The nation’s largest federation of unions is starting a campaign to push back on Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, who has been empowered by President Donald Trump to carry out a largely unchecked attempt to purge the federal workforce.
The nation’s largest federation of unions is starting a campaign to push back on Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, who has been empowered by President Donald Trump to carry out a largely unchecked attempt to purge the federal workforce.
The nation’s largest federation of unions is starting a campaign to push back on Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, who has been empowered by President Donald Trump to carry out a largely unchecked attempt to purge the federal workforce.
The campaign by the AFL-CIO is called the Department of People Who Work for a Living, a play on Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.
“Government can work for billionaires or it can work for working people — but not both,” Liz Shuler, the AFL-CIO president, said in a statement.
The scope of the effort is unclear, but it is expected to include digital ads, direct mail and rallies in front of key agencies where cuts are being pushed through. The group is planning to form partnerships with allies on Capitol Hill and other labor groups, an official said. A number of lawsuits have been filed seeking to halt Musk’s efforts.
Trump harnessed populist anger to win two presidential elections, and he performed well with union households as part of a broad political realignment that has reshaped the Republican Party. The president of the Teamsters addressed the Republican National Convention.
But the efforts to drastically reshape the federal government could have ramifications for workers. The Trump administration hopes to shrink the workforce by 5% to 10%.
The AFL-CIO campaign is one of the first organized efforts by unions to focus on the people affected by the workforce cuts that the Trump administration is proposing. The labor group aims to highlight what Musk’s department is doing, arguing that its actions — which are opaque and accountable only to Trump — are potentially dangerous to the public depending on the jobs in question. The group is also seeking to highlight the chasm between Musk’s wealth and that of the people he has urged to move on from federal jobs.
“We’ll be ensuring the federal government works for working people and isn’t destroyed by billionaires like Elon Musk,” the campaign’s website said. “We’ll report on the facts of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) cuts and what you can do to fight back.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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