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FEATURING AISHA COFFEY - Federal workers are in the midst of a second crisis. After being devastated by mass firings and furloughs from President Trump and Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), the on-going government shutdown is now jeopardizing pay for those remaining on the payroll.
The federal government employs millions of workers whose jobs entail upholding government services, public safety, enforcing regulations, distributing benefits and more. Now, a new series of shorts called I Do Solemnly Swear, features the voices of government workers pushing back. The series airs on Free Speech TV on Tuesday October 28 at 5 pm Pacific, 8 pm Eastern.
Aisha Coffey is a strategic communications consultant with over 15 years of experience at federal agencies, including the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). She is the spokesperson and Communications Director for Federal Workers Against DOGE, a grassroots organization representing more than 1,500 federal employees across over 50 agencies who are advocating for labor protections, effective government and the preservation of democracy.
Aisha Coffey spoke with Sonali Kolhatkar about the dire situation facing federal workers and how they are speaking out and rising up.
ROUGH TRANSCRIPT:
Sonali Kolhatkar: Before we get to the series of shorts that is gonna air on Free Speech TV called, “I Do Solemnly Swear,” let's talk about what workers have been going through, broadly speaking. As I said, millions of workers are employed, and of those, give us a sense of how many have either been fired or furloughed? What are the numbers we're talking about here of people who work for us, who are impacted negatively by the current administration?
Aisha Coffey: I gotta say that's a question we all would like to know the answer to. As you know, the administration came in with a bit of chaos, so we don't exactly have the real solid numbers. We've been unable to get those numbers from any agency even up until now.
We've had to piece together the numbers from what we hear from federal workers from different agencies and, and outside entities that may be trying to keep a tally. By count, right now, the estimate that is that we've lost close to 50,000.