President Donald Trump signed an executive order Wednesday making it easier to remove thousands of senior federal employees, prompting backlash from federal worker unions that accused the administration of attempting to politicize the civil service.The order reclassifies roughly 8,000 federal positions into a new category known as “Schedule Policy/Career,” affecting employees with significant policymaking responsibilities across the federal government.The American Federation of Government Employees, the nation’s largest federal employee union, condemned the move, arguing it strips career workers of longstanding protections against political retaliation.
“This is a blatant attempt to corrupt the federal government by eliminating employees’ due process rights so they can be fired for political reasons,” AFGE National President Everett Kelley said in a statement.
Kelley warned that the changes could discourage whistleblowers from reporting misconduct within federal agencies.
“The practical implications of this action are clear,” he said. “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. That is a disservice to them and to the millions of Americans who rely on the federal government every day.”
