Texas Federal Workers & Members of Congress Sound the Alarm during Virtual Town Hall
TEXAS – On Tuesday evening, the Texas AFL-CIO, American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), federal workers, and Texas members of Congress hosted a virtual town hall to call out Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s attacks on unions.
“This out of control president and his billionaire buddies are waging a war on the federal workforce — the very people who make this country work,” said Texas AFL-CIO President Rick Levy. “But we are not going to let that happen because we are the union. And the union not only fights for our members, we fight for our communities.”
WATCH: Workers Over Billionaires: Virtual Town Hall with Texas Federal Workers & Members of Congress
Texas is home to more than 130,000 federal workers across agencies — the third most in the country. The majority of those are employed by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
“Stripping these rights will harm government effectiveness, sabotage public service, and betray the trust of millions of Americans who rely on the federal workers every single day,” said Cheryl Eliano, national vice president for AFGE District 10. “But we are not going to stand for it. We are not going to stop fighting. We're not going to be intimidated. AFGE is already preparing legal challenges against these outrageous, illegal, un-American attacks. We'll fight in courtrooms, in Congress, in the media, on the streets, and across this nation to defend workers' rights, the integrity of public service, and the rule of law itself.”
“This is a fight. Don't get twisted and don't forget about it. This is a fight that we are in with you. We're in this fight for our livelihoods. We're in this fight for our future,” said Texas AFL-CIO Secretary Treasurer Leonard Aguilar. “Texas is home to the highest number of AFGE members in the country, and that's why it's so important for us to come together now, figure out how we are going to move forward as organized labor and as a community.”
Quotes from federal workers during the Town Hall:
“We have less people that are processing FAFSA applications right now for students who are, you know, awaiting decisions on colleges and trade schools and trying to figure out what does this mean financially?” said Brittany Coleman, AFGE Local 252 chief shop steward and U.S. Department of Education (DOE) worker, based in Dallas. “It means that we have people like me who are wondering, you know, how am I going to pay my bills? What am I going to do for insurance coverage? We have people who have been left behind still at my agency who are bearing the load of a significant amount of work because of losing so many employees. We had twelve regional offices. They've been shrunk down to five. People's caseloads have exploded.”
“I just want to express how stressful and disappointing it is to see the decrease in morale of excellent employees that come to work every day wondering what's next,” said Yolanda Conner, AFGE Local 2437 president and U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) worker, based in Dallas. “We're brainstorming on ways to continue to provide excellent care to our veterans… to kind of brace for the potential decrease of employment, the decrease of the resources. This administration must think the benefits that the veterans receive are an entitlement, not that they earned them and they deserve it and more.”
“We have basically no rights anymore. They've instilled fear in the workforce,” said Johnny Jones, AFGE Local 1040 president and U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) worker, based in Fort Worth. “They have also began this attack on your rights to join a union. Obviously, there's no more dues deduction. One of the concerns that we have is the fact that we barely, after the last twenty years, were able to secure full collective bargaining rights for our TSA officers, and now we are deeply faced with the challenges of losing everything we worked so hard for.”
“I will say a statement from the social security employees that I work with: We apologize in advance for what we feel is failing you,” said Joel D. Smith, AFGE Local 3184 president and U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA) worker, based in Spring. “When I started with this agency, 21 years ago, we were able to do a disability claim in two to four months. We were able to see you within 30 minutes. Our wait time today was four and a half hours. Our process for taking a disability application before getting a decision is nearly or over 14 months. We're being told to quit daily. We're being told to leave.”
Quotes from Members of Congress during the Town Hall:
“They are trying to destroy the union movement. They want to destroy our federal unions like NTEU and AFGE because those unions are a way for us to express the power of the people against the power of corrupt billionaires,” said U.S. Representative Greg Casar (D-Texas). “The reason that they are doing all these firings, the reason that they're destroying public services, and the reason they're trying to destroy our federal unions… is because it's a check on their power. And what they want is actually all the big checks and all the money for themselves.”
“At times like this, it's not unusual for people to feel both angry, frustrated, but often sometimes powerless because they want to know what they can do,” said U.S. Representative Joaquin Castro (D-Texas). “And of course, the answer is for you to keep speaking up. We, all of us, whether you're in public office or out there, we cannot give up and we cannot surrender. Because if we do, then they win. So continue calling and emailing, doing everything that you can to get the attention of legislators.”
“The president has no idea, neither does Musk, about what federal workers actually do. And they're clueless, beginning with Musk himself,” said U.S. Representative Sylvia R. Garcia (D-Texas). “Let's call it what it is” This is about breaking unions, cutting agencies, and hollowing out the government from the inside. It's not a coincidence.”
“These stories that you're hearing about the Social Security offices closing and people having to show up in person or online in order to renew their Social Security… the reason why they're doing that is because they are trying to remove hundreds of thousands of people from the Social Security roles in order to be able to do this tax cut for these oligarchs and billionaires,” said U.S. Representative Marc Veasey (D-Texas). “We need to know that that is what that is all about.”
Resource: MAP: Number of Texan Federal Government Employees by County
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The Texas AFL-CIO is the state labor federation consisting of 240,000 affiliated union members and advocates for working people in Texas. Learn more at texasaflcio.org