Liz Shuler
Appearances
The MeidasTouch Podcast
AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler on Fighting Back Against Trump's Attacks On Workers
Well, that story was so familiar and I'm glad you captured it and started with that because that's what this is about. These people aren't just numbers on a spreadsheet. They're human beings. They're the ones who keep our food safe, our water clean and care for our veterans when they come home and keep our airplanes safe in the sky. So I think it just defies common sense what's going on.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler on Fighting Back Against Trump's Attacks On Workers
What I hear from workers is grave concern, you know, the uncertainty they're feeling, the dehumanizing nature of what's going on where you work hard and serve the people in the jobs that you do and then are just basically cast aside like you're trash. So it's horrible.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler on Fighting Back Against Trump's Attacks On Workers
It's about dignity. I mean, all work has dignity. And most of the work that's being done in the federal government is about services that we rely on that often are unseen, that we take for granted until we don't have them. Right. So I think that we're going to start seeing the impacts of these cuts because it's really not six degrees of separation, it's two, right?
The MeidasTouch Podcast
AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler on Fighting Back Against Trump's Attacks On Workers
We all know someone or live next to someone in our neighborhood or depend on the services, like I said, our food safety. Who would have thought we'd have to worry about that, right? So I think that's what we're talking about is humanizing what is happening out there.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler on Fighting Back Against Trump's Attacks On Workers
Yeah, thanks for that. And of course, we're a federation, as you said, an umbrella of 63 different unions, many of which are the federal unions representing workers like the American Federation of Government Employees, the Professional and Technical Engineers Union, the National Federation of Federal Employees.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler on Fighting Back Against Trump's Attacks On Workers
The AFL-CIO is a lead plaintiff in some lawsuits and a party to many others, and then certainly our unions themselves are filing these lawsuits because of the direct impacts. But the one that really started for us was the probationary workers that were fired. We filed that day, I think, or the next morning to say, this is an illegal action, right? We're not going to let you get away with it.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler on Fighting Back Against Trump's Attacks On Workers
And that lawsuit prevailed. So we were happy when they restored the jobs of these probationary workers who, as you know, many probationary workers are people who have worked in the federal government for some time, may have switched jobs and are on a probationary period, and others who are new to the federal government.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler on Fighting Back Against Trump's Attacks On Workers
As you said at the top, most of the firings that took place were unjust and without cause. And these were people who were performing and doing well in their jobs. The other lawsuit that I wanted to call attention to was the lawsuit when Doge, the, quote, Department of Government Efficiency, decided they were going to go into the Department of Labor.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler on Fighting Back Against Trump's Attacks On Workers
And that day, we stood up an emergency rally out in front and tried to essentially block him from entering. And of course, they converted it to a virtual meeting. But they were going to be accessing private data of workers who were whistleblowers, for example, who would be working in an unsafe environment and raise their hand to say, wait a second, this is wrong.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler on Fighting Back Against Trump's Attacks On Workers
became a whistleblower, which is a confidential process. That's the kind of data we're talking about, right? So we filed a lawsuit there as well to put up some guardrails to say, we need transparency. You don't get to just go in and access people's data with these 20 something Silicon Valley tech people. This is highly sensitive and security related data.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler on Fighting Back Against Trump's Attacks On Workers
And so we also were able to prevail in that lawsuit. So we have a chair. We're happy for that. And also not to mention the NLRB lawsuit where the National Labor Relations Board, which is the traffic cop for, you know, people who are courageously standing up to form unions and are often fired. Well, the chair of the NLRB was fired illegally as well.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler on Fighting Back Against Trump's Attacks On Workers
And so we filed the suit right away to get her reinstated.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler on Fighting Back Against Trump's Attacks On Workers
I've never seen anything like it. It is absolutely appalling and offensive to think about what the carelessness with which they're approaching this, because I think about what you were just saying about those workers at HHS, and these are the people we're relying on who are making sure that children are given the health care that they need.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler on Fighting Back Against Trump's Attacks On Workers
I mean, these are the services that people rely on on a daily basis that are taken for granted. And our union workers who work inside those agencies have been able to have a voice and speak out when they see something go wrong and not have to fear being fired in the past because they had a union contract.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler on Fighting Back Against Trump's Attacks On Workers
And that's why this action of last Thursday was so, so offensive where President Trump, basically with the stroke of a pen, took away the collective bargaining agreements of 700,000 union workers. And the TSA worker at the beginning referenced this. TSA was separate and a precursor to that.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler on Fighting Back Against Trump's Attacks On Workers
But then they just went whole hog across the entire government and just basically canceled legally binding collective bargaining agreements that were negotiated in good faith. And to cancel someone's rights like that is a slippery slope. And for those out there listening who say, oh, wow, you know, it sucks to be a federal worker. They're coming after you next.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler on Fighting Back Against Trump's Attacks On Workers
This is essentially a beta test for how far they can go. Next will be, you know, rippling out over the public sector at the state and local level and then on to the private sector.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler on Fighting Back Against Trump's Attacks On Workers
absolutely and and this is about escalation we're starting with ladders of of engagement um you know we started in january with um during congressional recesses um both february and march it doubled every single month actions all across this country to give people an outlet you know people are frustrated and they feel powerless but we know in unions that's what we do you're not powerless if you come together
The MeidasTouch Podcast
AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler on Fighting Back Against Trump's Attacks On Workers
And like you said, we're coming together collectively in coalition with all kinds of partners and allies and ramping up activity, showing up outside of government buildings to say, look, these are the services we rely on. These are the people who deliver them. We actually launched what we call the Department of People Who Work for a Living.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler on Fighting Back Against Trump's Attacks On Workers
We said if Elon Musk can stand up his own fake department of, quote, government efficiency, we can have our department of people who work for a living because we're the ones on the front lines who know the insides of these agencies, the work that is being done, who best to talk to than the workers.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler on Fighting Back Against Trump's Attacks On Workers
So we have a platform that we're actually using to interpret what's going on because most people are working their day jobs. They hear a headline here or there, but they don't really understand what the impact is and how it affects them.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler on Fighting Back Against Trump's Attacks On Workers
So we're really hoping people will sign up as activists on the Department of People Who Work for a Living, because that's a place where we can both decode what's happening and capture the stories of the impacts. And we're asking people to upload their stories.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler on Fighting Back Against Trump's Attacks On Workers
Thank you, Ben. Appreciate you being such a great supporter and someone who's lifting up what's really going on out there.