After an email from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) threw federal government agencies into a frenzy, some employees found reprieve when their agency heads rejected an order mandating weekly reports.
While this development represents a singular instance when officials within the Trump administration deviated from the White House, some union leaders, like Antonio Gaines, point out that union organizers and their members — not a change of heart — affected the outcome.
“It’s important now more than ever for public and private sector employees to understand the significance of a collective voice in the workplace to [speak about] concerns and issues impacting work conditions,” Gaines, president of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) National Council 222, told The Informer.
Gaines, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran and federal government employee of nearly 21 years, has spent a significant portion of his tenure representing and advocating on behalf of more than 5,300 federal employees in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). He continued his crusade on Feb. 22 when OPM sent a directive requiring all federal employees to submit a weekly report about five tasks they completed within an eight-hour workday, or risk termination.
The situation stood among the latest in a series of slights experienced by provisional and fully onboarded federal government workers since the Trump administration commissioned Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to implement what they deem cost-saving measures. In the days following agency leaders’ clash with OPM, nearly two dozen DOGE employees resigned, reportedly out of frustration with the severity of reductions that the newly created agency triggered since President Donald J. Trump came into office for the second time.
Gaines also jumped into action. Within a day of receiving OPM’s letter, he sent an “immediate cease-and-desist order” to OPM Acting Director Charles Ezell and HUD Secretary Scott Turner centering on what he described as three types of offenses.
“The directive is unlawful, violates federal labor laws, breaches the collective bargaining agreement between HUD and AFGE National Council 222, and infringes upon employee privacy protections,” Gaines’ letter said. “We demand its immediate revocation.”
In the letter, Gaines also demanded OPM’s written confirmation that federal employees had no obligation to carry out the directive. Other demands included a meeting with union leadership before any further changes to employee reporting requirements.
Noncompliance, Gaines’ letter said, would result in a formal complaint with the Federal Labor Relations Authority, legal action for alleged violations of the Privacy Act, and requests for an Office of the Inspector General investigation into violation of federal human resource policies.
“I hope they finally accept the request for the meeting to engage the union on issues that impact collective bargaining employees,” Gaines told The Informer as he reflected on changes recently made by the Trump administration. “I’m hopeful that newly appointed HUD Secretary has an epiphany and comes to his senses.”
Other Union Leaders Step Up, AFGE Members Decry DCHA Conditions in Office Building
A 2023 study conducted by the National Partnership for Women and Families found an increase of Black and Latino women in union leadership positions. Gaines, an Atlanta resident, counts among a bevy of Black union leaders across the country who represent and advocate on behalf of a racially diverse workforce for better working conditions.
Members of this group continue a legacy that started in the 19th century with the establishment of the Colored National Labor Union, and later, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters under the leadership of A. Philip Randolph.
Other unions — like United Auto Workers and Service Employees International Union — would also eventually boast Black leadership.
Today, AFGE, which claims affiliation with AFL-CIO, represents a total of 800,000 workers spread across nine unions and in nearly every agency of the federal and D.C. government. Most members represent the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Department of Veterans Affairs, Social Security Administration, and Department of Defense.
During the earlier part of February, AFGE organized a lunchtime rally at Upper Senate Park in North near Constitution Avenue and Delaware Avenue in Northwest in response to the slew of Trump administration executive orders aimed at cutting federal government workforce.
In the District, where AFGE’s headquarters are located, local and federal government union members continue to bemoan President Donald J. Trump’s call for federal employees to fully return to in-person work — as well as a similar policy that the Bowser administration implemented last year.
AFGE members, particularly those employed with D.C. Housing Authority’s Housing (DCHA) Choice Voucher Program, are also decrying conditions they face in their H Street office building, where DCHA, under the leadership of Keith Pettigrew, assigned them last spring.
A Jan. 27 email obtained by The Informer shows AFGE Local 2725 President Countee Gilliam imploring DCHA’s board of commissioners to investigate what he alleges to be Pettigrew’s failure to address a “persistent” odor emanating through the vents of the building and triggering employees’ nausea and headaches that could potentially lead to life-threatening vomiting.
“Director Pettigrew’s failure to comply with our negotiated CBA, coupled with his refusal to allow my members to work at a different location or telework until the issue is fully mitigated or a new location is found, is both absurd and unconscionable,” Gilliam’s’ email read. “I must ask: why is your body not taking action when your executive director refuses to honor our contract and his inaction forces my members to endure atrocious working conditions that none of you would ever tolerate? Accountability is crucial, yet I see no evidence of it from your body.
In subsequent emails, Gilliam demanded the relocation of the workforce, going as far as to debunk what he called DCHA’s use of outdated air quality assessment results to legitimize its inaction.
A DCHA spokesperson told The Informer that, since Gilliam’s Jan. 27 email, the agency consulted a “certified air quality testing firm” who confirmed no evidence of toxins, including mold or bacteria. Those results, the spokesperson said, were consistent with the previous results that Gilliam mentioned. The spokesperson also cited the testing of the building’s HVAC system and installation of air oxidizer devices that meet standards compiled by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
The spokesperson also told The Informer that the landlord agreed to power wash the alleway adjacent to the building every day and clean the HVAC system twice a year.
“Since the DC Housing Authority’s HCVP office and Customer Service Center at 702 H Street NW opened in April 2024, the HCVP team has served nearly 11,400 visitors,” DCHA’s spokesperson told The Informer. “DCHA is committed to providing a safe and healthy environment for our staff and visitors, and takes the concerns raised by our staff seriously. We encourage our staff to promptly communicate any concerns about workplace conditions to their immediate supervisor.”
Though he confirmed progress in his talks with DCHA, Gilliam pointed out that trash from surrounding restaurants continues to fuel the stench circulating through several square feet of office space.
“I got some complaints last week,” Gilliam told The Informer. “Every time the trash gets picked up, it smells like a slaughterhouse. The smells [from the trash in the alley] gets into an exhaust pipe which causes the smells to reverberate.”
As DCHA reportedly requests that employees secure a doctor’s note for an office transfer, Gilliam has his sights on the D.C. Council, where he plans to make an appeal to D.C. Councilmembers Robert White and Anita Bonds, two at-large Democratic representatives who chair the council’s Committee on Housing and Committee on Executive Administration and Labor, respectively.
Gilliam, speaking about events unfolding federally, touted the use of a similar strategy at that level.
“Trump and Musk are walking about my federal [AFGE] partners and D.C. home rule,” GIlliam said. “I know we will be okay this year, but I would be concerned with the next congressional session.”
If Republicans, somehow and some way, achieve a filibuster-proof majority, Gilliam said he’s ready to take things up a notch.
“We got to run the gauntlet and make sure the Supreme Court gets it on the record.”