NEW YORK —New York Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul has put out the welcome mat for fired federal workers to come to work for the Empire State. And she’s not the only one.
From Massachusetts to Hawaii, governors and local officials—virtually all Democrats—are telling workers whom multibillionaire Elon Musk and his puppet, Republican President Donald Trump, fired that the states and cities have jobs available, and that they welcome the workers’ expertise.
And in the metropolitan Washington-Baltimore-Northern Virginia area, where the proportion of federal workers as a percentage of the overall workforce is higher than anywhere else, 11%-18.5% depending on the jurisdiction, the Metropolitan D.C. Central Labor Council stepped forward with immediate cash to help suddenly jobless workers pay the rent, buy groceries and pay utility bills.
The governors are slamming both Trump and his puppeteer, multibillionaire Elon Musk, who has taken a chainsaw—literally, he brandished one at a conservative conference—to the federal government. The Congressional Progressive Caucus has been demanding, for weeks, the firing of Musk.
“An unelected, unaccountable billionaire has seemingly unlimited power over Americans’ private data and over Americans’ taxpayer dollars,” said Caucus Chair Rep. Greg Casar, D-Texas, a union organizer, at a recent press conference.
The most notable welcome came from Hochul. She posted the fact that New York has tens of thousands of vacancies, including teaching jobs, and invited the federal workers to apply for them.
“The federal government might say you’re fired,” Hochul says in an introductory video, “But here in New York, we say ‘You’re hired.’
“Whatever your skills, we value public service. Check out potential jobs at ny.gov/wewantyou. Come join our New York State family.”
There may be a lot of workers checking that website. Musk, his so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and Trump have forced an estimated 95,000 federal workers to leave their jobs—so far—and taken a Musk-wielded chain saw to several hundred thousand probationary workers, too.
The duo wants to take a meat-ax approach to even more, starting in mid-March—right at the time, March 14, that the dysfunctional GOP-run Congress must pass yet another temporary budget bill to keep the federal government going.
Sets up special fund
The Metro D.C. Central Labor Council set up a special fund at its Community Services Agency for donations to aid the already fired feds. Private non-profits, including social welfare groups and religious institutions, are stepping forward with leads and counseling.
“The labor movement is built on solidarity, and now is a moment to put that into action. Donate to or request support from the Federal Worker Solidarity Fund and be part of helping federal workers throughout the region,” including metro D.C. and the Northern Virginia Labor Federation’s area, the metro D.C. CLC says.
The donation link is https://www.nfggive.org/donation/52-1718506. Checks can also be made out to the Community Services Agency, 815 Black Lives Matter Plaza NW, Suite 1100, Washington, DC 20006, with “Federal Worker Solidarity Fund” in the memo line.
Some 15% of all federal workers, most of them at median pay in a high-cost region, live in the Baltimore-Washington-Northern Virginia area, while the rest—contrary to GOP lies—live elsewhere. There are high concentrations of federal workers around military bases and a Federal Aviation Administration air traffic controller training center in deep-red Oklahoma, for example. Atlanta, a deep blue city in purple Georgia, has a major veterans hospital and the headquarters for the Centers for Disease Control.
But that concentration also shows how the deep blue-red split has affected the response. The Republican mayor of Oklahoma City says the jobless rate there is so low, with many vacancies, that fired feds should have no trouble finding jobs. The Republican governor has been silent. And while the Atlanta City Council wants the state to step up and respondent, its GOP-gerrymandered legislature hasn’t.
Trump promised federal workers who took so-called “buyouts” eight months of severance pay starting March 1, but the checks aren’t flowing yet. The firings are flowing, though—at the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau, and the Environmental Protection Agency, to name a few.
“Federal workers dedicate their lives to our communities. Now, as thousands of workers in our region have been unjustly fired from their jobs, it’s time to give back,” the Metro D.C. council explained.
“Your donation to the fund will help fired federal workers put food on the table, get life-saving medication, and remain in their home during this time of hardship. More information about the fund is available on our website and donations are 100% tax deductible.” Union and non-union workers are eligible for aid and can apply.
The D.C . CLC’s fund will OK up to $500 in one-time payments “for emergency financial needs including food, prescriptions, or past-due bills for rent, mortgage, utilities, cell phone, internet, car payments, insurance, or medical bills.
“Payments will be made directly to creditor institutions, not individuals, and supporting documents verifying financial need and federal government employment status are required.”
Expedited plan in Honolulu
Out in Honolulu, the Associated Press reports, Democratic Gov. Josh Green instituted an expedited hiring plan to add to the state government qualified federal workers who’d recently lost their jobs. If they apply, they get a conditional job offer within two weeks.
“As we witness the very quickly changing landscape of the federal government, federal workforce and federal policies, this order directs state agencies to review candidates and make a conditional job offer within 14 days of receiving an application,” Green said in a statement announcing the initiative.
Hawaii needs conservationists, engineers, nurses, information technology professionals, accountants and others. And a quarter—4,000—of its civil service jobs are open. The state Labor Department hosted a job fair in late February for fired feds and plans another.
After denouncing the Musk-Trump firings as “cruel” and “an attack” on workers, Gov. Wes Moore, D-Md., ordered state agencies to streamline and step up state hiring of fired feds. Maryland’s D.C. suburbs house and employ tens of thousands of federal workers, as does the Social Security Administration’s headquarters in Woodlawn, a Baltimore suburb.
“I was a soldier, and I know that in the Army they teach you, if you get attacked, you don’t just sit there and take it,” Moore told a press conference. “You mobilize and in Maryland, this is our moment to mobilize…I’m not issuing the rule of saying, ‘You must hire x and you must hire y.’”
“I can tell you that this is the moment when Maryland is going to get creative,” he said. “That’s why the announcement today wasn’t just a callout to our state agencies and our departments. We want to step up to defend our people.”
Moore also wants the private sector and particularly non-profits—such as one he formerly ran—to step up too and hire “ true public servants and true patriots, who are ready to do the work, and who are ready to continue their mission.”
Illinois Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who has sharply slammed Trump and Musk, did so again in announcing his state’s initiative, directing fired feds to advice and sources of benefits, including the state departments which handle jobless benefits and job programs. The Land of Lincoln had some 81,300 federal workers, before Musk and Trump began their firing spree.
“Donald Trump and his special government employee Elon Musk are unleashing an assault on the fabric of our government and the working families who rely upon and need our democracy to deliver for them,” Pritzker said. “Elon’s secret servants are asking millions of federal employees to give up their legal rights, agree to a vague severance, and just hope for the best. It’s insulting to workers.
Pritzger also said that democracy means more than just the right to vote but includes health care and affordable housing for all.
“I urge federal employees who live or work in Illinois to proceed with caution before taking an offer that requires them to waive their legal rights. We can make government more efficient for the taxpayers without misleading and mistreating workers. In Illinois, we will do all we can to protect worker rights.”
The Atlanta city council passed a resolution “urging state and local governments to expedite hiring procedures to absorb talented federal employees impacted by recent layoffs.” The federal Centers for Disease Control there just lost 700 workers. Governing magazine said Atlanta officials worry about both the firings and hoe federal spending cuts will affect local services. “It’s going to be asked of our city to shoulder more of the burden,” Councilmember Jason Dozier, the resolution’s sponsor, said.
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