Tell OPM to withdraw this dangerous rule now!

Submit your official comment to OPM before it’s too late:

https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/06/03/2025-10067/suitability-and-fitness#open-comment

Dear Metal Trades Sisters and Brothers,

The Trump administration just launched another direct attack on your job protections, your service, and your rights on the job.

This week, under the direction of the Administration, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) proposed a rule that would allow agencies to fire federal employees, including those working at Naval and Coast Guard shipyards, in as little as five days, using vague and subjective “suitability” standards originally designed for job applicants. We need your help to beat back this rule. Let’s flood the Federal Register with comments now. We’ve included some sample language below that you may include in your comment, or write your own. Encourage your family and coworkers to write a comment as well.

Read the Proposed Rule Here

Suitability and Fitness Vetting Policies for Federal Employees – Federal Register: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/06/03/2025-10067/suitability-and-fitness

If finalized, this rule would:

• Allow your removal without the full due process protections guaranteed under current law.
• Block the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) from fully reviewing your case.
• Put your job on the line for things like “refusal to furnish testimony” or violations of “nondisclosure agreements” — language that could easily be abused to retaliate against whistleblowers or workers who speak out.

Make no mistake: This is a direct threat to you, your coworkers, and every federal employee whose work helps keep America safe and running.

Metal Trades workers at Norfolk, Portsmouth, Puget Sound, Pearl Harbor, and beyond have dedicated their lives to federal service, strengthening our military readiness, and supporting this country’s defense infrastructure.

You’ve already proven your fitness, your patriotism, and your skill — on the job and, for many, in uniform. Now, the Trump administration wants to make it easier to remove you with barely any warning, and without a fair chance to fight back.

Let’s be clear: This isn’t accountability. This is union-busting and political purging.

As Suzanne Summerlin, general counsel for the Federal Workers Legal Defense Project, put it:

“It’s trying to use suitability rules that were originally designed for pre-employment screening as a shortcut for removals to bypass due process… That’s not accountability — that’s a loophole.”

Tell OPM to withdraw this dangerous rule now!

Submit your official comment to OPM before it’s too late:

https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/06/03/2025-10067/suitability-and-fitness#open-comment

Suggested comment to copy/paste:

As a federal worker and a proud member of the {add your union}, I strongly oppose this proposed rule. It threatens the job security of the skilled workforce that keeps our nation strong. We deserve due process, not political purges. Withdraw this dangerous rule immediately.

Stand strong. Speak out. Defend your jobs, your service, and your rights.

Comment period ends on July 3, 2025, at 11:59 PM EDT.

In Solidarity,

Sources:
Trump administration moves to fast-track firings of federal workers for misconduct
https://www.reuters.com/business/world-at-work/trump-administration-moves-fast-track-firings-federal-workers-misconduct-2025-06-03

Trump Wants to Change ‘Suitability’ for Federal Employment
https://news.bloomberglaw.com/daily-labor-report/trump-wants-to-change-suitability-for-federal-employment

OPM seeks fast-track removal of federal employees for ‘suitability’ reasons in proposed rule
https://federalnewsnetwork.com/hiring-retention/2025/06/opm-seeks-fast-track-removal-of-federal-employees-for-suitability-reasons-in-proposed-rule/