Detroit Free Press: Tlaib during federal worker protest: ‘It is always unions that save our country’

About 50 protesters joined union leaders representing federal workers and some of Michigan’s Democratic members of Congress on Friday in downtown Detroit to condemn President Donald Trump and his billionaire ally Elon Musk’s efforts to dramatically overhaul the federal government on the heels of a recent court victory for fired federal workers and a new push to strip them of their collective bargaining rights.

One demonstrator’s sign labeled Musk’s operation — dubbed the Department of Government Efficiency —”Destroyer of Government Employees,” while American Federation of Government Employees President Everett Kelley called it the “Department of Government Evil.”

Kelley blasted the Trump administration’s efforts to strip federal workers of their collective bargaining rights, calling them unprecedented and “un-American.”

AFGE Local 3239 President Monique Buchanan said the Trump administration seems intent on gutting federal agencies to deteriorate the public services they provide and make the case for privatization based on poor performance.

“I am so tired of the demonization of federal employees,” U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Ann Arbor, said.

Speakers described a climate of fear and uncertainty haunting Americans worried about the future of social safety net programs. “I have never seen this many people break down in my town halls,” said U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Detroit, adding that she has also never received so many calls from people concerned about Social Security.

U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Birmingham, called for expanding benefits not just for Social Security but also Medicaid and Medicare. “Any talk otherwise is just dead wrong,” she said.

As Trump’s opponents try to resist his policies, Tlaib said workers play a special role in mounting a successful opposition. “It is always unions that save our country,” she said.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel and other state attorneys general who challenged the Trump administration’s firing of probationary federal employees secured a preliminary injunction Tuesday requiring federal agencies to stop the firings and reinstate the impacted workers in the states that brought the lawsuit while litigation continues.

“Illegally firing probationary employees without following lawful procedures is not only reckless but a blatant abuse of power,” Nessel said in a statement Wednesday.

Justice Department lawyers have argued in the case that federal agencies have wide discretion to fire probationary employees. A White House fact sheet published in February laying out Trump’s strategy for reshaping the federal workforce says there are too many federal employees. “The federal workforce contributes significantly to federal spending and debt,” it reads.

AFGE has held protests across the U.S. protesting the Trump administration’s push to overhaul the federal government, including the mass firings of federal workers. In Michigan, the federal government employed just under 30,000 as of March 2024, according to the Congressional Research Service.

The protest Friday comes on the eve of planned nationwide “Hands Off!” protests against Trump.