According to the Economic Policy Institute, more than 220,000 Maryland residents are employed by the federal government, making the state among the most affected by recent mass federal firings carried out by the Trump administration.
On April 4, dozens of Marylanders joined a demonstration, held at Baltimore’s Penn Station, to speak out against the layoffs that the administration’s Department of Government Efficiency has carried out in recent months.
Organized by the Federal Unionists Network (FUN), the “Save Our Services!” rally drew federal workers, unions and supporters to Baltimore’s main inter-city passenger rail hub to show solidarity with federal workers, “because we’re seeing these attacks by the current administration on the federal workforce,” Lindsey Muniak, a volunteer with FUN, told WBAL-TV.
“If you’re here today, you’re talking with them, you’re hearing their stories,” Muniak said. “Many of them are really afraid right now, and so part of the reason to get a bunch of people out in public, expressing our support for the federal workforce, expressing our support for public services, the critical services that these workers provide, is to help them be less afraid and know that the public has their back in this moment.”
Courtney Jenkins, president of the Metropolitan Baltimore AFL-CIO, was also on hand for the demonstration, telling WMAR-TV that he acknowledges “small wins” such efforts have earned so far. In March, for instance, a federal district court judge in Maryland ordered that the Trump administration must at least temporarily hire back more than 20,000 probationary employees from several federal agencies.
Jenkins also expressed concerns that “the administration won’t honor these orders from the judges. “They’ve already kind of been quoted as saying these things are kind of up to them to follow, and we don’t want to get into that position, because then democracy is truly under attack, and then we’re in a true constitutional crisis.”
09 April 2025
Category
Uncategorized
