AFSCME members win again with court ruling on federal probationary employees

[Omaha Steve]

I'm a retired AFSCME member BTW.

https://www.afscme.org/blog/afscme-members-win-again-with-court-ruling-on-federal-probationary-employees

By AFSCME Staff · Monday, September 15, 2025

AFSCME President Lee Saunders called a federal court ruling over the weekend affirming that federal probationary employees were wrongfully fired earlier this year a “significant victory” in our fight to protect our communities.

“This is yet another significant victory in our continued fight against the Trump administration's attacks on our jobs and livelihoods, providing relief to AFSCME members who have been targeted and to our communities that rely on strong, dependable public services,” Saunders said in a press statement. “The billionaires running this administration have waged an unrelenting assault on working people, illegally trying to eliminate our jobs while using their yes-men in Congress to strip away our health care and essential services nationwide.”

The ruling, issued late Friday, states that the Trump administration acted unlawfully when its Office of Personnel Management directed agencies across the federal government to fire their probationary employees. Judge William Alsup, of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, was strongly critical of the Trump administration, calling its evidence in the case a “sham.”

The judge did not order the government to rehire the terminated probationary employees at this stage in the case, though a preliminary injunction earlier in the case had that effect before it was later paused by the Supreme Court. But he did order each of the 17 agencies that participated in the firings, including the FAA and USDA, to issue corrective notices to the impacted workers stating, “You were not terminated on the basis of your personal performance.”

FULL story at link above.