Federal Workers Union Sends Cease And Desist To Hud, Opm Over Doge Directive

A directive handed down by the Elon Musk-led U.S. DOGE Service runs afoul of the law and collective bargaining agreements at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) while infringing upon employee privacy protections.

This is according to the American Federation of Government Employees‘ (AFGE) National Council of HUD Locals 222, which represents more than 5,300 HUD workers.

The union issued a letter on Sunday to HUD Secretary Scott Turner and Charles Ezell, the acting director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). A human resources email address at OPM issued the directive over the weekend in which it gave federal employees two days to provide information about their accomplishments in the past week. Musk said that a failure to reply to the message would be interpreted as a “resignation.”

A raft of impacted agencies are offering mixed signals about compliance with the directive alongside congressional pushback. AFGE 222 is adding to the chorus by saying that the move “is unlawful, violates federal labor laws, breaches the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) between HUD and AFGE National Council 222, and infringes upon employee privacy protections.” The union demands immediate revocation of the directive.

Citing the HUD collective bargaining agreement adopted in December, the union said that “any changes to employee workload documentation or reporting requirements must be negotiated with the union prior to implementation.” Establishing a new, mandatory weekly reporting requirement without such prior consultation marks “a clear violation of this agreement,” the letter stated.

Offering an eight-hour compliance deadline also “places undue pressure on employees, interfering with their ability to perform core duties effectively,” the union said. “This directive is unenforceable under the ratified CBA and must be immediately withdrawn.”

AFGE also alleges that the directive violates the Federal Service Labor-Management Relations Statute since it “introduces new performance-tracking requirements that were never subject to collective bargaining, violating the union’s statutory right to negotiate on behalf of employees.”

The union also cited privacy concerns, saying that impacted employees have not been notified about who is “collecting, storing or analyzing” their data. It argues that there is no guidance or transparency about how the data will be used or who will have access to it in pursuit of this directive.

The union also argued that neither OPM nor the president has unilateral authority to “impose new reporting mandates” that offer federal employment conditions, without approval from Congress. It characterizes the directive as “overreach of executive authority” and said it undermines the legislative framing that governs federal employment practices.

AFGE believes the directive will take away from HUD’s ability to provide critical services, including the processing of housing assistance applications. It also noted expected disruptions for public housing operations; delays in investigations; backlogs of Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) programs; and reduced oversight of Federal Housing Administration (FHA) programs.

A failure to comply with AFGE’s cease-and-desist order, it said, will induce the union to file a formal unfair labor practices complaint with the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA). The AFGE went on to say that it could lead to additional legal action on the basis of the privacy concerns; a request for an inspector general investigation, and the mobilization of “a nationwide union-led response, including mass grievances, work-to rule actions, and other lawful means of resistance.”

HousingWire reached out to the office of Antonio Gaines, the union’s president, but did not receive an immediate reply.

The directive has been a source of confusion for civil servants, a group that has already been under siege by the White House as it seeks to drastically reduce the size of the federal government workforce. According to reporting by The New York Times, several federal agency appointees of President Donald Trump “urged federal workers not to comply with Elon Musk’s order,” aiming to countermand the directive in guidance to their own agencies.

The agency heads who “told their employees not to respond,” according to the Times, include those at the FBI as well as the departments of state, defense, energy, homeland security, and health and human services.

During an Oval Office meeting on Monday with French President Emmanuel Macron, Trump was asked by reporters about the directive. Trump said it was a way to determine who is on federal payrolls by suggesting that some federal workers “don’t exist.”

“We’re trying to find out if people are working,” the president said, according to the Times. “And then if you don’t answer like you’re sort of semi-fired, or you’re fired, because a lot of people are not answering because they don’t even exist.”

Separately, dozens of workers who were fired last week by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are reportedly being reinstated to their positions that oversee food and medical device safety, according to The Associated Press.