Something Wicked This Way Comes: Trump, Feds and Workplace Safety

It’s impossible not to be overwhelmed by all of the crazy and destructive crap coming out of the Trump White House lately. Personally, I have a hard time dealing with it. I can’t watch the news and I only selectively read the newspaper.

But I will continue to monitor closely how the destructive Trump policies are affecting workers, workplace safety and health, and specifically OSHA, MSHA and NIOSH. At this point, although here have been no specific attacks directed at these agencies,  their employees are suffering from the same brutal attacks that every federal employee is confronting.

And I Scream From the Top of My Lungs, What’s Going On?

The overall goal of the Trump White House is the complete and total takeover of the federal government. To a certain extent, change happens with every new President. Policies change, and the top personnel — the approximately 4,000 political appointees — also changes with every change of administration — especially when there’s a change of party.

But Trump and his Project 2021 acolytes are different. First, instead of just being satisfied with just replacing political appointees, their goal (as detailed in Project 2025) is to replace the entire federal civil service, or at least as many government workers as possible — reaching deep down in to the non-partisan, professional civil service, or, as he labels them, “The Deep State.”   Getting rid of federal employees has two benefits: they can downsize or disable agencies they don’t like,  and/or they can replace agency scientists and experts with hacks people of their own political persuasion — even if they know nothing about the work they’ve been hired to do.

Trump has accused the so-called Deep State of frustrating his plans to remake America because they allegedly stopped or slowed many of his initiatives in the his first term due . Of course, they didn’t stymie his initiative by using nefarious, unethical or illegal means; they simply insisted in following the law — you know, the oath they swore to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

Or in simpler terms, comply with the law.

How will Trump’s efforts affect the valiant federal employees who have dedicated their lives to ensuring that workers come home safe after work every day? 

Of course, you can’t just fire federal employees because you don’t like their politics. At least not legally.  So Trumpistas are engaging a multi-pronged approach:

• Using clearly illegal methods in hopes that they will be sued and the (Trump) courts will uphold his actions;
• Making life so unpredictable and miserable that employees will just resign.
• Inciting terror in federal employees with some high-profile firings
• Giving fake buyout offers —  a little imaginary carrot to go along with the very real sticks.

So how will Trump’s efforts affect the valiant federal employees who have dedicated their lives to ensuring that workers come home safe after work every day?  And how will it affect all other workers?

It’s still far too early to know the full extent of this administration’s war on workers. But let’s take a look at what we know so far.

The Attack

Schedule F and Ending Remote Work

Kathleen Rest described earlier this week the problems with ending remote work and transforming career federal employees into Schedule F.  To summarize, ending remote work contributes to making work more difficult by upending employee’s decisions on where they want to live as well as their transportation and daycare arrangements.  Some OSHA employees who moved or live a distance from Washington have already submitted their resignations.  These resignations are particularly painful considering the hiring freeze that Trump has imposed.

Schedule F upends longstanding job protections for federal career employees and makes it easier to fire them for any reason. Moving a sizable chunk of the federal workforce to Schedule F makes it easier for President Trump to shift the work of the government away from the public interest and toward the president’s political goals.

Hiring Freeze

An Executive Order mandated a freeze on the hiring of Federal civilian (not military) employees. In addition, within 90 days, the Director of OMB, must submit a plan to reduce the size of the Federal Government’s workforce through “efficiency improvements and attrition.” That would be in consultation with Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).  Added to the hiring freeze is a request to all agencies for a list of newly hired employees who are still on probation and can be fired with no muss or fuss because the haven’t yet gained civil service protections.

Buyouts

Speaking of Musk, out of the blue Tuesday evening came an email to all federal employees from the White House Office of Personnel Management (OPM) allegedly offering them a buyout: they would be paid for 9 months if they agreed to resign by February 6. There was widespread confusion about whether employees would be placed on administrative leave (leave with pay) for 9 months, or whether they would be working from home. Federal labor unions and Congressional representatives warned workers not to take the offer as the White House had no authority to offer such buyouts.  And Donald Trump — famous for breaking promises to his contractors — can’t be trusted to follow through.

Now we learn that the offer was sent out under Elon Musk’s authority without the knowledge of many high level officials in the White House or OPM. The email was titled “Fork in the Road,” the same title of a memo that Musk sent after he took over Twitter to encourage employees to leave if they didn’t want to “work long long hours at high intensity: and demonstrate exceptional performance.”

The OPM memo used similar Muskian language: “The federal workforce should be comprised of employees who are reliable, loyal, trustworthy, and who strive for excellence in their daily work. Employees will be subject to enhanced standards of suitability and conduct as we move forward.” All not meeting Musk’s standards will be disciplined or terminated.

Illegal firings

The Trump administration has engaged in a number of illegal high level firings. While these do not directly affect OSHA or MSHA, illegal firings, along with the newly implemented Schedule F, are striking fear throughout the entire federal government.  If they can get away with firing high level, Senate confirmed leaders of independent agencies, who’s going to stop them for illegally firing lower level federal employees?

Most recently Trump fired NLRB Board Member Gwynne Wilcox, whose term did not end until August 2028, and EEOC Commissioners Charlotte Burrows and  Jocelyn Samuels whose term did not end until July 2026.  This is the first time in the 60-year history of the EEOC that a commissioner has ever been fired before the end of their term.

If they can get away with firing high level, Senate confirmed leaders of independent agencies, who’s going to stop them for illegally firing lower level federal employees?

President Biden had appointed Wilcox as of the NLRB by Biden last month, but Trump appointed Marvin Kaplan, a Republican-appointed member, as chair last week. The NLRB’s general counsel,  Jennifer Abruzzo, appointed by Biden, was also fired, although that firing was not unprecedented. Biden fired the Trump-appointed General Counsel when he became President in 2021.

A White House official stated that Wilcox and Samuels “were far-left appointees with radical records of upending long-standing labor law, and they have no place as senior appointees in the Trump administration, which was given a mandate by the American people to undo the radical policies they created.”

Well, they may not like Wilcox, but they can’t legally fire her. The National Labor Relations act states that Board members can be removed “upon notice and hearing, for neglect of duty or malfeasance in office, but for no other cause,” none of which was alleged in this case. Her firing reduces the Board’s membership to two, which means it doesn’t have a quorum to do the work that the NLRB is supposed to be doing: protecting workers’ right to organize.

In addition, he fired at least 17 Inspectors General whose job it is to ensure that agencies are operating within the law and according to their legal mandates. He’s also fired and transferred Department of Justice employees who worked with Jack Smith on his various prosecutions.  None of these dismissals complied with the laws concerning dismissals.

And this just in. Even before the Senate votes on Kash Patel’s nomination to head the FBI,  “At least six senior FBI leaders have been ordered to retire, resign or be fired by Monday, according to sources briefed on the matter, extending a purge that began last week at the Justice Department across the street from the FBI headquarters.

Strategy-wise, Trump probably figures he has nothing to lose. Maybe his actions get overturned by the Courts. On the other hand, there’s a decent chance that Trump’s Supreme Court will ultimately decide that all previous laws and legal decisions about firing the leaders of independent agencies are actually unconstitutional. The King shall not be challenged

Agency Grant and Loan Pause

Earlier this week, Trump issued a memo for federal agencies entitled  “Temporary Pause of Agency Grant, Loan, and Other Financial Assistance Programs” which ordered agencies to block the disbursement of all federal grants and loans by the end of the day. Needless to say, the poorly worded memo caused mass panic throughout the country and confusion over what exactly was covered — not just for federal employees and agency heads, but also for states and organizations across the country that depend on federal funding. Medicare and Social Security were apparently exempted, but the memo said nothing of other assistance programs such as Medicaid, food stamps and veterans benefits.

As the Economic Policy Institute notes, “The federal government gives $1 trillion in grants to state and local governments alone, for everything from physical infrastructure and public safety to health and social services. Removing this money from the economy would represent a huge economic shock.”

The action also seems in direct violation of the Anti-Impoundment Act of 1974 that prevents the President from unilaterally substituting his own funding decisions for those of the Congress.

These guys are like Terminators: you can shoot them, incinerate them, blow them to smithereens and they still regenerate over and over again.

Following nationwide waves of confusion and alarm and a stay by the Courts, the Trump administration withdrew the memo, which made the lawsuit go away. But now is no time to rest. These guys are like Terminators: you can shoot them, incinerate them, blow them to smithereens and they still regenerate over and over again.

OSHA officials were also unsure what the “pause” covered. Would the White House use the pause to paralyze the Susan Harwood Worker Training Grants program that Republicans have been trying to eliminate for 25 years?  Would they stop payments to those current grantees who have already received approval for this year’s program?

What about federal support for state plans? Paragraph 23(g) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act states that federal OSHA may make “grants” to state plans up to 50% of the total cost to the state. There are 22 full state plans (and 7 public employee only plans) meaning that state plans cover almost half of the workers in the United States. Harwood Grants are currently budgeted at $12.7 million and State Programs receive $120 million out of OSHA’s total $632 million budget.

Trump’s Attack on Science

Who needs scientists at EPA or CDC (or OSHA), if you can replace them with your own political hacks and stop important information from reaching the public?  Trump has prohibited the issuance of  communications by federal health agencies., including for the first time in its history, the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) which has been printed regularly since 1954. The current edition was set to publish critical articles about  whether veterinarians who treat cattle have been unknowingly infected by the bird flu virus, and another report that was to document cases in which people carrying the virus might have infected their pet cats.  This would also include any alerts issued by NIOSH or OSHA.  What could go wrong?

Meanwhile, following the example set in the first Trump administration,

Acting EPA Administrator James Payne ousted all members of two of the agency’s most influential science advisory panels – the Science Advisory Board and the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee. In doing so, Mr. Payne said the action was a “reset…to ensure that the agency receives scientific advice consistent with its legal obligations to advance our core mission.”

OSHA has not issued a press release since January 16. This is not surprising. The first Trump administration didn’t issue a single press release covering an enforcement action for almost three months after the 2017 Inauguration.

What Is To Be Done?

Who the hell knows at this point? The main method of fighting Trump is to ensure that everyone — the press, Senators, Congresspersons, local officials — understand what impact his actions have on regular people and speak out strongly.  The goal: embarrass them.  No politician or government official likes to be embarrassed, and Trump’s crew generally has pretty thin skins.

Advice for federal employees: lay low for now, but safely let trusted people on the outside know what’s going on inside your agency.

And finally, on a not unrelated note:

A declassified World War II-era government guide to “simple sabotage” is currently one of the most popular open source books on the internet. The book, called “Simple Sabotage Field Manual,” was declassified in 2008 by the CIA and “describes ways to train normal people to be purposefully annoying telephone operators, dysfunctional train conductors, befuddling middle managers, blundering factory workers, unruly movie theater patrons, and so on. In other words, teaching people to do their jobs badly.”

Over the last week, the guide has surged to become the 5th-most-accessed book on Project Gutenberg, an open source repository of free and public domain ebooks. It is also the fifth most popular ebook on the site over the last 30 days, having been accessed nearly 60,000 times over the last month.

I’m not sure if I’d recommend that OSHA employees do their job badly — unless that “job” is actively dismantling protections that keep workers alive and healty.

Stay tuned and watch this space.