09/14/2026
Two major lawsuits that AFSCME is party to right now. ASFCME was founded in Wisconsin back in 1932 to counter the political patronage system - basically, if someone got elected, all his cousins, brothers, uncles, nephews would become government employees. We fought for a civil service system, which means 'Hey, give people a test for their job, and hire the ones that scored well, not the ones that just have the right last name'.
OPM has clearly shown it's stripes lately, and was sending out emails that said crap that Elon asked it to say. Remember that whole 'Tell us what you did to justify your wage' email thing? Yeah, that crap. This is what the first rule the lawsuit is about is targeting.
The second is just crap - performance reviews, grading on a curve.
Federal worker performance reviews would be graded on a curve, and it's very easy to see how a Hegseth-like person could use this to artificially bump up some sycophant and push down everyone else. Performance reviews look at certain benchmarks - but which ones? If you game what is being evaluated, you can easily push everyone else down - and a poor performance review means less promotion options, less security.
We all use Federal Services - from taxes to social security to food and flight safety. We need those employees to be good ones, and not stressed about crap that's avoidable.
THESE are two big things that the unions are fighting for!
