Millions of American workers converged on the U.S. Department of Labor yesterday blocking oligarch Elon Musk’s impending hostile and illegal takeover of the Department and the confidential records and economic data that its computer servers hold.
It was the biggest labor demonstration in world history. Period!
The result: Musk and his teen minions were forced to meet “virtually” with DOL staff.
Meanwhile, a federal court has temporarily blocked DOGE’s access to DOL computers containing confidential information.
OK, I may have exaggerated the size the size of the demonstration. Millions were there in spirit, but “only” a few thousand or maybe many hundreds were there physically.
But I did not exaggerate the impact. The counter-offensive has begun! And it’s succeeding.
According to the Washington Post
On Wednesday, Musk’s team also reached out to engage with the Labor Department. Senior department leaders told staffers who handle sensitive data that they would begin working with DOGE in the coming weeks, beginning with an in-office meeting Wednesday, according to an agency staffer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal matters. DOGE assignments would override the team’s normal duties, the staffer said. But senior leadership moved Wednesday’s meeting from in-person to virtual after labor unions, including the AFL-CIO, announced a protest of DOGE outside the Labor Department.
Temporary Hold
Meanwhile, U.S. District Judge John D. Bates has issued an order temporarily holding DOGE’s imminent plan to access the Labor Department’s information systems pending a hearing tomorrow. The hold was in response to a lawsuit filed by the AFL-CIO and a number of unions. (A federal judge has also paused the deadline for Trump administration’s buyout program.)
The AFL-CIO, along with AFGE, AFSCME, SEIU, the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and the Economic Policy Institute filed an emergency lawsuit yesterday protecting the confidential information of America’s working people and data vital to measuring the health of the American economy.
The parties requested a Temporary Restraining Order to keep Musk out to the Department’s databases, stating that
Absent this Court’s intervention, DOGE will have access to highly sensitive data, including, among many others, medical and benefits information about all federal workers with worker compensation or Black Lung claims, the identities of vulnerable workers who have sought the Department’s protection via wage and hour or occupational safety complaints, and investigative and litigation records of the Bureau of Labor Statistics data crucial to an accurate understanding of the state of our economy.
DOGE will also have access to information regarding investigations of Mr. Musk’s corporate interests and the sensitive trade secret information held by the Department, including those of the competitors of those corporate interests.
The lawsuit cites violation of the The Privacy Act of 1974, which “was passed to ‘provide certain safeguards for an individual against an invasion of personal privacy by requiring Federal agencies’ to, among other things, ‘collect, maintain, use, or disseminate any record of identifiable personal information in a manner that assures that such action is for a necessary and lawful purpose . . . and that adequate safeguards are provided to prevent misuses of such information.'”
Thank God and working people that we still have a strong labor movement in this country. Organized labor may be small in size, but they are mighty in power.
And to counter Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” (which is neither a department, nor about government efficiency), the AFL-CIO has launched the Department of People who Work for a Living (DPWL) “the federal government works for working people and isn’t destroyed by billionaires like Elon Musk.” DPWL will be collecting stories from workers and working families who are affected by the Trump administration’s new policies.
Bottom line
First, thank God and working people that we still have a strong labor movement in this country. Organized labor may be small in size, but they are mighty in power.
Second, we’re only at the very beginning of this travesty, but fighting back works. Things may seem kind of desperate now, but don’t lose hope. Get in contact with your federal and state representatives, educate the media, go to demonstrations, support organizations like unions and Democracy Forward and Public Citizen that are filing lawsuits.
We will fight back. We will protect workers. It won’t be easy — the courts are slow, Democrats are confused and in the minority in Congress. But working together, we will succeed.
This too shall pass.
Wow! This sounds HUGE! Wish I’d been there. When’s the next one?
Elon is an oligarch; what does that make the Biden, Obama, Clinton, and Bush families? I know you’re chummy with most of them, so why not call a spade a spade?
As for those “teen minions” you speak of, what scares you about cutting the waste in our Federal Govt.?
It makes me happy to know that you are so offended by the fact that our federal government will now have to account for their reckless spending. The American People spoke loudly and clearly in November, no amount of crying from you or anyone else is going to change that fact.
Less than half the voters actually voted for Trump, so it was a cautious whisper at best.
I doubt anyone is opposed to cutting waste. But there isa legal way and an illegal way to do so. Congress holds the purse strings, not Trump or Musk and that includes pulling back already appropriated funds. The savings touted by Musk is nothing more than smoke.
Anthony: Yes, Elon is an oligarch. Biden, Obama, Clinton and Bush were politicians. The Bush family were fairly wealthy politicians. None were oligarchs. And I don’t personally know any of them.
No one is opposed to cutting waste in federal government. But every thinking person is opposed to destroying entire agencies that are saving lives worldwide. And opposed to an unelected oligarch illegally breaking into agencies and taking control of sensitive and confidential government data systems.
Trump won the election, but it was hardly a mandate. In fact, it was one of the closest elections in modern American history. And the only reason Trump has loosed Elon to rampage through the government is that Republican Congressional majorities are so narrow that they won’t be able to get anything significant accomplished through legislation alone. This is hardly Americans speaking “loudly and clearly.” It’s just the opposite, in fact.
This is a serious publication. Your comments are not serious. They belong on Twitter, not here. Unless you have some actual facts and information, you will be blocked.
Thanks for writing.