The Federal administration wasted no time mounting its comprehensive assault against the legal system governing the workplace generally and the core rights and key protections for millions of employees specifically. Since day one for the new Federal administration, the President has issued an onslaught of radical executive orders while the administration has acted unilaterally to eliminate or eviscerate vital Federal agencies and functions. For example, the President fired the Chair of the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (Charlotte Burrows) and a member of the National Labor Relations Board (Gwynne Wilcox) – both of whom are African American women – thereby depriving each law enforcement agency of the required leadership quorum to continue operating as needed. The Federal administration also fired the Chair of the Federal Labor Relations Authority (Susan Tsui Grundmann), the Chair of the Merit Services Protection Board (Cathy Harris), a member of the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (Jocelyn Samuels), the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission General Counsel (Karla Gilbride), the National Labor Relations Board General Counsel (Jennifer Abruzzo), the National Labor Relations Board Acting General Counsel (Jessica Rutter) – all of whom are women – and the Inspector General of the United States Department of Labor (Larry Turner) as well as approximately 20 other Inspectors General who have the Congressionally mandated duty to fight against corruption and abuse in the Federal government that they or whistleblowers uncover.

While crippling the law enforcement agencies responsible for interpreting and enforcing the laws enacted to prevent discrimination, harassment, retaliation, wage theft, and other serious legal violations, the Federal administration also has terminated summarily tens of thousands of employees in vital positions across the Federal government. The mass firings have targeted, for example, the United States Department of Health and Human Services generally and the related Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as well as the United States Food and Drug Administration specifically, the United States Department of Education, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the United States Environmental Protection Agency, the United States Department of Agriculture generally and the related United States Forest Service specifically, the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, and the United States Department of Energy generally and the related National Nuclear Security Administration specifically. The new administration has declared that these mass firings will continue until at least 10% of the Federal workforce has been terminated.

In response, a coalition of unions has sued the Federal administration to challenge the widespread summary terminations as well as the ongoing efforts to diminish if not dismantle important Federal agencies, asserting that the President is exceeding Presidential authority under Article II of the Constitution and also commandeering Congress’s sole power to appropriate funds. In addition, employees around the country continue to participate in mass protests and other direct action to counteract the extreme actions of the Federal administration.