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MICHIGAN ADVANCE: Federal employees rally in Detroit for Social Security and labor protections amid continued cuts

As President Donald Trump and his administration work to implement sweeping job and budget cuts across several government departments, members from several local chapters of the American Federation of Government Employees rallied outside the Patrick V. McNamara Federal Building in Detroit on Friday in defense of government employees, Social Security and the right to collective bargaining. 

Joined by U.S. Reps. Debbie Dingell (D-Ann Arbor), Haley Stevens (D-Birmingham) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Detroit), AFGE members stressed the importance of preserving the Social Security Administration, while warning how cuts to their agencies could impact seniors, veterans and other vulnerable Americans. 

“Federal employees are facing a threat from two entities, one entity is destroying our federal unions, and the second entity is trying to destroy our legal right to collective bargaining….We are here to tell you what that entity is doing to the federal workforce is directly harming services that we provide to our public,” said Monique Buchanan, president of AFGE Local 3239.

Following an executive order last week instructing several government agencies to end collective bargaining with federal labor unions, citing concerns of national security, the AFGE and several other unions have filed suit against the Trump administration, arguing the order violates the Constitution. 

“Collective bargaining agreements are built on agreements the union and the agency made together as a mutually agreed policy document that both union and management are to abide by. The CBA [collective bargaining agreements] allows for us to ensure all employees are treated fairly in all aspects of work. Stripping the contract or CBA will potentially cause major disruptions within our agencies, and it could affect our ability to provide services to this country,” Buchanan said. 

Additionally, efforts to cut significant amounts of staff and resources from multiple federal agencies are intended to collapse them, putting them on the path to privatization, Buchanan said. 

“Privatizing means the top 2% of this country can obtain federal contracts to take over the work of our federal agencies. Privatization will replace skilled, knowledgeable, educated, hard working employees who have been through extensive training, potentially with AI and or a replacement staff who cannot touch the world class service we provide,” she said.

Dingell spoke out against the demonization of government workers, pointing to the work they do to keep people across the nation safe. 

“The federal and government employees takes care of the veterans at all the [Department of Veterans Affairs] hospitals and make sure they get the health care they need. When I’m flying, it’s air traffic controllers that keep us safe and they aren’t recognized. They don’t have enough of them, and we need to support them, not demonize them,” Dingell said. 

She also pointed to recent mass layoffs at the Department of Health and Human Services, calling them “terrifying.”

Dingell also detailed the history of Social Security, noting that her father in law, the late John Dingell Sr., co-sponsored the bill to create the Social Security Administration. 

“Why? Because more than half the seniors, children of people who had died and people with disabilities,were living in poverty and did not know how they were going to eat, or where they were going to live. And this country recognized that if you’ve worked hard your entire life, that you should be able to live your senior years with dignity and respect, and they created Social Security to address that problem,” she said. 

While Trump pledged not to touch Social Security in proposed cuts to government spending, the president, alongside billionaire Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency, have cut several thousand employees with the administration seeking to reduce its workforce by 7,000 employees.

Although the Social Security Administration was previously planning to eliminate phone services for Americans filing for benefits, The Washington Post reported the administration has since scrapped that plan, but will require individuals filing for retirement or survivor benefits or requesting direct deposit for their checks to verify their identity online or in person beginning April 14. 

“We have a moral responsibility to protect our seniors, people with disabilities and the children of those that have died and need that help. And if America cannot honor their promise to their seniors, then we need to look ourselves in the mirror and ask who we are,” Dingell said.

With the Department of Veterans Affairs aiming to cut 80,000 employees by August, Yvonne Renee Evans, a recently retired nurse at the John D. Dingell Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, called the Trump Administration’s job cuts an attack on servicemembers, noting that 27% of VA employees and 30% of all federal employees are veterans. 

Tricia Paff, president of AFGE local 3907 who is based at the Environmental Protection Agency’s National Vehicle and Fuel Emissions Laboratory in Ann Arbor, spoke out on proposed cuts to the EPA, noting its role is ensuring there is clean water, clean air and protecting human health and addressing climate change. 

“The Trump administration can fire scientists. They can try to remove the words climate change from EPA websites, policies, contracts, but these actions will not protect Americans from intensifying climate extremes,” Paff said, pointing to the damage from Hurricane Helene as one example.

As cuts to Social Security employees generate uncertainty for those relying on benefits, Tlaib, who is serving her fourth term in the U.S. House, said she has never seen as many people breaking down at her town halls or calling her office as she has in recent months. 

“They break your heart because they feel helpless. They’re like always on edge because they think tomorrow that check is not going to come…. I even had a veteran tell me they canceled his appointments, and now he can’t get in for another three months. Why? Because when they cut federal workforce, they’re cutting federal programs and services. People are going to wait longer. People are already feeling like they don’t matter,” she said.

Stevens shared a story of a similar call from a disabled veteran who was unsure if he would be able to continue receiving his medical benefits. 

“How is that even a question? That shouldn’t be a question for us.” she said.

While closing out the rally, AFGE National President Everett Kelley said people often don’t recognize who federal employees are. 

“Let me tell you who they are. These are the people that work at the VA that make sure that veterans are cared for every single day, and they do that job so well that nobody pays them attention. These are the people that work at the EPA that do that job so well that nobody pays them attention. Because nobody pays their attention as long as the air that we breathe is good, as long as the water that we drink is good water,” Kelley said. 

“Nobody pays any attention when they fly through the sky, because there’s a federal employee at the TSA that makes sure that we fly safely,” Kelley said. 

However, the Trump administration came for them, Kelley said, pointing to Project 2025, the conservative Heritage Foundation’s nearly 900 page blueprint for reshaping the federal government, as the warning that the Trump administration would aim to eliminate a number of federal employees. 

He also took aim at Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. 

“I say it’s the Department of Government Evil, because it’s downright evil to take American people and just destroy their well being,” Kelley said. 

As the administration continues to attack government workers, Kelley told AFGE members they need to call it like it is, pointing to comments from U.S. Judge William Alsup in his order requiring federal agencies to rehire tens of thousands of probationary federal employees that were fired by the United States Office of Personnel Management earlier this year where he called the mass firings a sham strategy to sidestep requirements for reducing the federal workforce. 

“I’m not afraid. I learned that I gotta speak truth to power. If it’s the last thing I do, I’m going to speak truth to power, and I’m here to tell this administration that we are going nowhere,” Kelley said.