Social Security Administration Tells Public Sector Union It Has Three Weeks To Move Out Of Federal Office Space

by Tim Pearce

The Social Security Administration (SSA) has given the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) about three weeks to turn in all government issued equipment and vacate the government offices the union is currently using, Federal News Radio reports.

President Donald Trump issued an executive order May 25 that restricted public-sector unions’ ability to protect bad employees and issued new guidelines and regulations over public-sector unions. Federal agencies began implementing those orders Monday and notifying unions of new guidelines and their effects.

The SSA gave the AFGE a hard date of July 31 to move out of agency office space and return all government-owned computers, phones and other equipment and supplies, according to an SSA email to AFGE obtained by Federal News Radio.

The SSA also informed the union of other policies governing union members’ activities and time spent on union business. Union members will go through a reformed performance review process if they are thought to be doing a bad job. Union members will also be limited to using a quarter of their taxpayer-funded job time on union business.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development issued a similar notice to AFGE, giving the union until mid-July to evacuate the department’s offices and turn in all government tools and resources it is currently using.

The AFGE has filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration for the May 25 executive orders. Several Democrat lawmakers have filed briefs in support of the union’s lawsuit.

“The three executive orders President Trump issued May 25 are a direct assault on the Constitutional rights of federal workers and a challenge to the democratic principles on which this nation was founded,” AFGE national president J. David Cox Sr. said in a statement. “Many thanks to current Representatives Cummings and King and to former Representatives Clay and Leach for filing a legal brief opposing these illegal and unconstitutional directives.”

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