On Wednesday February 5th, 2025 hundreds rallied on short notice at the Labor Department to attempt to defend it from Elon Musk's DOGE. (I can't believe that is a real sentence I had to write)
The protest organized by the AFL-CIO saw labor leadership and Congresspeople. Rashida Tlaib and Bobby Scott were among the better received but nearly all elected officials got pushback from the crowd who wanted an action plan.
AFL-CIO, SEIU and others filed a lawsuit Wednesday trying to stop Musk gaining access to department files.
According to reporting in Politico on a lawsuit, the Labor Department staff was “told by Department leadership that when Mr. Musk and his team visit the Department, they are to do whatever they ask, not to push back, not to ask questions” the suit says. “They were told to provide access to any DOL system they requested access to and not to worry about any security protocols; just do it.”
Employees believe they will be fired if they don’t comply, the suit said.”
Unfortunately, U.S. District Judge John Bates who was appointed by President George W. Bush in 2001 declined to prevent DOGE’s access to the information. According to Reuters “Bates ruled that "although the Court harbors concerns about defendants’ alleged conduct," the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) had not shown it was harmed by the Labor Department's actions.
The Unions said that is was “a setback, but not a defeat,” and that they would provide the Judge with more information.
I’ll update this story as I find more information.
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