Federal Workers Rally In New York to Protest Musk Jobs Purge

Posted by author February 19, 2025 Jobs

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Hundreds of federal employees rallied across downtown Manhattan on Wednesday to protest the Trump administration’s cuts to the public sector workforce at the hands of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, which is led by billionaire mogul Elon Musk.

Current and former federal employees, some of whom had received termination letters in recent days, and their supporters gathered outside the Jacob K. Javits Federal Building in lower Manhattan and nearby Foley Square, with others massing in Washington Square Park. The rallies were part of a national day of action for federal workers across dozens of states that also included Michigan, California and Texas.

The effort was organized by unions representing the federal workforce, including the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) and the International Federal of Professional & Technical Engineers (IFPTE) — some of the same unions that sued in attempts to stop DOGE from accessing sensitive Treasury data and to halt Musk’s federal worker buyout program.

Among the workers who spoke up at the Javits Federal Building rally was Jasmine McAllister, a data scientist who worked at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau until she was issued a termination letter last week due to alleged poor performance — an assertion she said her own direct supervisors disavowed.

McAllister, a member of the National Treasury Employees Union Local 335, said that her firing was “illegal.” The mass firings, she said, “sends a message that billionaires are in charge.”

Government workers protest outside the Federal Building in Lower Manhattan against Elon Musk’s push for mass firings, Feb. 19, 2025. Credit: Ben Fractenberg/THE CITY

Last week, thousands of probationary employees at the CFPB, the federal Department of Transportation, the Environmental Protection Agency and other agencies received termination letters that said they were being fired due to poor performance, though many of those workers had “exceptional” performance reviews, NBC News reported. Probationary status has nothing to do with performance, but is a category reserved for recently hired employees before their civil service protections kick in, or for longtime federal workers who change jobs.

The firings came after a “buyout” offer for the nation’s two million federal workers under the heading “Fork in the Road,” in which Musk’s unit offered an opportunity to resign but be paid through September. Only about 3% of federal workers accepted the offer by the initial Feb. 6 deadline, Reuters reported. A federal judge in Boston eventually allowed the federal buyout program to proceed after issuing a temporary pause in response to the unions’ lawsuit, and the Trump administration said the offer closed on Feb. 12.

While the full effect of Trump and Musk’s purge of the federal workforce will not be felt for months or years, it could have a devastating effect on the government’s ability to carry out infrastructure projects, investigate workplace abuses and inspect public housing for lead and asbestos, said workers who spoke with THE CITY, surrounded by signs that included the slogans “Fork This” and “Don’t be a chicken in a coup.”

Suzanne Englot, a member of the AFGE, called on local leaders to act with “urgency” to help stop DOGE’s “dismantling of the federal government.”

“I know that people across federal agencies have been fired, put on leave, are worried about the work that they’re doing, that they won’t be able to do it, and I know that that’s going to really hurt the American public,” said Englot, an attorney at the Environmental Protection Agency who spoke as a rank-and-file member of the AFGE.

Federal workers’ collective bargaining rights are also at risk, said Chris Dols, the president of Local 98 of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers.

DOGE’s “legal guidance around our union contracts has been to basically, ‘Tear them up,’” said Dols, who works for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers but spoke on behalf of his union. “They aren’t at all respecting the terms of our contract.”

Dols said some of his colleagues in government accepted the buyout offer, though “not very many, but those who did make it really much harder for the coworkers they leave behind who now have to do more with the fewer co-workers.”