Politics
How Trump’s Plan to Shrink the Federal Workforce Could Impact Illinois
Chicago is a freight hub, home to world-class restaurants, and if local elected officials have their way, will soon be a base for quantum computing. Big-name private employers include United Airlines, McDonald’s and Kraft Heinz.
But one of the largest employers? The federal government.
The number of federal employees in Illinois has dipped from almost 116,000 in 1992, but as of December was still at 82,000, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. That makes the federal government, according to Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s office, the second largest employer in the state behind the Illinois government.
“There are a lot of federal employees here because there are a lot of Americans here,” said Loreen Targos, executive vice president of the American Federation of Government Employees, or AFGE, Local 704.
That includes U.S. Department of Agriculture inspectors, clerks who help people at local Social Security offices, assistant U.S. attorneys, medical staff at veterans’ hospitals, and a range of other jobs that could be eliminated as President Donald Trump and Elon Musk seek to reduce spending by shrinking the size of the federal workforce.
Monday was supposed to have been the deadline for federal employees to make a decision about their future: whether they’ll take a deferred resignation, or buyout, first offered via email Jan. 28. Employees could keep getting paid through September, according to the deal, potentially without having to do any work.
The AFGE union is among those suing to stop, or delay, the offer; the Illinois Attorney General's Office has filed a friend of the court briefing in the case.
A court order issued Monday afternoon again paused what’s come to be known as the “Fork in the Road” offer, given Musk’s phrasing about employees’ choice.
Pritzker issued a warning about it last week and urged workers to “proceed with caution.”
Trump and Musk “are unleashing an assault on the fabric of our government and the working families who rely upon and need our democracy to deliver for them,” Pritzker wrote on Feb. 5. “Elon’s secret servants are asking millions of federal employees to give up their legal rights, agree to a vague severance, and just hope for the best – it’s insulting to workers.”
One federal employee, who asked not to be identified for fear of retribution, said emails encouraging resignation are sent at all hours, even at 2 a.m.
The worker, who is based in the Chicago area, said they suspect Trump and Musk want to take credit for a drop in the federal workforce, but that the administration seems to be “shooting from the hip” without regard to the work employees perform.
“I don’t think we can stand to lose employees,” the employee, an attorney, said.
Targos, a scientist who works for the Environmental Protection Agency, spoke to WTTW News in her capacity as a labor leader.
“Morale is at an all-time low,” Targos said. “These are folks who are in the civil service, they’re not political workers. We’re here doing work that can kind of be taken for granted but it is in fact what keeps our air breathable and our water drinkable every single day. We have lots of folks who are out there doing preventative work to make sure our air and water and soil stay clean. And then we have emergency responders and everyone in between. Folks writing permits, folks giving out grants, awarding contracts, making sure bills are paid on time.”
In addition to the buyout, the letter from Trump stresses a “performance culture” focused on “excellence” that will promote those who “exceed expectations.” It hints that those who don’t qualify could be let go.
Although Trump is a convicted felon who pardoned those found guilty of crimes like assaulting law enforcement officers at the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol, the memo says that “employees who engage in unlawful behavior” or are otherwise not “loyal” could be terminated.
Goals for a “streamlined” workforce could otherwise impact workers, given that the memo promises “the majority of federal agencies are likely to be downsized,” which will likely lead to furloughs.
The memo also calls for employees to return to the office.
The unidentified federal worker said they view that as a “scare tactic” intended to help push out employees for whom a return to the office could be a “nightmare,” like parents whose child care needs have adapted to not include commutes to the office.
That employee plans to “stick it out” and said, “I think I’m better off seeing what happens than resigning.”
Some colleagues are taking the offer, they believe, including some who already had other jobs lined up or who had been planning to retire. The worker pointed out that it’s actually a waste of taxpayer money, given that without the offer the state wouldn’t have been paying those people to “double dip.”
Targos, a mom to young triplets, said the return-to-office mandate is also a concern that could mean less time with her children and no appropriate place to pump.
There’s also word that employees have been instructed to remove pronouns from their work email signatures, in accordance with Trump’s order to root out diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives from the federal government.
Contact Amanda Vinicky: @AmandaVinicky | [email protected]
