Organized labor secured a major victory last month through a settlement requiring the Trump administration to announce that it had abandoned its attempt to illegally fire millions of federal workers during last year’s government shutdown. The agreement marks a clear win for workers who fought the administration’s attempted purge.

Under the settlement between a coalition of unions and the Department of Justice, the federal government must direct agencies to revise their shutdown plans “to remove any authorization” of reductions in force, known as RIFs. Agencies must also provide 30 days’ notice before changing those plans and conducting RIFs during future shutdowns.

The settlement does not completely end the case, which is being held in abeyance. It prevents shutdown RIFs through the end of the year while providing workers with some protection and a path to challenge another attempt, attorneys said.

“If they wanted to try this again they’d have to put in new guidance, a new contingency plan. It would be pretty clear they were doing something that was clearly unlawful,” said Rushab Sanghvi, general counsel of the American Federation of Government Employees.

AFGE was among several unions that sued the Trump administration, with the groups collectively representing more than two million federal workers. Altshuler Berzon, Democracy Defenders Fund, and Democracy Forward represented the unions in the case.

If Democrats prevail in the midterms, additional safeguards could follow, Sanghvi said. “The fact that we are here and the government is settling shows that the unions have won here. Workers have fought back and they’ve won.”

The settlement arrives as organized labor gains ground despite Republican interference and efforts favoring billionaires, bosses, and management. A September Gallup poll found that 71% of Americans approve of labor unions, while a record 47% said unions should have more influence.

Federal workers scored another breakthrough days after the settlement by finalizing a collectively bargained agreement with the office of Rep. Ro Khanna of California. It was the first congressional office workers’ union to complete such an agreement.

The staff unit of eight secured higher salaries and a grievance policy, among other gains. Khanna congratulated his staff on social media, writing, “I am extremely proud of my office for signing the first long-term union contract in the history of the U.S. Congress.”

The RIF settlement is the latest development in federal workers’ case against the Office of Management and Budget and its Christian nationalist director, Russell Vought. During the 2025 shutdown, Vought attempted to illegally fire thousands of workers while pursuing the Trump administration’s Project 2025 goals, including destroying public services.

Vought said he wanted federal workers “to be traumatically affected,” and described a goal of making them dread their jobs. He said, “when they wake up in the morning, we want them to not want to go to work because they are increasingly viewed as the villains … We want to put them in trauma.”

The purge was administered with little public information about the agencies targeted or the number of workers being fired. Information from press releases, legal filings, and news reports showed about 1,500 RIFs at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, representing roughly 90% of its staff, along with thousands more elsewhere.

Since January 2025, Vought had also issued RIFs affecting about 10,000 workers at the Department of Health and Human Services. About 4,500 workers, all but 15, were targeted at the U.S. Agency for International Development, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

Workers argued in their lawsuit that Vought abused his position and illegally used the shutdown as an excuse to fire them. Judge Susan Illston of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California issued a preliminary injunction blocking the administration from issuing or enforcing the RIFs.

The court later prevented the government from firing workers after the shutdown ended and required officials to reinstate anyone who had been fired. By then, some workers had accepted new jobs, while many struggled through months without pay, uncertainty, depleted savings, and the trauma Vought had openly sought.

Vought continued attacking the federal workforce after the courts intervened, including through rule changes that would politicize employee evaluations. More recently, chairs were taken away from Transportation Security Administration airport workers to force them to stand throughout the day.

More than 270,000 workers have left federal employment since January 20, 2025, according to the Office of Personnel Management. That exodus has reduced the federal workforce to its smallest level since the 1960s.

Patrick Moran, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, said the case defended skilled, nonpartisan professionals devoted to public service. He welcomed the settlement’s restrictions while warning that the administration continued placing politics between essential workers and their work for communities.