Yesterday, a federal judge in San Francisco ordered the Trump administration to immediately halt the mass firing of federal employees, during the government shutdown. The judge sided with AFSCME and AFGE, who challenged the government's plan to conduct these illegal shutdown firings after it was announced at the end of September, which the unions then followed with a motion for temporary injunction when the government shutdown commenced.
Judge Susan Illston from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California said AFSCME and AFGE are likely to prove that the administration’s firing of more than 4,000 federal employees since the shutdown began was illegal, as is its plan to conduct further shutdown layoffs in the future.
The Court temporarily blocked the federal government from issuing any layoff notices during the shutdown in components of the federal government where AFSCME or AFGE represent employees, protecting AFSCME members from termination at agencies including USDA, FAA, DOJ, Peace Corps, and more. The court also barred the government from effectuating the RIF notices that have gone out thus far.
AFSCME President Lee Saunders celebrated yesterday’s victory, saying, “Federal workers have already faced enough uncertainty from the administration’s relentless attacks on the important jobs they do to keep us safe and healthy. They deserve respect for the work they do – not to be treated as political pawns by the billionaires running this administration who see workers as expendable.”
AFSCME members and supporters of federal workers gathered yesterday outside the courthouse in San Francisco in a show of solidarity with federal workers who have been illegally fired.
The lawsuit said that the administration’s firings were an abuse of power, designed to punish workers and pressure Congress. The administration has also threatened not to pay furloughed federal workers. The lawsuit claims the administration is misusing the shutdown process for partisan reasons and violating the very laws that govern how shutdowns are supposed to function.
The president and his yes-men and women in Congress forced the government shutdown more than two weeks ago, in order to protect the massive tax breaks to billionaires and greedy corporations they passed in the so-called “Big Beautiful Bill.”
They have used the shutdown to advance their extreme Project 2025 aims, rather than fix the health care crisis that American are facing.
The next step in the case is a preliminary injunction hearing, where the Court will consider extending the protections of the TRO while the case proceeds to a final judgment. The preliminary injunction hearing will take place on October 28.
Through its Get Organized campaign, AFSCME will continue to fight this billionaire-run administration’s efforts to punish public service workers and destroy the services they provide to their communities.