Union leaders warn federal workers not to fall for so-called ‘buyout’

Union leaders are warning workers who got buyout offers from the Office of Budget and Management not to fall for what they say is a scam that will hurt them and destroy their agencies. | Mark Schiefelbein/AP

WASHINGTON—Leaders of millions of federal employees are warning that they should not accept the so-called buyout offers that they received this week in mass mailings from Trump’s Office of Budget Management. They note that it is essentially a backdoor scheme to destroy the federal agencies that Trump is trying to destroy with funding freezes and executive orders and that Trump, who rarely pays anyone anything he owes, is the last person to believe when he promises money.

Fear and confusion now hang over all two million federal workers. Their two big unions, the Government Employees (AFGE) and the Treasury Employees (NTEU) told members and non-members not to even answer the e-mails that dangled eight months of pay if they quit right now.

That latest threat sent AFGE and AFSCME to seek a federal court order demanding an end to the scheme. The letters, the funding freeze the administration now says continues in place and the hiring freeze violate the U.S. Constitution, scholars say, because they grab the power of the purse from where it belongs, in Congress, and give it to the executive branch.

After all, Article I of the nation’s basic charter makes Congress supreme in deciding spending and priorities. Article II, which covers the president, says the chief executive’s duty is to ”take care that the laws be faithfully executed.”

That clause doesn’t let Trump—or Republican Richard Nixon before him—unilaterally impound money. After Nixon was forced out 51 years ago, Congress banned impoundments by law, too.

AFSCME President saw all facets of the threat, including to the Constitution.

“This is a blatant overreach of presidential powers that comes straight from Project 2025,” Saunders said after his union and AFGE sued to stop Trump’s schemes.

“Billionaires and their anti-union extremist friends amassed more power and influence than ever, and they are using it now to rob working people.”

Trump “will hurt those who are most vulnerable: Families, seniors and people with disabilities who depend on Medicaid, new mothers and newborns who need nutrition assistance,” kids in Head Start who also get breakfast and lunch at schools, and people who use federal housing vouchers “to keep a roof over their heads,” he elaborated.

“Purging the federal government of dedicated career civil servants will have vast, unintended consequences that will cause chaos for the Americans who depend on a functioning federal government,” AFGE President Everett Kelley said.

“This offer should not be viewed as voluntary…It is clear the Trump administration’s goal is to turn the federal government into a toxic environment where workers cannot stay even if they want to.” Resistance to Republican President Donald Trump’s dictatorial edicts accelerated, as the federal government’s two biggest unions told members not to quit their jobs despite a Trump demand they do so and another big union went to court against Trump’s schemes.

But if there’s one point the warnings from the Government Employees (AFGE) and the Treasury Employees (NTEU), plus AFSCME’s lawsuit highlights, it’s that convicted felon Trump’s campaign statement that he would be a dictator only “on day one” is another Trump lie.

As his foes suspected, and warned, he didn’t stop after Inauguration Day.

In less than a week in office, Trump has imposed a federal hiring freeze, a domestic spending freeze—except for Social Security—and illegally offered eight-month buyouts to all two million federal workers.

“Federal agencies must temporarily pause all activities related to obligation or disbursement of all federal financial assistance,” Trump’s Office of Management and Budget dictated to agencies.

U.S. District Judge Loren Ali Khan in D.C., an Obama appointee, put a temporary hold on the spending freeze, but left in place—or so Trump’s spokeswoman contended—the other half of his order.

That half tells every agency to send a list of all grant and loan programs by February 10, so Trump and his budget chief, Russell Vought, could decide what to cut.  Trump’s axe hangs over those funds, too.

The resulting uproar forced Trump to backtrack, at least for now. “Today, we saw what happens when Americans fight back against disastrous policies,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., told reporters on Jan. 29. “Americans made their voices heard. Donald Trump rescinded the OMB order.”

Lawmakers responded to constituents who were ringing their phones off the hook, concerned about if programs and payments they rely on—everything from food stamps to student loans to safety inspections—would suddenly shut down.

Which is, of course, what the corporate class that plumps for Trump, wants: Less oversight, or none at all, from the government, leaving those predators free to feast on the rest of us.

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CONTRIBUTOR

Mark Gruenberg

Award-winning journalist Mark Gruenberg is head of the Washington, D.C., bureau of People's World. He is also the editor of the union news service Press Associates Inc. (PAI). Known for his reporting skills, sharp wit, and voluminous knowledge of history, Mark is a compassionate interviewer but tough when going after big corporations and their billionaire owners.