Talking to the head of the largest union of the Federal workers of America about Trump’s attack on his members and all the work.
AFGE President Everet Kelly speaks at hand! Action Day against Trump and Elon Musk administration on April 5, 2025 in Washington, Colombia District.
(Paul Moriga / Getti Images for Action by Community)
Donald Trump is not a member of the organized work.
Trump is also a member of the federal workers – or the unions that represent them. Really, March 27, president removed The executive order requires that most federal agencies stop the union contracts. The President claimed that he had power to suspend collective talks for national security reasons – conducting permanent legal and legislative fights.
Regardless of how these battles are decided, it is not doubtful that Trump is also with a devastating crew, which for a while included billionaire Elon Moscow-making the lives of hundreds of thousands of public sector workers.
This was put by Everets Kelly, headed by the largest federal union, the US State Service Federation (AFGE), at the farthest and subsequent fight of the union, which is played on this controversial work.
Introducing 820,000 workers in the Federal Government and Government of the District of Columbia, AFGE fights for the protection of not only the work of its members, but also the services for a large mass of Americans whose health, safety and safety from the president on privatization and its republican congress.
As the day of work was approaching, Nation He talked to Kelly-veteran army and a Baptist preacher who worked for decades in Anistan, Alabama, Army Depot, before becoming president of his union and the National Vice President AFL-Cio-how workers are fighting to survive the Trump. The transcript was slightly edited for clarity and length.
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Nation: On this day of work, it is fair to say that workers and their unions face one of the most stringent attacks in the history of American work.
Everet Kelly: I totally agree with what’s going on! I have been a member of Afge since 1981. I have never seen such an attack. Employees should come to work every day and face uncertainty because this administration told them what they wanted to go – they do not want them to be civil servants. They sit at home with a letter (a decrease in strength), and they have a stack of accounts that need to be paid. They were deprived of their ability to organize, saying: “We will not allow them to be in the union, we will not allow them to pay trade union contributions from their salaries.” Employees are demoralized by each fantasy section.
Nation: The people you present have accepted the federal work because they wanted to serve their Americans. Many of them are veterans who chose the federal work because they wanted to continue doing something for their country, right?
Kelly: You are exactly right. I’m a veteran myself. Thirty percent of the people we represent are veterans. The people I represent are very patriotic employees. They take the oath when they come to work on the federal government, and they perceive the oath seriously.
I retired from the federal government – after 31 and a half years – and I am proud of it. When we work, we don’t just work to get a salary. We are working on providing services to the American people.
Nation: Tell me about some of these services.
Kelly: Making sure the food eaten by the Americans is a safe food. Making sure the air that the Americans breathe safely breathe. Making sure the water is safe. Making sure that veterans, as soon as they go and serve this country, return and have support mechanisms through VA. After making sure that our elders, when they reached the retirement age, are supported when they provide requirements in different agencies when they need something from the Social Security Administration. Make sure you have federal staff to resolve the disaster with the disaster. You also have people in the Federal Prison Bureau, making sure our security communities. Practically about any work you can come up with, the people I present do it. And they do it to provide services for the American people.
Nation: I suspect that most Americans do not know about all things that federal workers do.
Kelly: Federal employees do their job so well that in most cases no one notices. This would be noticed only if they fell. And they fail.
Nation: There are a lot of things that the private sector does, but there are many jobs you represent really may not be good to do the private sector.
Kelly: Absolutely.
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I believe what this administration is trying to do is put the government on a mission and in a mission so that they can conclude these jobs. This would be devastating because (with privatization) it will not be about providing services to the American people. It would be about profit.
Nation: Trump and Republicans are excited about privatization, but there is a lot of evidence that privatization does not work.
Kelly: It doesn’t work. When I was a federal employee, I worked at the Ministry of Defense. I saw the contractors raise prices for things like a hammer. I remember a great story about contractors who charged $ 600 per hammer. Here’s what you get when you conclude jobs and services.
Nation: There are things you think that Americans who care about federal workers and federal unions should be focused on this day?
Kelly: We have an account on the floor now in Congress. This is HR 2550, the AMERICA protection law. This is intended to resume the rights to collective talks for federal staff. We ask every American to call his Congress member and tell them to bring this bill to the floor. The bill sits there, but the speaker will not let him come to the floor. We believe that if there were voices, we would have won.
Nation: Although this is the fight for federal workers, it is important for the private sector workers, isn’t it?
Kelly: I hope that the American people will cancel the workers and stand with them so that this administration does not beat the unions. Although they start with afge, I believe that if they are successful – and I do not believe that they will eventually be successful – (administration) will not stop there. I believe they see us as stunted fruits. I think they will attack every organized worker in America when they are given green light.
At this point, the crisis we need the only, progressive opposition to Donald Trump.
We begin to see how we start to develop on the streets and ballots all over the country: from the Candide company in Mary’s New York Mammani, focused on accessibility, community that protect their neighbors from ice, to senators who oppose weapons.
The Democratic Party has an urgent choice: will it accept a policy that is fundamental and popular, or will continue to insist on the loss of elections with the elites and consultants who brought us here?
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Thank you for helping us take Trump and create a fair society we know.
With respect
Bhaskar Sunkara
President, Nation
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