Protesters at the Terry Sanford Federal Building in Raleigh on Sunday, March 9, 2025 voiced outrage at attacks on federal workers. (Photo: Brandon Kingdollar/NC Newsline)
About 100 protesters, many of them federal employees, rallied outside Raleigh’s Terry Sanford Federal Building Sunday afternoon in protest of the Trump administration’s crackdown on the federal workforce.
The demonstration, organized by the North Carolina AFL-CIO and the Triangle Labor Council, took particular aim at Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency, which has taken an ax to a wide array of government programs, cutting tens and thousands of federal jobs and severing billions in government contracts. Protesters carried signs reading “Elon Musk is a Terrible President” and “Don’t Oppress Government Employees,” a reference to the Musk-led advisory group’s acronym.
Terrence Dewberry, vice president of the Triangle Labor Council, called on protesters to step up and fight for better conditions in the union that is the United States. (Photo: Brandon Kingdollar/NC Newsline)
Terrence Dewberry, vice president of the Triangle Labor Council, said of DOGE, “They not like us,” referencing Kendrick Lamar’s hit diss track of 2024. He touted organized labor accomplishments like the fight for a 4o-hour work week and reminded his audience that whether or not they are in a labor union, they are all part of “a more perfect union” and are responsible for fighting to improve conditions for all Americans.
Heather Hughes, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 5309 and a civil servant with the Social Security Administration, decried plans to shut down four of the agency’s offices in North Carolina, which she said would force residents of Roanoke Rapids, Elizabeth City, Franklin, and Greenville to drive an hour or more for their needs.
She also warned those at the rally that “they want to privatize the post office,” remarking that while a stamp may cost 73 cents now, mail delivery would become much more expensive should the private sector take it over. Among the facilities that are set to be shuttered or sold is a U.S. Post Office vehicle maintenance facility on the grounds of the Sanford Building, just a few hundred feet from Sunday’s protest.
Hughes warned that cuts to FEMA, the Army Corps of Engineers, and NOAA would not only leave the state unprepared to recover from the next hurricane like Helene, but now, “we won’t even know it’s coming.” And with DOGE targeting the FAA and TSA, Hughes said, “I’m scared to fly right now.”
At one point, a heckler rolled down his window and shouted, “Them employees are not working!” Hughes called back that he should “come back around” as she explained that her union had to push Social Security workers not to work through their lunches and breaks.
Protesters hold signs reading “Don’t Oppress Our Gov’t Employees” and “Keep Your Hands Off Our Education.”
Protesters hold signs reading “Save Our Post Office” and “It’s Better in a Union.”
Protesters hold signs reading “Fire Elon Musk” and “Republicans You Are Cowards.”
Protesters hold signs reading “Elon Musk is a terrible president” and “Defund Elon Musk.”
Gabbi McKinley, vice president of the AFGE Local 3347, warned that attacks on the Environmental Protection Agency are attacks on “clean air, water, and land,” adding that workers in the Research Triangle are behind the agency’s AirNow mobile app, critical for monitoring air quality and the impacts of wildfires. The EPA losing resources, she said, means North Carolinians will lose vital information about public health, something that affects everyone regardless of political affiliation.
McKinley added that because federal benefits and labor conditions are often the “model” for the private sector, workers need to fight back now before Musk’s campaign against the federal workforce “landslides down” into the rest of the American economy. In that way, the DOGE crackdown will affect all working people in America, not just those employed in the government.
The ripple effects of cuts in the federal government are also felt by electrical and other trade unions, said Aharon Segel, an organizer with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. He said that the Trump administration’s cancelation of offshore wind projects has caused a massive loss in worker hours and criticized the president for ending a program that provided free cancer screenings to trade workers contracted by the federal government.
He expressed some optimism, though, that a federal judge reinstated Biden appointee Gwynne Wilcox to the National Labor Relations Board after finding that Trump illegally removed her from her position. Quoting the decision, Segel reminded the protesters: “An American president is not a king.”
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