How federal workers can organize to stop DOGE

With Elon Musk’s influence waning, fed workers have a window to push back. Rutgers labor studies professor Eric Blanc explains how.

Greetings all,

Hope everyone’s hanging in. The big news this week: Elon Musk is finally stepping back from DOGE. On an earnings call that revealed Tesla’s net income had fallen 71% in the first quarter of 2025, Musk announced that, starting in May, his “time allocation to DOGE will drop significantly.” This may scan as good news, and it’s a victory for the Tesla Takedown protests; popular backlash helped tarnish the brand, dip its stock, and push Musk out the door. The fear, however, is that even with Musk less involved, the mass layoffs and departmental intrusions will continue apace—just with less mainstream media attention.

Musk has, after all, already staffed up the DOGE campaign, set it in motion, and, most importantly, forever linked himself with the operation. He has provided and animated the framework to gut more of the government than hardline activists like Project 2025 architect Russ Vought ever thought possible; DOGE can continue on with Musk serving as its perpetual avatar and human blame shield. And just in the last week, the cuts continued to hit as hard as ever—DOGE is trying to lay off 90% of the Consumer Protection Bureau, and the Food and Drug Administration is under fire. Right before that, it was NASA and Social Security. The list goes on.

No department is safe from DOGE, and the federal jobs crisis, I fear, is about to enter is most dire phase yet. But DOGE may also be at its most vulnerable. With Musk’s influence waning, a little distance between him and his pet project, and legal interventions holding up some of the mass layoffs, the stage is set for a forceful resistance. Now, says Rutgers labor studies professor Eric Blanc, is the time for workers to stand up.

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The DOGE image Elon Musk tweeted out in November 2024, remixed, poorly, by the author.

Blanc researches modern workplace organizing, strikes, and digital labor activism at Rutgers, and he’s the author of We Are the Union: How Worker-to-Worker Organizing is Revitalizing Labor and Winning Big and Red State Revolt: The Teachers’ Strike Wave and Working-Class Politics. He writes the Labor Politics newsletter, where he’s been closely following the developments in Washington. Blanc has argued that rank and file federal workers have the power to stop DOGE in its tracks—if they organize fiercely and tactically, and don’t wait around for union leadership to point the way.

I spoke with Blanc about how they might do exactly that at this crucial juncture. Blanc hit on the need for federal workers to get creative, to make noise, and to pressure department heads to refuse to acquiesce to layoff orders. He shared some insights from his labor research, as well as six key lessons from the successful teachers’ strikes of 2018 that federal workers might use to defeat DOGE.

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BLOOD IN THE MACHINE: Trump's been two months in office. Elon Musk and DOGE have taken a hatchet to the federal workforce, and every day seems to bring new announcements of layoffs or 'forks in the road' or moves to instigate further cuts. You've argued persuasively that unions are workers' best bets to push back. Where are we now? And do you still believe this to be true?

Eric Blanc: Obviously the situation is very fluid, but labor resistance to Musk has already been a major obstacle for DOGE's wrecking-ball operation. One key thing people have tended to overlook: most federal workers have refused to quit, despite Musk's push to demoralize them and drive them out. Collective organization has been crucial for keep up this day–to-day resistance—this organization takes the form of the established unions, but also thousands of group chats, as well as new rank-and-file groups like the Federal Unionists Network. And the FUN in particular has played a crucial role in encouraging workers to speak out publicly and to build a serious pushback of federal workers together with the community to save these services. We saw, for example, how the FUN took the lead on getting large numbers of federal workers to come out to the Hands Off! protests, and in pushing the big established unions to do the same.

This type of worker-led backlash has already gotten the Trump administration to leak that it intends on pushing Musk out shortly. But to really reverse the damage that has been done and to prevent the further implementation of mass layoffs—many of which are looming through Reductions in Force at major agencies—will require a much deeper and more widespread level of workplace organizing. Unfortunately, so far, most of the big federal unions have focused excessively on legal resistance to Trump; while this is necessary, the big missing puzzle piece is unions going an all on organizing and mobilizing their members to resist.

Do you see signs that such widespread organizing is getting underway, or that there are hopes that the big unions will change their priorities? I've spoken to a number of federal workers who are eager to resist Musk and Trump's cuts and policy changes, but many are growing demoralized; some were unable to even get ahold of their union reps to figure out what was going on. Some are considering taking the latest fork in the road. Which, I get it. Staring down the barrel of at least 4 years of this, it's got to be hard. What needs to happen next, with regards to workers, unions, and ordinary folks who want to help?

I wouldn't expect the national unions to change their priorities without a significant amount of bottom-up pressure and cajoling. I think the pattern in organized labor is generally that when rank-and-file workers lead, then risk-averse official union leaders tend to eventually follow. We saw that in the 2018 teachers' strikes, which were initiated from below over Facebook groups, and in which the established unions only jumped on board once there was lots of momentum.

We're seeing the beginning of this dynamic in the federal sector—though, as your question indicates, it's still well-below the levels needed. Part of the issue is that the fear factor about speaking out is particularly high in the federal workforce, partly because of Musk, but also partly because of the longstanding culture of civil service in the US, where workers assume it's illegal for them to get involved in politics and organizing. That's not actually true—the Hatch Act, which regulates this, is much narrower in scope—but it's taken a while to start getting very large numbers of fed workers to be willing to speak out publicly. We are starting to see a shift—there were lots of feds out on April 5th, for example. But the movement is still incipient.

In terms of next steps, the first thing I would recommend is that if you're a federal worker or ally who want to support, you should sign up to get involved at savepublicservices.com. The big next steps are campaigns to pressure members of congress to pressure agency heads to reject RIFs at the Social Security Administration, the Department of Veterans of Affairs, and the Environmental Protection Agency.

No matter what Musk or Trump say should happen, it's actually within the power of these agency heads whether or not to implement the RIFs, which is why it's so urgent to pressure congresspeople in late April—when they're on recess—to demand agency heads protect the agencies they are leading. That's a winnable goal, especially since DOGE and Musk's popularity is tanking, but it'll take a lot of pressure. And the second step I'd flag is that everyone should already be getting prepared to take to the streets on May 1, which I hope can be the next big national show of force against the billionaires' takeover.

You happen to have written the book on the 2018 teacher strikes, which proved more wildly successful than anyone may have expected at the time. What can federal workers learn from the teachers' playbook?

I think there are six main lessons from 2018 for today.

First: overcome scare tactics by speaking out. Fearing retaliation from above, most teachers in 2018 were initially scared to make their voices heard. But a few bold colleagues broke the climate of intimidation by taking a public stand early on. Nobody was fired or disciplined. Their early courage created space for countless more to speak out.

Second: escalate your actions. Especially because so many workers were initially scared, the movements grew by taking easy actions that could involve the largest number of workers. One prominent build-up tactic was “RedForEd” days in which everybody—both employees and community supporters—wore the same color and posted selfies and group photos with messages about their cause. This generated a huge amount of momentum and showed the community the human face of a demonized and demeaned workforce.

Third: try to go viral. The red state strikes were initiated and coordinated largely over viral Facebook groups. Worker activists grabbed people’s attention through public actions and catchy digital content, and they immediately onboarded their co-workers into organizing similar actions via digital tools. In person and local organizing was still crucial, but these movements needed digital tools and a big social media presence to win (and coordinate) at scale.

Fourth: persuade (and involve) the community. To seize the attention of the public and dispel narratives about “privileged, lazy public sector workers,” these movements understood that the only way for them to win big was by consistently emphasizing how their work—and their demands—benefited the larger community. And they consistently sought to involve community members in their RedForEd days and other escalating actions.

Fifth: don’t wait for top union leaders. Though unions ended up playing a crucial role in these movements, the spark and drive came from self-organized rank-and-file workers. Most top union leaders were too stuck in legalistic routines to take a lead on risky actions. But once momentum exploded from below, unions jumped on board and played a key role in helping workers win.

And, finally, six: get disruptive if necessary. While I don't think strike action is on the table for federal workers—since the administration would likely seize upon any such illegal activity to impose more mass firings—it may again require mass non-violent disruption to win. I could imagine escalating actions like worker-community sit-ins inside (and in front of) federal buildings, Tesla dealerships, and Congressional offices, actions that grab the public's attention, that contest for space, and that raise the political cost on the administration by obliging it to either accept this disruption or to arrest a bunch of peaceful protestors. While I doubt most federal workers would engage in such activities, it seems to me that large numbers of recently fired federal workers and community members impacted by the cuts—e.g. to social security or the VA—might enthusiastically jump on board.

These are all great ideas and examples. What would you say to a federal worker who is enduring these cuts, hates what's happening, but *is* afraid to speak out? Is afraid to get the ball rolling? The stakes seem higher, lots of attention is focused on them, and they're facing down an administration that has shown itself to be punitive and unafraid of retribution. How do you confront that?

I get why so many federal workers today are still reluctant to stick their necks out, since they’re professionally trained to stay clear of politics and since Musk seems so eager to fire anybody. It is risky.

But the reality is that trying to keep your head down is also an incredibly risky move at this moment, for precisely the same reason: Musk’s wrecking ball operation is so extreme and so widespread that doing nothing means there’s a good chance your job could still end up being cut. And unless Musk is stopped through mass action and public backlash, even if you somehow manage to hold onto your job, there’s a good chance it’ll become unbearably miserable. Given that there are big risks no matter what you do, why not take the path of publicly defending the services to which you’ve dedicated your life and upon which so many Americans depend?

Not to mention that most Americans would have their backs! Polls have found that most disapprove of Musk and DOGE's wrecking ball. Resistance is increasingly popular.

I think federal workers already knew from their experience and from polls that their services were broadly supported by the public. What's new, though, is the extent to which the public has come out in large numbers to actively protest the dismantling of these services—and I know that this has been incredibly encouraging to many federal employees. We'll see, but my hope is that after April 5th, more workers will feel encouraged by the rising tide of protest nationwide to jump in too.

So what should these workers do, right now, as layoffs are happening, or being ordered, in the moment? And second, curious to know how do you think all of this fits into a broader framework for resisting the Trump administration?

The first thing I'd suggest to any group of workers who just got fired is to immediately, in the next day or two, hold an emergency rally in front of your place of work, invite the press, invite your friends and community members, and explain to the public how these cuts will hurt the services everyday people depend on. What will ultimately constrain Trump and Musk is widespread public backlash, since this would make it very hard for Republicans to get reelected and for Musk to keep on selling his products like Tesla. The administration and Republicans generally need to see that every cut they impose will cost them significantly in the court of public opinion. Feds and community members who want to organize around these types of actions can sign up to join the rapid response network.

But there's also a higher risk response tactic that I've heard some federal workers discussing, a tactic resembling the sit down strikes of the 1930s, in which workers walked in collectively to work instead of walking out. There could be something particularly compelling about scores of community supporters attempting to peacefully escort an illegally fired worker into their workplace, so that they could continue to serve the American public.

You know how these things evolve, but the viral spread of these types of actions could create a crisis for DOGE by underscoring that Americans will not stand idly by as billionaires break the law to destroy our vital services. And were such actions to go viral online, they would surely spur copy-cat efforts across the country. To the extent that such a movement caught on, the insides and outsides of federal buildings could start to resemble, respectively, the Wisconsin capitol occupation and the Occupy movement of 2011. Ultimately, I think we may have to see that level of mass resistance and public backlash on a nationwide level to put an immediate block on DOGE's wrecking ball operation.