Dozens of protesters gathered in front of the US Office of Personnel Management building in Washington, DC on Feb 7 to demonstrate against mass layoffs under President Donald Trump's administration.
The protest focused on the layoffs across federal agencies though the workers had been offered buyouts in a progressive drive by Trump to fulfil his pledges in the presidential election last year of overhauling the government and cutting unnecessary spending.
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The protest focused on the layoffs across federal agencies though the workers had been offered buyouts in a progressive drive by Trump to fulfil his pledges in the presidential election last year of overhauling the government and cutting unnecessary spending.
WATCH MORE: https://thestartv.com/c/news
SUBSCRIBE: https://cutt.ly/TheStar
LIKE: https://fb.com/TheStarOnline
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NewsTranscript
00:00Dozens of protesters gathered in front of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management building
00:07in Washington, D.C. on Friday to demonstrate against mass layoffs under President Donald
00:13Trump's administration.
00:15The protest focused on the layoffs across federal agencies, though the workers had been
00:19offered buyouts in a progressive drive by Trump to fulfill his pledges in the presidential
00:24election last year of overhauling the government and cutting unnecessary spending.
00:29It takes an organized force to show that we're not going to put up with any of this, and
00:34I think the moment's commanded it for a while.
00:37We'll be here now, we'll be here tomorrow, we'll be here for the next few months, however
00:43long it takes to show that we deserve our rights and we will fight for our rights.
00:48I do think that it's important that we use whatever legal tools are in place, that we
00:53pull on every lever we have to protect workers' rights.
00:55These are here for a reason, and when it comes to issues like mass layoffs, that shouldn't
01:00just be dictated from above, that if there are going to be layoffs, it has to be a very
01:04intricate process, and there are labor rights that have been won by the working class and
01:10need to be implemented.
01:11Many federal workers were asked to leave their jobs and take up the offer where they will
01:15be paid eight months of salaries and benefits, which Democrats and labor unions said violated
01:21the law.
01:22On Thursday, a U.S. district judge in Boston temporarily blocked the buyout until next
01:27Monday, where there will be a hearing on the issue.
01:31Democrats targeted the Department of Government Efficiency, led by billionaire Elon Musk,
01:36who is tasked with reducing bureaucracy, cutting wasteful spending, and restructuring federal
01:41agencies.
01:43We're talking about trillions of dollars.
01:45It will be, in the end, trillions of dollars being absolutely wasted, and perhaps illegally,
01:50I would say, certainly in many cases illegally, but perhaps illegally overall.
01:56And I'm very proud of the job that this group of young people, generally young people, but
02:01very smart people, they're doing.
02:03They're doing it at my insistence.
02:05It would be a lot easier not to do it, but we have to take some of these things apart
02:10to fight the corruption.
02:11We found tremendous corruption.
02:13The White House has said that more than 40,000 people had accepted the buyout offer so far.
02:19That is about 2 percent of the federal government's 2.3 million workforce.