The Trump administration has placed all federal workers in its crosshairs — from executive orders on DEI and return to office, to mass layoffs, destruction of teams, and shuttering of departments — with more to come. It’s easy to feel demoralized, but many workers just like you are stepping up.
The chaos induced by Musk and friends ripping off essential (often lifesaving) departments and services is already leading to mass popular outrage. Millions of ordinary people know they benefit from the protections and service that DOGE is slashing. All of those people can become allies alongside the power of workers and their unions acting collectively. With those two factors together, the battle may be long, but workers can win. Here are some ways to join the fight.
Your First Step: Get Connected
1. Find out if you are in a union
Box 37 of your Standard Form 50 (SF-50) will have a BUS code. If that code is 7777, you are not represented by a union, but you are eligible. An 8888 code means you are ineligible to join a union, but you may be misclassified, so don’t stop there; workers have organized despite legal gray areas. If that code is any other number, you can look up who represents you with the Office of Personnel Management.
2. If you are represented by a union but do not pay dues, contact your union and start paying dues.
Dues are how we pool our collective resources and decide to protect and expand our rights — by hiring lawyers to fight in the courts and organizers to keep workers informed and help them to take action together. More people paying dues means our unions are better equipped to scale out that work and invest in resources to kick up the fight. Federal agencies have legal teams and entire HR departments working to protect management’s interests. Funding our union means we the members ensure that we have the resources to fight back.
3. If you are not represented by a union, form one with your co-workers!
We’ll give you some advice below about how a union can represent you. If you have an 8888 code, don’t let that stop you cold — there are mass reports of incorrect changes to the codes. If you are not a supervisor and not excluded by 5 USC 7112 (b), then you may be misclassified, and you can organize to challenge it. If you want to organize a union in your workplace, contact EWOC for support, and we will guide you every step of the way.
4. If you are in a union, help build its fighting muscles!
The Federal Unionists Network (FUN) is an organization for rank-and-file federal workers, union and nonunion alike, to build up the strength of the federal labor movement through worker-to-worker organizing and developing mass actions with community support. FUN can help you plan to mobilize your co-workers to take collective action.
Your Second Step: Get People Talking
If you’d like to form a union or strengthen the one that you have, you will need to get people talking. You are not alone — there are tens of thousands of others there with you, and organizations filled with experienced union activists across the country who want to help you become an active organizer and force for change. In every scenario, it starts with talking to your co-workers and especially listening, not just about what makes people mad, or anxious, but also by posing the question: What do you think we can do? It moves people from thinking of themselves as victims to fellow collaborators and opens up new possibilities.
- Get People Talking: The Trump administration is fostering a climate of fear, and that suppresses discussion. Opening spaces for conversation with your co-workers can let them know it is okay to express their concerns and anxieties. We can’t close our eyes and hope for the best, and that starts with having real conversations about our worries and what the response (or lack thereof) has been. Start with one-on-one conversations, so people feel safe. The larger the group, the more we hesitate to speak. And start with people you trust the most to avoid tipping management off early.
- Get People Thinking: At a certain point, pose the question. Do you think we can do anything? What? You are now planning together, thinking through what is possible, and when people plan together, they dream bigger than they can alone. Think bigger than what seems possible: What would you want to see happen? What is the road between here and there?
- Get People Together: Start to record who you have talked to, who is most excited, and who has the most time, then invite everyone out to talk together — ideally in person but also over Zoom or otherwise as necessary. Don’t use workplace emails, and don’t use workplace resources for this! Instead, collect people’s personal phone numbers and email addresses. If nobody has a Zoom account, use a platform like meet.jit.si.
- Build a List: Share your conversations with one another, and turn your common notes into a shared list. (Keep it private!) Grow the network. Congratulations, you are now part of a workers’ organizing committee!
- Hold a meeting: Invite everyone who is interested. Give people space to vent together, to plan and worry together, and to see how many people there are and how angry they are. When people get together and talk, possibilities emerge.
- Report back: Have everyone in the organizing committee keep the list updated with their conversations with co-workers and the reach of your organizing. Discuss next steps together, how to draw the most active and excited people in further, and what resources and trainings can be provided to get them up to speed.
- Don’t reinvent the wheel: EWOC or FUN will help you plan your next meeting or action, share materials that others have developed, and put you in touch with other workers’ committees. Once your committee is big enough and representative of the workforce, many roads are possible. If workers are ready to take risks, there are escalating actions both publicly and internally and now you have the structure to discover what the mood is, to reach democratic decisions, and to take those leaps.
