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Citizen Action of New York hosted a Tuesday afternoon rally standing with government workers and unions in the face of President Donald Trump’s various executive orders limiting federal employees’ benefits and cutting contracted positions without explanation.

Crowded in front of Syracuse City Hall and bundled for the subzero windchill, a crowd of over 50 people cheered on speakers from the Central New York Area Labor Federation and the Greater Syracuse Labor Council, two local government employee labor unions. Rep. John Mannion was also in attendance and gave remarks.

Mannion began by recognizing the generations that came before him and created a system that allowed workers to achieve the “American dream.” The government is the United States’ largest employer, and Mannion said its workers need to be protected. A former public school teacher, Mannion was the president of the West Genesee Teachers’ Association.

“The people that come to this country, all of you, our parents, our grandparents, our great grandparents, did not toil in making this country the country that it is and let it slip away to a bunch of billionaires,” Mannion said.“We’re not going to let it happen.”

On his first day in office, Trump signed an executive order reinstating Schedule F, a job classification for federal employees that strips civil service protections. Under typical civil service rules, federal employees cannot be fired without cause and must go through a formal process. Under Schedule F, workers can be fired at any time without reason.

The crowd held signs reading “I support federal workers” and “I’m just here to obstruct fascism.” Protestors regularly chanted and booed to show their response to Trump’s actions.

Anne Liefe, a Syracuse resident who attended the rally, said she was fired from her job with the National Park Service this week because of Trump’s order. On Feb. 14, Trump terminated over 1,000 National Park Service employees, including Liefe, who had finished onboarding in the U.S. Department of the Interior in June.

The firings came as part of a larger initiative by Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, led by Elon Musk, to reduce federal spending.

“I came to stand in solidarity with all other federal workers,” Liefe said. “To make our voices heard, to use our rights while we still have them.”

In a separate executive order, Trump signed a return-to-office mandate, requiring federal workers to return to in-office work five days a week and going against standard hybrid work practices established during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Shawn Halloran, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 3342, warned of the negative impacts he said the orders have across the country.

“We know that this moment, from our surveys, if employees are required to go back to full-time, we can lose anywhere from 30 to 50% of our staff,” Halloran said. “And that doesn’t speak at all to the fact that doing so would be a repudiation of our fairly negotiated collective bargaining agreement.”

Halloran said if federal cuts continue, lengthening the work week will drive down efficiency for businesses as a result of less accessibility to essential benefits.

Ursula Rozum, a health campaign manager at Citizen Actions of New York, said the negative impacts communities will experience as federal workers face layoffs and cuts will be “devastating.” Many in Rozum’s community fear they will no longer have access to healthcare and Social Security.

“I’m losing sleep at night,” she said “What’s it going to mean when 20% of workers in our communities are struggling to buy food and pay rent? If we don’t stop these cuts, we are in for some of the harshest economic reality in my lifetime.”

Mannion said he is challenging his fellow members of Congress to take action, claiming they are aware of the harm caused by Trump’s policies, but remain silent. He also called Trump’s dismissal of 17 inspectors general unconstitutional, as Congress was not given the required 30-day notice of the removal.

“It is not by accident that (the inspectors general) were unconstitutionally removed from those positions and cannot provide the oversight that’s necessary as we watch these changes,” Mannion said. “If that is not a tyrannical act, I do not know what is.”

Mannion said other executive orders Trump has signed including renaming the Gulf of Mexico and reversing the ban on plastic straws are only distractions and take away from other legitimate issues. The congressman’s main concern is Trump’s centralization of power, saying that a balance of power is crucial to democracy and the president’s actions are an attempt to consolidate power in the executive branch.

“We’re not going to quit, because the alternative is unthinkable,” Mannion said.

Published on February 19, 2025 at 1:01 am

Contact Sydney: sadepiet@syr.edu