Washington, D.C — In response to new reporting revealing the Trump administration placed over a hundred EPA workers on leave in 2025 for signing a letter of dissent despite EPA legal counsel warning of First Amendment violations, Miles Batson, Executive Vice President of AFGE Council 238, released the following statement:
“These revelations confirm what AFGE Council 238 has said all along: EPA workers’ rights were violated in an act of political retribution. Administration officials were explicitly warned that these employees were engaging in protected speech, and chose to move forward anyway to punish them for speaking out.
EPA scientists, engineers, and public health experts have both a legal right and a professional obligation to raise concerns when policies threaten clean air, safe drinking water, and the health of our communities. Retaliating against these workers not only breaks the law, but it undermines the EPA’s mission by silencing the very experts the American people rely on to keep them safe and the planet healthy.
AFGE Council 238 will continue to defend the rights of our members, and we are confident that when this case is heard by an independent judge, EPA workers’ rights will be upheld.”