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Judge Indefinitely Blocks Trump Admin From Firing Federal Workers During Shutdown
An attorney for unions suing over layoffs called the order "a major blow to the Trump-Vance administration's unlawful attempt to make the Project 2025 playbook a reality by targeting our nation’s career public servants."
Oct 28, 2025
US District Judge Susan Illston on Tuesday again sided with federal workers over President Donald Trump's administration, indefinitely extending her block on the mass firing of government employees during the second-longest shutdown in history.
The San Francisco-based judge, nominated by former Democratic President Bill Clinton, granted a preliminary injunction after previously issuing a temporary restraining order in a case launched late last month by the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) and the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME).
"Today's ruling is another victory for federal workers and our ongoing efforts to protect their jobs from an administration hellbent on illegally firing them," said AFSCME president Lee Saunders in a statement. "Unlike the billionaires in this administration, public service workers dedicate themselves to serving their communities. These attempted mass firings would devastate both the workers and the people they serve. We will keep fighting to protect public service jobs against this administration's unlawful efforts to eliminate them."
During the shutdown, some federal workers are furloughed while others keep working; none are paid until the government reopens. With AFGE members facing such conditions, national president Everett Kelley on Monday called for Congress to "reopen the government immediately under a clean continuing resolution," effectively siding with Trump and Republican lawmakers over Democrats who are fighting for legislation to protect the healthcare of tens of millions of Americans.
Just a day later, the union leader took aim at the president while welcoming Illston's new ruling. "President Trump is using the government shutdown as a pretense to illegally fire thousands of federal workers—specifically those employees carrying out programs and policies that the administration finds objectionable," he said. "We thank the court for keeping in place its order preventing the administration from firing workers due to the shutdown while we continue our litigation in court."
The judge's previous order was set to expire on Wednesday. After she issued it, several other unions—the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE), National Association of Government Employees (NAGE), National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE), Service Employees International Union (SEIU), and National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU)—joined the case.
"This federal court decision is the result of organized labor standing together and leading the fight against the administration's unprecedented, politicized, and unlawful attack on federal workers' rights," declared IFPTE president Matt Biggs. "This is not only a win for the dedicated federal workforce who make up our nonpartisan civil service, but a victory for the American people and the public services our communities and our economy count on."
Tuesday's injunction prevents new reductions in force (RIFs) as well as the "implementation of the roughly 4,000 layoffs that agencies have already ordered," Government Executive reported.
According to the outlet:
The judge said she would clarify the exact scope of the order later on Tuesday in writing, but added in essence federal agencies "are enjoined from issuing any more RIF notices." Michael Velchik, a Justice Department attorney arguing on behalf of the administration, asked that cuts in the US Patent and Trademark Office and the Interior Department not be included in the order as those layoffs were underway long before the shutdown commenced. Illston said she would likely hold a further evidentiary hearing to make that determination.
USPTO already sent RIF notices to about 1% of its workforce, while Interior is planning to lay off thousands of workers.
The unions are represented by Altshuler Berzon LLP, Democracy Defenders Fund, and Democracy Forward, whose president and CEO, Skye Perryman, framed the new injunction as a rejection of the Trump administration's purge of the federal government—which preceded the shutdown and is a key part of Project 2025, a sweeping policy playbook authored last year by various far-right figures, including Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought.
"This order is positive for the American people and a major blow to the Trump-Vance administration's unlawful attempt to make the Project 2025 playbook a reality by targeting our nation's career public servants, who work for all Americans," she said. "Our team is honored to represent the civil servants who are fighting back against President Trump's dangerous agenda, and to have won this crucial injunction that will help stop federal workers from continuing to be targeted and harassed by this administration during the shutdown."
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Federal Worker Unions File Emergency Request to Block Trump-Vought Shutdown Layoffs
"These mass firings are illegal and will have devastating effects on the services millions of Americans rely on every day," warned one labor leader.
Oct 10, 2025
Unions that are already suing President Donald Trump's administration to protect federal workers from mass firings during the government shutdown filed an emergency request for relief from a district court after a top official announced Friday morning that reductions in force were underway.
"The RIFs have begun," Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russell Vought posted on the social media platform X.
According to the filing from the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) and American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), "This corroborates credible information plaintiffs began receiving earlier this morning from multiple sources that OMB has directed federal agencies government-wide to begin issuing RIF notices today."
The unions are asking US District Judge Susan Illston, an appointee of former President Bill Clinton, to issue an immediate temporary restraining order "halting OMB from ordering agencies to implement RIFs, and halting the issuance of any RIF notices by any defendant pending the court's already-scheduled October 16, 2025 hearing."
The unions had sued OMB, Vought, the Office of Personnel Management, and OPM Director Scott Kupor late last month amid threats that the Trump administration would use the then-looming government shutdown to pursue mass layoffs.
Government Executive on Friday evening reported layoffs at the Environmental Protection Agency as well as the departments of Education, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, and Treasury.
After Friday's emergency filing, AFGE national president Everett Kelley said in a statement: "It is disgraceful that the Trump administration has used the government shutdown as an excuse to illegally fire thousands of workers who provide critical services to communities across the country. These workers show up every day to serve the American people, and for the past nine months have been met with nothing but cruelty and viciousness from President Trump. Every single American citizen should be outraged."
"Federal workers are tired of being used as pawns for the political and personal gains of the elected and unelected leaders. It's time for Congress to do their jobs and negotiate an end to this shutdown immediately," he continued. "In AFGE's 93 years of existence under several presidential administrations—including during Trump's first term—no president has ever decided to fire thousands of furloughed workers during a government shutdown."
“AFGE is currently challenging President Trump's illegal, unprecedented, abuse of power, and we will not stop fighting until every reduction-in-force notice is rescinded," he pledged.
AFSCME president Lee Saunders was similarly determined, saying that "these mass firings are illegal and will have devastating effects on the services millions of Americans rely on every day. Whether it's food inspectors, public safety workers, or the countless other public service workers who keep America running, federal employees should not be bargaining chips in this administration’s political games."
"By illegally firing these workers, the administration isn't just targeting federal employees, it's hurting their families and the communities they serve every day," he added. "We will pursue every available legal avenue to stop this administration's unlawful attacks on public service workers' freedoms and jobs."
Both AFSCME and AFGE are affiliates of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations. AFL-CIO president Liz Shuler has called out the White House over the shutdown—the result of congressional Republicans refusing to reverse their devastating cuts to healthcare—and continued to do so on Friday.
" Donald Trump shut down the government, choosing to lock workers out of their jobs instead of doing his," she said. "As millions of workers miss paychecks and Americans open letters saying their healthcare costs are skyrocketing, the Trump administration is creating even more pain and chaos by moving to illegally fire thousands of federal workers today. We won't stand for this administration using hardworking Americans as pawns in a political game."
Congressional Democrats and other critics also fired back at Vought—including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who wrote on X that "Republicans would rather see thousands of Americans lose their jobs than sit down and negotiate with Democrats to reopen the government."
"Republicans own this shutdown—every job lost, every family hurt, every service gutted is because of their decisions," he added.
Congressman Jerry Nadler (D-NY) pointed out that "nearly 700,000 of our public servants are veterans. Donald Trump is threatening to fire them as punishment for doing their jobs because he failed to do his. Behind many of these veterans are families who depend on that paycheck, families who pay their taxes, serve their communities, and make this country work."
"Trump and Vought should be ashamed of themselves," he asserted. "They don't have to do this, they want to do this."
Senate Appropriations Committee Vice Chair Patty Murray (D-Wash.) agreed with that last point.
"Once again: If President Trump and Russ Vought decide to do more mass firings, they are CHOOSING to inflict more pain on people," she wrote. "'Reductions in force' are not a new power these bozos get in a shutdown. We can't be intimidated by these crooks."
Rep. Angie Craig (D-Minn.) called Vought's post "your daily reminder that Donald Trump doesn’t give a shit about working people."
Warren Gunnels—staff director for Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee Ranking Member Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)—argued that "the RIF that should be going out is for Russ Vought, President Trump's authoritarian budget director, who has been illegally firing federal workers with impunity and denying funds that Congress appropriated and the president signed into law-in violation of the US Constitution."
"Hey Russell: You want to fire someone? Fire yourself for breaking the law and violating the Constitution, not hardworking veterans and other public servants who put their lives on the line defending our country each and every day," Gunnels told the OMB director. "They deserve our respect, not contempt."
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'Put Working People First,' Says AFL-CIO Angered by Trump Agenda and Government Shutdown
"The labor movement's message to the administration is clear: Get to work. Fund the government. Fix the healthcare crisis."
Oct 01, 2025
The largest federation of labor unions in the United States called out President Donald Trump's administration on Wednesday after a government shutdown began at midnight following failed votes on competing congressional funding bills.
"The federal government is shutting down right now because President Trump and his administration chose chaos and pain over responsible governing," declared American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) president Liz Shuler in a statement.
"Now," she said, "countless jobs, the essential government services we all rely on, and the economy powered by our workforce are in jeopardy—all because the administration wants to take one more swing at wrecking the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and throwing working people off our healthcare."
Republicans control the White House and both chambers of Congress but need some Democratic support to advance most legislation to a final vote in the Senate. While the GOP wanted to pass a House-approved stopgap bill, Democrats fought to extend expiring ACA subsidies and reverse Medicaid cuts in Trump's so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act, or HR 1.
"It's not Washington politicians who are at risk here—it's working people just like us."
"Hundreds of thousands of federal workers are being locked out and stand to lose the paychecks their families depend on," said Shuler. "Federal contractors, including custodians and cafeteria workers, won't have the assurance of back pay. It's not Washington politicians who are at risk here—it's working people just like us, more than 80% of whom live outside DC, and 30% are veterans."
Federal workers deemed essential continue working during a shutdown, and those deemed nonessential are furloughed; none receive pay until the government reopens. The Trump administration has threatened to use the shutdown to continue the Department of Government Efficiency's (DOGE) effort to gut the federal bureaucracy.
"These are the people who get our Social Security checks out on time, keep our food and water safe, care for our veterans, and protect us at airports and during natural disasters," Shuler noted. "Under the administration's Project 2025/DOGE agenda, federal workers have been fired, rehired, and fired again. They've been stripped of their collective bargaining rights and union contracts."
"Now, President Trump is shutting down the government, using federal workers as pawns and threatening to illegally fire them—all to avoid fixing the mounting healthcare cost crisis that will hurt millions of Americans," she concluded. "The labor movement's message to the administration is clear: Get to work. Fund the government. Fix the healthcare crisis. Put working people first."
Leaders of AFL-CIO affiliates shared similar messages on Wednesday, including American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) national president Everett Kelley, who stressed that "when the government shuts down, American families pay the price."
"Congress must stop playing politics with the livelihoods of federal workers and the communities they serve, end this shutdown immediately, and stop holding workers hostage," he said. "These employees should be able to do their jobs free of political interference. Instead, these employees and the services they provide are being thrown into chaos because Congress refuses to act."
"Making matters worse," Kelley noted, "President Trump and Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought are threatening to illegally fire mass numbers of federal employees during the government shutdown to inflict further pain on communities and workers across the nation—an action we are already challenging in court."
In the lead-up to the shutdown late Tuesday, AFGE and another AFL-CIO affiliate, the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), filed a federal lawsuit in hopes of protecting government workers from mass firings.
Mary Turner, president of National Nurses United, another AFL-CIO affiliate, said Tuesday that "the Trump administration's only desire appears to be to placate and please the billionaire class and to declare war on our country's own people. This was abundantly evident in the passage of HR 1, which gave corporations and the ultrarich huge tax breaks while stealing healthcare coverage from 16 million people."
"When the Republicans passed HR 1, they voted to upend an already fragile system," Turner added. "If Congress doesn't act immediately to reverse these cuts, our patients will suffer from going without care. They will have to ration their prescriptions and face bankruptcy just to see a doctor. Experts predict more than 50,000 people will die unnecessarily each year because of these cuts."
In a letter sent to federal lawmakers before the shutdown, the nurses had urged them to vote for the Democratic measure and "address the looming healthcare crisis that Republican congressional leadership created."
The union also emphasized that "by refusing to govern, Republicans bear full responsibility for the devastating consequences that would ensue if the government is shut down."
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