On 11 July, US State Department employees received the following message: “The Department is streamlining domestic operations to focus on diplomatic priorities.” This five-page ‘separation checklist’ was sent to 1,107 civil servants and 246 Foreign Service officers telling them that they had to be out of the building by 5pm, as reported by Reuters.
A sudden cull at Foggy Bottom
Reuters also reported that, for convenience, places were set up inside the building for those terminated to turn in their badges, laptops, phones and other State-owned items. (‘Foggy Bottom’ – the State Department’s Washington HQ – is a huge building; I worked in it for six months.) These were marked as “Transition Day Out Processing”. A box of tissues had been thoughtfully placed at one counter labelled “Outprocessing Service Center”.
Many staffers who still had jobs gathered in the lobby to ‘clap-out’ their sacked colleagues. Dozens of people cried as they left the building with boxes of their accumulated stuff, hugging and bidding farewell to friends and colleagues. As they got outside, others also clapped and cheered for them, some displaying banners reading, “Thank you, America’s diplomats”.
Clapping, cheering, but no resistance
The total reduction in the State workforce will be nearly 3,000, including the voluntary departures from the 18,000 employees based in the United States, as stated in the notice. Trump plans to cut more than 275,000 civil service jobs in total, says Wikipedia.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio first talked about a State Department shake-up in April, describing it as “bloated” and “bureaucratic”, reports Reuters. He wants to align State with Trump’s ‘America First’ agenda. Immediately, a lawsuit was filed to block the firings. On Tuesday 8 July, the Supreme Court gave Trump the green light for massive job cuts at federal departments and agencies. On Friday, it was State’s turn to feel the pain.
From courts to chaos as bureaucracy is bypassed
There are six phases to an official government ‘reduction in force’ (downsizing). Trump/Musk/Rubio are ignoring that cumbersome process. It’s simply:
Eeny Meeny Miny Moe
Grab your stuff and out you go
Where are the unions – the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) and the American Foreign Service Association (AFSA)? Arbitrary mass layoffs of federal workers have gone on since Elon Musk fed USAID into the woodchipper in early February. CNN estimates that 51,224 employees at 34 agencies have lost their jobs as of 14 July. Litigation failed … no action taken.
A tale of two responses
In a PBS NewsHour interview with the president of the AFGE, Everett Kelley talked about how they really wanted to come to some sort of accommodation with the Trump administration. He did not mention the single most effective way to get Trump’s attention.
Once the Supreme Court ruled that Trump could proceed with mass firings, Everett Kelley and the AFGE should have prepared union members for mass walkouts. The same goes for the Foreign Service officers in AFSA. Instead of clapping as those arbitrarily dismissed walked out, everyone in the building should have walked out with them.
Think about it. If General Motors or Ford sacked 1,353 workers with eight hours’ notice, would the United Auto Workers union president Shawn Fain have said, as Everett Kelley did in his interview: “Let’s analyse and see if it’s necessary …”? Rather, I believe he would have had his members be on strike and on the picket line by 5.01pm.
What’s the difference between the UAW and the AFGE or AFSA?
A personal glimpse: lessons from USAID
Something that happened to me at USAID/Tanzania in the 1990s may offer a clue. I worked as a PSC (personal services contractor). Unlike American employees at USAID and embassies called ‘direct hires’ (DH), I did not get any of the many benefits given to them. A DH has tenure, gets six weeks paid home leave every two years in addition to annual leave, an annual cost of living adjustment (always up), free housing and utilities, children’s school fees paid and, in Tanzania, a ‘hardship allowance’ (25% of salary), plus other perks.
A DH with a base salary of $80,000 (about £60,000) might have benefits worth over an additional $40,000. I managed to have my daughters’ school fees paid only by threatening to quit.
However, one thing irked me more than any other. As a PSC, I was considered self-employed, which USAID cited as justification for not dishing out any benefits. But I was considered a USAID employee for income tax purposes. Back then, individual Americans working abroad were not taxed on their first $75,000, and I did not make anywhere near that figure. A double whammy – no benefits, and 22% of my salary went to the Internal Revenue Service.
When silence wasn’t an option
This ain’t right, said I to myself. I sent emails around to other PSCs, who sent emails to other PSCs, and everyone agreed that either we should get full benefits or not have to pay income tax on less than $75,000. PSCs didn’t have a union then and I doubt they have one now. We formed a committee and had four Washington-based PSCs represent us. They sent a letter to the head of human resources, who simply ignored it.
Then they went to see him. He told them to f*** off. That’s when I contacted an old friend from high school days who was a hotshot attorney in Los Angeles dealing with labour issues. He suggested a class action lawsuit and said he thought we’d win in court, but most likely USAID would settle out of court to avoid bad publicity. We sent another letter to HR, threatening to sue. That got us a meeting.
Fear wins as workers back down
At the meeting, the committee stated our case, at which point the head of HR exploded with words along the lines of: “You PSCs think you’re so damn important? You’re nothing but a bunch of troublemakers. We could get rid of every one of you and not notice the difference. OK, try to take us to court. The US government has hundreds of lawyers who will tie up the case for years. Meanwhile, every damn PSC in Washington and every country office on Planet Earth will be history, and you four will be first out of the door.”
When my fellow-indignant PSCs heard about this tirade, they started clucking like chickens. “Ooh, I need this job. If I get fired, who’s going to hire me? Let’s all be good little team players and not rock the boat. If you want to go ahead with a class action suit, don’t include me.” We did a headcount, and fewer than a dozen of us troublemakers remained. And that was the end of that story.
Unions must act, not clap
I do not wish to disparage in any way the men and women who work at the State Department, some for their whole careers. My issue is with their unions, which should be supporting them.
As Pete Seeger sang many years ago: “Solidarity forever, for the union makes us strong.”
