Nearly every week there’s a new press report on how the Trump administration is trying to undermine the public servants who are entrusted to carry out our most critical government programs and policies.

There are far too many examples to list, but here are some of the more egregious examples:

As these examples make painfully clear, this administration has a simple mission: destroy labor unions and take away workers’ union rights, even if that means weakening vital government programs.

The labor contracts unions negotiate with federal agencies are the only thing preventing this administration from dismantling programs it doesn’t believe in, firing employees for any reason or no reason at all, and selling off chunks of the government to private corporations and special interests.

These attacks reverberate beyond the federal employees and labor unions that are the direct target. They threaten the separation of powers that help ensure our government works for the people in a fair and efficient manner.

There is precious little time left to stop the administration from declaring an all–out war on federal workers. Court challenges filed by our union, the American Federation of Government Employees, and others have so far prevented the White House from legally enforcing three executive orders, issued in May 2018, that are designed to annihilate federal unions. But time is running out, and this administration has demonstrated it has no issue defying court injunctions or violating the law to get its way.

That’s why hundreds of federal employees and allies from across the country are gathering in Washington on September 24 to protest these attacks, stand up for government workers’ voice on the job and in our democracy, and defend the work public servants perform on our nation’s behalf every day. The “Fed Up? Rise Up!” rally is being organized by the four unions that represent the majority of federal workers: the American Federation of Government Employees, the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, the National Federation of Federal Employees and the National Treasury Employees Union. Our protest will put pressure on the White House to stop the attacks on federal workers, their contracts and their voice at work.

This isn’t just do-or-die time for federal employee unions, for our collective bargaining rights and for the work we do on the public’s behalf every day; nothing less than the future of our democracy is at stake.

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