Hell hath no fury like the largest federation of unions in America scorned.
In response to “Nazi nepo baby” Elon Musk, AFL-CIO launched a campaign on Wednesday called the “Department of People Who Work for a Living,” or DPWL. The organization plans to hold Musk accountable for his illegal takeover of the federal government through the Department of Government Efficiency and to “make sure the federal government is responsive to working people and not just to the whims of an unelected CEO like Musk.”
According to the press release, the DPWL will report on proposed DOGE cuts and their impact on working people, have American workers explain what’s happening, and write recommendations for how the government can work more efficiently.
“The government can work for billionaires, or it can work for working people—but not both,” said AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler in a press release. “Elon is just getting started. He has already tried to force workers doing essential services—including at the FAA and air traffic controllers even after the tragedy at Washington National Airport—to retire, gained access to the Treasury Department’s payment system with everyone’s private data, and is declaring entire government agencies like USAID shut down and blocking workers from accessing the building and their email.”
Elon Musk
Shuler stressed that her goal was to help Americans access lifesaving necessities like clean food and safe medication. She emphasized that she represents 63 labor unions that include 15 million American workers who had trust her to lead AFL-CIO, and she is willing to fight to get what workers deserve.
“We will hold DOGE and Elon Musk accountable because we are certain that the people who keep our food and medicine safe know more about how to make government efficient than an outsider whose companies benefit from the very agencies he is infiltrating,” she added.
In a YouTube video address, Shuler said the DPWL started from an “unprecedented” and “overwhelming” moment of “being bombarded with news every hour” of DOGE trying to “gut the government agencies and the services that all of us rely upon, things like Medicare, Medicaid, [and] VA benefits.”
On Jan. 27, President Donald Trump fired National Labor Relations Board General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo and Gwynne Wilcox, the first Black member of the NLRB, effectively shutting down the organization. The NLRB is a federal agency that enforces labor laws and protects the rights of employees.
But Wilcox isn’t going down without a fight. On Wednesday, she announced that she is suing Trump over the firing. Wilcox’s lawsuit said her firing was a “blatant violation” of the National Labor Relations Act and part of a “string of openly illegal firings.”
The DPWL is one of the most reactive, innovative—and, well, hilariously titled—moves since DOGE let its wrecking ball loose on the federal government. However, the real test will come in the months ahead as labor leaders and Trump’s billionaire buddies clash over the rights of the American workforce.
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English (US) ·