Amid President-elect Donald Trump’s agenda to drastically reduce the size of the government and improve its efficiency, federal employees are less than pleased. Trump recently indicated that he would fight back against a measure from President Joe Biden that would allow federal workers to maintain a hybrid work schedule through 2029, much to the dismay of civil servants.
Trump explained at a recent press conference, “We’re talking about a friendly takeover, a friendly transition as they like to say, this is a friendly transition, and it is. But there are two events that took place that I think are very terrible.” The incoming president further emphasized that federal employees would be forced to work in-person.
“One is that if people don’t come back to work, come back into the office, they’re going to be dismissed, and somebody in the Biden administration gave a five-year waiver of that. So that for five years, people don’t have to come back into the office,” Trump added. “It involved 49,000 people for five years. They don’t have to go. They just signed this thing. It’s ridiculous. So it was like a gift to a union, and we’re going to obviously be in court to stop it.”
Addressing Trump’s comments, AFGE National President Everett Kelley claimed that the remote work arrangement actually improves the efficiency of the government. He released a statement maintaining the union supports the hybrid agreement “where it delivers for both the taxpayers and the workers who serve them. Telework and remote work are tools that have helped the federal government increase productivity and efficiency, maintain continuity of operations, and increase disaster preparedness.”
“Rumors of widespread federal telework and remote work are simply untrue. More than half of federal employees cannot telework at all because of the nature of their jobs, only 10% of federal workers are remote, and those who have a hybrid arrangement spend over 60% of working hours in the office,” Kelley continued.
Kelley vowed to retaliate against the Trump administration if it fails to honor the remote work arrangement. “Collective bargaining agreements entered into by the federal government are binding and enforceable under the law. We trust the incoming administration will abide by their obligations to honor lawful union contracts. If they fail to do so, we will be prepared to enforce our rights,” he asserted.
The American Tribune previously reported on comments from Vivek Ramaswamy, who will lead the Department of Government Efficiency (D.O.G.E.) alongside Elon Musk, and how entire agencies might be “deleted outright.” Vivek said, “Politicians haven’t been able to do it. And so Elon and I, we’re not politicians. We’re businessmen. We’re coming at it from the outside. Sometimes if you go inside, you become native to the system.”
Fox News host Maria Bartiromo asked, “Are you going to be closing down departments?” Vivek replied, “We expect mass reductions.” He replied, “We expect certain agencies to be deleted outright. We expect mass reductions in force in areas of the federal government that are bloated. We expect massive cuts of all federal contractors and others who are overbilling the federal government. So, yes, we expect all of the above.”
Watch Vivek here:
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