AFGE sued along with the Alliance for Retired Americans and the Service Employees InternationalUnion.
The following transcript has been edited for length and clarity.
We believe that there should be accountability.
Elon Musk at the inauguration of President Donald Trump in the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 20, 2025, in Washington, D.C.Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
We believe that is illegal.
Its a breach of the privacy of the workforce, and in some cases, the American people.
We think that Mr. Musk is reaching too far.
And we intend on making sure that justice is served here.
We will fight to the very end to double-check that our members rights are protected.
And in this case, [they werent].
Im an ex-federal employee.
I had to go through certain criteria.
Well, guess what?
They will deliberately disregard those restrictions and continue down this path of destruction.
They dont understand the process, to be honest with you.
Weve been working with administrations for over 90 years.
Weve never had this kind of disruption because you had staff that tried to adhere to the processes.
In this instance, hes come in and hes fired everybody that knows the process.
He dont want anyone in that knows the process.
He wants to steamroll his way.
And thats we will do.
What is the solution that youre looking for?
They need to be completely out of government, if you ask me.
Because what theyre doing, in actuality, its fascism, OK?
Im just being frank.
They have no respect for the law.
They have no respect for the policies that have been put in place and been adhered to for decades.
What is your view as to what theyre actually trying to accomplish?
Is there concern that these Social Security records and other sensitive information will leak to corporate third parties?
Or leak to foreign governments?
The truth of the matter is this, we dont know who has access.
But they have access to all these employees financial information that can be very harmful.
Im not accusing anyone of giving anything to a foreign government or anything like that.
But we dont know who has access.
So anything is possible.
They have violated every policy as it relates to the Privacy Act.
Because its about us, now, standing in the way of [dismantling] democracy.
The courts are obviously one venue.
What are you hearing on Capitol Hill?
Are Republicans on board to give the president and Musk a blank check right now?
Or is there any point of leverage that you have with the GOP majority?
looks like theyre giving the president a blank check to just do as he pleases.
But Im calling on the Congress to stand up and do their job, Republican and Democrat.
Protect American values, right?
I havent seen that in the last two weeks.
Are there other labor actions that could go along with filing a suit like this?
If the federal government isnt honoring the law, for example, should workers engage in a slowdown?
Or are there other other levers of power that federal workers have to exercise their own muscle?
The federal employees that I represent are very patriotic.
They will do that job.
They might grieve it after theyve done it, but they will do that job.
And we wouldnt call for any bang out of slowdown, or anything like that.
Well tell our members to go to work, do their job to the best of their ability.
This workforce is a workforce that makes America work.
I wanted to just say that.
