DETROIT, Mich.—Federal employees held protests around the nation July 24 against three executive
orders by President Donald Trump that would make it easier to fire workers, let federal agencies impose contract terms if they aren’t negotiated quickly, and drastically limit on-the-job union activity. The “#RedForFeds” actions, with demonstrators wearing red, took place in dozens of cities, including Detroit, St. Louis, Asheville, N.C., Troy, N.Y., and Nashville, Fort Campbell, Clarksville, Knoxville, and Chattanooga, Tenn. The American Federation of Government Employees, which is challenging the orders in court, says they are “removing checks and balances in the federal civil service and opening employees up to retaliation, discrimination, and unjust termination.” “It’s been a long time coming that we were able to represent our employees, and for it to just be taken away with the stroke of a pen and an executive order, we don’t think that’s the way it should happen,” AFGE Local 2092 President Jeffrey White, a worker at the VA Medical Center in Ann Arbor who led chants at the Detroit rally, told the Detroit News. Most protesters either took a day off or came on their lunch hour, union officials in Detroit and Nashville said. Read more
