a campaign for Congress to
support civil service
NFFE
National Federation of
Federal Employees
Chicago, IL
We Work for America
Everyday
JCK Federal Building (312) 842-5036 office
230 S. Dearborn 37th Floor (312) 714-7790 cell
Chicago, IL 60604 www.nffegsa.gov
For Immediate Release by the GSA National Council of Locals February 27, 2025
Charles Paidock, Secretary, Local 739, Chicago, IL
NFFE, National Federation of Federal Employees
Artificial Intelligence (AI) would decide which employees stayed or are to be let go
Independent Voters of Illinois Say
Federal Employees Should Be Treated
Fairly and Equitably
The State Board of the Independent Voters of Illinois (IVI) unanimously voted at its February meeting to support public sector employees of the federal government, in light of recent personal policy and practice issued by the Trump Administration through Executive Orders, stipulations by the Office of Personal (OPM), and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). None of the changes have been presented for review and approval by congressional committees with oversight on civil service affairs, staffing, and agency operations.
Chicago, IL, serves as a regional office for many agencies, of ten (10) major cities nationwide, and there are presently 44,784 federal employees across the state. Contrary to public perception, the workforce is not concentrated in the District of Columbia as believed, with 85% of duty stations outside of Washington.
Specifically the State Board voted to adopt the following position on this issue:
“IVI-IPO recognizes the value of a federal civil service, and maintains that public sector employees should be treated fairly and equitably in all personnel policies and practices. The right of public sector employees to organize for mutual protection should be preserved and/or expanded.”
Charles Paidock, Chair of the IVI National Affairs Committee, and a retired career federal employee of thirty-five years, stated that “The Executive Office is acting completely recklessly, often issuing confusing and contradictory instructions, which Cabinet level administrators, in charge of agencies, have not implemented, and in fact instructed employees to disregard. In a bizarre recent episode, employees were required, per a posting on Twitter (X), to submit a list of five bullet points concerning what they did last week in order to justify their jobs. DOGE would then use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to assess the responses. I have no idea as to what criteria would be used to determine which employees would be considered essential and stay in their positions. A failure to respond would be considered a resignation.”
Mr. Paidock added that “The concern is that the administration would try to eliminate collective bargaining altogether in the federal government. According to plans the question has been raised whether public-sector unions are appropriate in the first place, and that these unions were not compatible with constitutional government.”
At the national level, among other assorted actions, the union is preparing an appeal to the Office of Special Counsel (OSC), which oversees the federal government’s Code of Ethics violations, and investigates for any evidence of prohibited personnel practices.
