to following the Constitution and other laws–not on their allegiance to any one president,” Kelley said.
“These changes to the job applicant process, combined with the proposal to fast-track the firing of federal employees whom the Office of Personnel Management deems ‘unsuitable’ for their positions, should be a red flag to anyone concerned the administration is attempting to stack federal agencies with subservient employees who will do the administration’s bidding regardless of the law.”
We hope you appreciated this article. At People’s World, we believe news and information should be free and accessible to all, but we need your help. Our journalism is free of corporate influence and paywalls because we are totally reader-supported. Only you, our readers and supporters, make this possible. If you enjoy reading People’s World and the stories we bring you, please support our work by donating or becoming a monthly sustainer today. Thank you!
CONTRIBUTOR
