President-elect Donald Trump said Monday that he plans to fire federal workers who don’t return to the office as he vowed to challenge a union deal that locked in telework for some government workers.
Trump held a news conference Monday at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, where he previewed some of his early moves on energy, permitting and environmental rules as he prepares to take over the executive branch in January. He slammed the outgoing Biden administration for extending telework for federal employees and stressed that his team will aim to crack down on telework for government workers.
“If people don’t come back to work, come back into the office, they’re going to be dismissed,” Trump said. He and his allies have criticized telework for federal employees as conservatives push for government workers to return to their offices five days a week.
The transition between the Biden and incoming Trump administration has been friendly, Trump said, but he criticized a move to expand telework for some employees as “very terrible.”
Trump plans to challenge an agreement approved by the Biden administration that would extend telework for federal employees beyond Trump’s term, he said.
“Somebody in the Biden administration gave a five-year waiver … so that for five years people don’t have to come back into the office,” Trump said. “It was like a gift to a union,” Trump added. “We’re going to obviously be in court to stop it.”
His comments are an apparent reference to a recent agreement reached between the Biden administration and a union that represents thousands of employees at the Social Security Administration. That agreement cements hybrid work protections for tens of thousands of employees at that agency, Bloomberg reported.
Federal employees in environmental and energy agencies have also been racing to lock in or extend union contracts in the waning days of President Joe Biden’s term as Trump has pledged to crack down on telework and downsize the government.
‘Early report’ on DOGE
Trump’s incoming government-downsizing team, led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, has set its sights on telework and lame-duck union contracts.
“I’m hearing via allies that federal government unions are scrambling to update their collective bargaining agreements to avoid getting fired,” Ramaswamy posted on social media on Nov. 18. “The prospect of being asked to return to the office 5 days per week like most working Americans apparently has them ‘in tears.’”
Trump said Monday that Musk “has been working very hard with various people, including Vivek,” on the effort known as the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.
“We’re going to eliminate hundreds of billions of dollars of waste and fraud, and I can only tell you I’ll give you a little early report, they’re finding things that you wouldn’t even believe,” Trump said. “So we’re looking to save maybe $2 trillion.”
Trump doubled down on his promise to roll back environmental regulations for individuals or companies willing to spend $1 billion or more in the United States.
“Any business that invests $1 billion or more in the United States will be eligible for fully expedited permits and approvals, including environmental approvals from the federal government,” Trump said.
And the incoming president reiterated his campaign promises to “unleash American energy” soon after he takes the White House.
“This will be done at levels not seen before, issuing quick approvals for pipelines, drilling and other infrastructure,” he said.
“It’ll be clean energy, and we’ll bring in the price of electricity. We’re going to bring it down fast. We’re also going to create clean coal. Clean coal is something that has really taken over. We have coal that will last for over 1,000 years. We have so much coal, and with a process it becomes clean coal. It’s very powerful energy, unlike wind.”
Trump also previewed a slew of executive orders on his first day in the White House. He has previously signaled that cutting regulations and boosting domestic fossil fuel production will be among his first moves.
“We will have many executive orders and other things that we’ll be signing on the first day,” Trump said Monday.
