Amid the mass firings of federal employees across all agencies at the hands of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a coalition of federal workers and members of the National Treasury Employees Union picketed outside the Jacob K. Javits Federal Building at 26 Federal Plaza in downtown Manhattan on March 14 during lunch hour, protesting the dissemination of federal agencies.
Over 103,000 federal workers have been axed since DOGE, headed by tech-billionaire and civilian Elon Musk, took charge in January to slash government spending.
On Thursday, March 13, federal government agencies had to turn in their “large scale” layoff plans, and DOGE proposed to fire nearly 18% of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) workforce by May 15. The latest round of firings at the IRS would impact close to 6,800 employees, in addition to the 4,700 employees who took the voluntary buyout and 6,700 probationary employees who already received the pink slip. However, a court ruling on Thursday ordered the Trump administration to reinstate all probationary workers fired from six federal agencies, including the Treasury Department. Also, on Thursday, state attorneys general from 20 states and the District of Columbia filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over terminating over 1,300 Education Department staffers.
According to a Quinnipiac University poll released on March 13, sixty percent of voters disapprove of Musk and DOGE’s mass firings of the federal workforce, and fifty-four percent believe that DOGE is hurting the country.
One of the picketers, Mark Ladov, a senior litigation counsel with probationary status at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), was fired on Feb. 11. Ladov and his colleagues have been picketing outside the Jacob K. Javits Federal Building weekly since the layoffs.
“We do valuable, important work for American consumers. Other federal agencies are doing incredible work to keep the air clean [and] water clean, to protect veterans, health, things like that. All of us want to just get back to work and do the jobs that we should be doing,” said Ladov, who is concerned that without a watchdog like the CFPB, which was created in response to the 2008 financial crisis, consumers’ rights are at risk.
“We exist to make sure that mortgage loans and other financial products are safe and affordable for American consumers,” Ladov said. “We have seen the harm that can happen to individuals and to our economy as a whole when that’s not happening. So I certainly worry a lot about what types of abusive practices [and] unfair practices.”
Eileen Chen, a research analyst in the Office of Research, attended the rally to support her colleagues who had been fired. Chen told amNewYork Metro that it was “distressing” to see her colleagues lose their jobs. However, Chen pointed out that union leadership and CFPB “rank and file” have joined forces to fight back and set up a hardship fund for federal employees who lost their jobs and health insurance.
Chen, tasked with fair lending exam work, shared that she and her colleagues received a “stop work order.”
“[DOGE] set up a tip line, so if people saw that we were actually trying to do our jobs, they could report us,” Chen said. “So all that work that I’m our team is very proud of, of looking for discrimination and lending is not happening right now.”
Ladov and Jasmine McAllister, who was also fired on Feb. 11 from the CFPB, are hopeful that they will be reinstated after the court’s ruling on Thursday.
“Who knows if they’ll follow the law, but they’re supposed to reinstate us, and I’m waiting on an email for that,” McAllister said. “My boss already emailed me, expecting that we’re gonna be back. It’s just the leadership needs to talk to us about onboarding and all of that.”
