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Unions Condemn Executive Order Allowing Trump to Replace Federal Workers With 'Political Loyalists'
The head of America's largest federal workers union called it "a blatant attempt to corrupt the federal government by eliminating employees’ due process rights so they can be fired for political reasons."
Jun 05, 2026
Labor unions are warning that an executive order signed this week by President Donald Trump will allow his administration to replace thousands of career civil servants with "political loyalists."
The order, signed on Wednesday, converts around 8,000 federal workers—most of whom are at senior levels in the civil service with major influence over policy decisions—to Schedule Policy/Career (P/C) status, formerly known as Schedule F, effectively making them "at-will" employees whom the president can fire at his discretion.
While a small number, around 4,000, of the roughly 2 million federal workers are considered political appointees, most federal employees cannot be removed purely for failing to serve the agenda of the president and can usually only be fired for issues like inadequate performance or misconduct, which involves an appeal process.
But as part of the Trump administration's effort to dismantle what it's described as a "deep state" of disloyal bureaucrats, a major objective of the Heritage Foundation's right-wing manifesto Project 2025, those 8,000 employees may now be fired for "subversion of presidential directives."
According to the US Office of Personnel Management, this could be just the beginning—with as many as 50,000 employees potentially in consideration to be rescheduled.
A fact sheet released by the White House said that despite the reclassification, “these remain ‘career’ positions and the non-partisan hiring processes, competitive status, and other aspects of these roles will not change,” while “removal decisions will also be made without respect to political affiliation.”
But Trump-loyal department heads—everywhere from the Department of Justice to the Pentagon—have systematically purged employees across executive departments that are perceived as Trump's political enemies.
AFL-CIO president Liz Shuler said on Thursday that "Schedule P/C is the next phase in Trump’s anti-worker agenda to replace government workers with political loyalists who answer only to him."
"As we’ve seen from his first day in office, the president is determined to tear down the architecture of our federal government and replace it with a system of corruption to benefit powerful CEOs and billionaire union-busters," she said.
It's part of a broader attack on the federal workforce in Trump's second term. Through a combination of firings, layoffs, and forced resignations, he has reduced the number of government employees by nearly 300,000, causing chaos and understaffing at many agencies. He's also stripped more than 1 million unionized federal workers of their right to collective bargaining, though courts have blocked the implementation for some workers.
Everett Kelley, the president of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), which represents more than 800,000 federal workers, said Wednesday's order was "a blatant attempt to corrupt the federal government by eliminating employees’ due process rights so they can be fired for political reasons."
"The practical implications of this action are clear. Workers who once felt comfortable reporting waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement at their place of employment because they were protected from retaliation will now be afraid for their jobs if they speak out," he said. "That is a disservice to them and to the millions of Americans who rely on the federal government every day."
William Shackelford, president of the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association, added that the order "threatens expanded political cronyism, increasing the risk that executive actions will be decided by the size of political contributions rather than the faithful execution of the law."
"That increases the risk of politically motivated enforcement of laws, threatening individual liberty; politically determined tariff exceptions and contract and grant awards, threatening greater corruption and waste of taxpayer dollars; and politically selective provision of services, threatening failure of government operations for disfavored groups or localities," he said.
The legal watchdog Democracy Forward has filed a lawsuit against Trump's rebranding of Schedule F as Schedule P/C at the start of his second term, which the group argued allowed several positions in the traditional nonpartisan civil service to be effectively recast as political appointees.
"For generations, our country has relied on a professional, nonpartisan civil service," said Skye Perryman, the group's president and CEO on Wednesday. "The people responsible for protecting our public health, safeguarding our environment, delivering our mail, managing our airports, protecting our public lands, and enforcing our laws should be allowed to do their jobs, not targeted by the same government they serve."
“When government experts can be fired without cause,” she added, “it’s not just federal workers who are harmed—it’s the people across the country who rely on these essential services every day.”
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Labor Unions Worldwide Applaud ICJ Ruling Affirming Workers' Right to Strike
One Somali labor federation said the ruling "represents a major victory for workers, trade unions, and social justice across the world."
May 22, 2026
Labor leaders around the world cheered Thursday's landmark World Court ruling affirming that the right to strike is protected under international law.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague ruled 10-4 in an advisory opinion—meaning it's not legally binding—that “the right to strike of workers and their organizations is protected” under the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organize Convention of 1948, also known as International Labor Organization (ILO) Convention 87.
However, the tribunal also declared that its finding "does not entail any determination on the precise content, scope, or conditions for the exercise of that right."
The case originated with a 2023 request by the ILO Governing Body amid disagreement among the agency's three constituencies—governments, workers, and employers—over the right to strike.
"For decades, this issue has generated one of the deepest disputes within the ILO's tripartite structure... creating a deadlock over the interpretation of international labor standards," explained Kenyan labor law expert Ayaga Max Liambilah.
"Workers and trade unions argued that the right to organize becomes ineffective without the ability to strike, viewing strikes as essential tools for collective bargaining and protection of workers' interests," he said. "Employers' organizations, particularly the International Organization of Employers (IOE), maintained that Convention 87 does not expressly include a right to strike and that reading it into the convention creates obligations never explicitly negotiated by states."
International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) representative Paapa Danquah told the court during proceedings that “strike action has been our vital tool... to improve labor conditions and to defend our human dignities."
IOE secretary general Roberto Suárez Santos countered that Convention 87 does not explicitly address the right to strike. After the court's decision, he underscored that the tribunal did not rule on the "precise content, scope, or conditions for the exercise of that right.”
Unions and workers around the world welcomed the ICJ decision.
“We thank the World Court for this advisory opinion," said ITUC secretary general Luc Triangle, whose organization represents more than 200 million workers in over 160 countries. "The court has confirmed that international law supports the long-standing understanding shared not only by unions, but across large parts of the ILO system for decades."
“This is an important moment for legal certainty, for social justice, and for the credibility of the international labor standards system," he added.
Sonny Matula, president of Federation of Free Workers—a Filipino labor organization—"joyfully and warmly" welcomed the ruling.
"In the Philippines, this is not a foreign concept," he said. "Article XIII, Section 3 of the Constitution expressly recognizes the rights of workers to self-organization, collective bargaining, and peaceful concerted activities, including the right to strike in accordance with law."
"The strike is labor's last voice when dialogue has failed," Matula added. "Without the right to strike, we can say that freedom of association is like a silent campaign, unheard."
Christy Hoffman, general secretary of the Union Network International (UNI) Global Union, said in a statement that “as any trade unionist will tell you, there is no right to organize without the right to strike!"
"The two are inseparable foundations of any functional and fair industrial relations system," Hoffman asserted. "Congratulations to the many advocates who argued the point so brilliantly before the ICJ, and to the ITUC for its steadfast commitment to this case."
The Federation of Somali Trade Unions (FESTU) issued a statement applauding the ICJ ruling, which it said "represents a major victory for workers, trade unions, and social justice across the world."
"It reaffirms with legal certainty that the right to strike is inseparable from freedom of association and constitutes a fundamental pillar of democratic labor relations, collective bargaining, and the protection of workers’ dignity, rights, and interests," FESTU continued.
"The court’s opinion has reinforced the legitimacy of the ILO supervisory mechanisms and restored clarity on a matter that for years had been the subject of intense international debate and institutional disagreement," the federation added. "This is a defining moment in the history of the global trade union movement and a major achievement for multilateralism, social justice, and international law."
Liz Shuler, president of the AFL-CIO—the largest US labor federation—said that "this decision affirms decades of judicial precedent and what workers around the world know: There is no right to organize and bargain collectively without the right to strike."
"When workers are barred from taking collective action on the job, they cannot defend their rights and demand the workplace conditions and contracts they are owed," she continued. "The freedom to join a union becomes an empty formality."
"At a moment when workers’ organizations face sustained attacks around the world, this opinion reaffirms that the freedom to withhold one's labor is not a privilege granted by the powerful, but a fundamental human right grounded in international law," Shuler added. "The AFL-CIO commends the International Trade Union Confederation and its legal team for their efforts in this result."
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AFL-CIO to FIFA: 'Keep ICE Out of World Cup Host Cities' to Protect Workers
"The tactics of discrimination, violence, and intimidation used by immigration agencies to target working people across the country cause fear and chaos in our communities."
May 12, 2026
AFL-CIO president Liz Shuler on Monday urged leaders of the International Federation of Association Football, world soccer's governing body, to protect workers by keeping federal immigration enforcement agents away from cities and venues hosting the upcoming FIFA Men's World Cup tournament.
"As we approach the final preparations for the World Cup and workers begin readying stadiums and communities for an influx of visitors, several of our affiliate unions have raised grave concerns over FIFA’s engagement with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)," Shuler wrote in a letter to FIFA president Gianni Infantino and 2026 World Cup chief strategy and planning officer Amy Hopfinger.
"Chief among those concerns is the potential for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other DHS agents to be present at and around the World Cup matches," Shuler continued. "As the AFL-CIO is a founding member of Dignity 2026, a national coalition of labor and grassroots community groups, we know concerns around the possibility of immigration enforcement are wide-reaching."
America’s unions are calling on FIFA leadership to keep ICE out of World Cup host cities during the games.The Trump administration's immigration enforcement poses a serious risk to the thousands of World Cup workers. https://bit.ly/3Pb9lI2
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— AFL-CIO (@aflcio.org) May 11, 2026 at 10:52 AM
Noting that acting ICE Director Todd Lyons has called his agency—and specifically its Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) division—"a key part of the overall security apparatus for the World Cup," Shuler lamented that "FIFA has largely remained silent about the role ICE will play in the games."
"Given the racial profiling, warrantless arrests, and other unconstitutional tactics the Trump administration is using to detain and deport people with no regard for due process, our affiliate unions are deeply concerned about ICE being engaged for any purpose during the World Cup," she said. "Indeed, some unions have signaled that this would create an unsafe work environment that may require them to take collective action to ensure that no members are put at risk."
Shuler continued:
The tactics of discrimination, violence, and intimidation used by immigration agencies to target working people across the country cause fear and chaos in our communities, and directly affect workers, business operations, and local economies. Consequently, ICE presence in host cities during the games could cause severe disruptions and negatively affect the success of the tournament. We urge FIFA to consider the financial and human impact that collaborating with DHS could have on the working people who make these games possible, not to mention on local businesses, host cities and communities, and FIFA itself. The games should be a welcoming and celebratory event for spectators, workers, and soccer enthusiasts of all backgrounds.
The AFL-CIO president is calling on FIFA leaders to:
- Publicly call on the Trump administration to commit to keeping immigration enforcement agents, particularly ICE, out of host cities;
- Clarify what role DHS will play, with the expectation that any DHS presence at FIFA events be strictly limited to providing operational security; and
- Confirm that the administration will not launch immigration enforcement operations targeting workers, spectators, or the general public anywhere in the host cities.
"Additionally, unions have raised concerns over the accreditation and background check process that FIFA will be using to credential workers during the games," Shuler wrote. "It is our understanding that FIFA will be submitting worker information through an FBI database. We call on FIFA to ensure that unions representing members at World Cup stadiums receive clear answers and open dialogue to all questions about this process."
"Given the ways in which federal agencies are violating workers’ privacy rights to build datasets to support unconstitutional immigration enforcement activity, and FIFA’s relative silence on the scope and implications of these checks, we are asking you to commit to working with unions so that they can fully understand the process to which their members will be subjected and ensure that workers’ privacy and safety are respected," she continued. "Specifically, we seek assurances from FIFA that no information reported in these checks will be shared with any constituent part of DHS that engages in immigration enforcement or used for immigration enforcement purposes."
"Union members working in stadiums, hotels, event production, transportation, and many other industries will be critical to the success of these games. They deserve respect, dignity, and safety on the job so they in turn can provide a safe and welcoming environment for all players and fans," Shuler concluded. "FIFA must be transparent about its plans for engaging with DHS and the administration so that workers can do their jobs without fear and provide the best possible World Cup experience for neighbors and visitors alike."
The US, Canada, and Mexico are jointly hosting the tournament—the first time three nations are doing so—which is set to kick off with group stage matches in Mexico City and Guadalajara on June 11 and Los Angeles and Toronto the following day.
A coalition of more than 120 US-based civil society groups last month issued a travel advisory ahead the tournament over what the ACLU called the “deteriorating human rights situation” in the United States amid the Trump administration’s deadly anti-immigrant crackdown, suppression of free speech, and more.
Citing the “absence of meaningful action and concrete guarantees from FIFA”—world soccer’s governing body—“host cities, or the US government,” the coalition urged “fans, players, journalists, and other visitors traveling to and within the United States” for the tournament to “have an emergency contingency plan.”
The presence of HSI agents, who provided security services for US diplomats during February's Winter Olympics in Milano-Cortina Italy, sparked multiple protests in which thousands of people took to the streets of the Lombardian capital to denounce what Milano Mayor Giuseppe Sala called "a militia that kills."
As the tournament kickoff nears, there are also multiple unresolved labor disputes that could lead to strikes. In Inglewood, California, roughly 2,000 UNITE HERE Local 11 food service and hospitality workers at SoFi Stadium are threatening to strike before or during the tournament unless FIFA and venue operators address concerns about working conditions and the ICE threat.
Sheraton Hotel workers in Center City Philadelphia are ready to strike during the World Cup for a fair contract.The hotel is completely booked and workers have been without a contract for over two years now.
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— Sean Kitchen (@seankitchen.bsky.social) May 2, 2026 at 3:55 PM
In Mexico City, transport unions are pushing for improved worker protections ahead of the tournament. Using their leverage ahead of one of the world's premier sporting events, workers have recently secured commitments from the city to raise overtime pay, negotiate permanent contracts, enact anti-harassment protections, and boost workplace safety.
In addition to concerns about workers, some capitalists have warned that the Trump administration's draconian immigration policies and generally unwelcoming vibes could affect their bottom line.
“When you have visitors asking legitimate questions about what their experience will be coming through customs and immigration... those are big impediments to optimizing what should be a home run opportunity for the lodging industry," Marriott CEO Anthony Capuano said earlier this year.
There has also been considerable controversy surrounding FIFA's much-ridiculed awarding of its inaugural Peace Prize to President Donald Trump amid his administration’s illegal high-seas boat-bombing spree, and just ahead of his Christmas bombing of Nigeria, kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, launch of the US-Israeli war of choice against tournament qualifier Iran, and threats to attack several other countries.
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