'Elon Musk is not your boss,' union tells CFPB employees

Bloomberg News

The National Treasury Employees Union told federal workers not to respond to a mass email over the weekend demanding that they list five accomplishments last week or risk losing their jobs, stating: ''Elon Musk is not your boss.''

The union told federal employees to follow orders from their supervisor and said that "soliciting this information from employees is an unfair labor practice under federal law and a violation of your collective bargaining rights," according to emails obtained by American Banker. 

The mass email sent Saturday by the Office of Personnel Management is the latest tactic by the Trump administration to slash the federal workforce, which is itself part of an effort to reduce federal spending to pay for an extension of Trump's 2017 tax cut bill. Several other federal agencies also told employees on Sunday to not respond to the mass email.

At the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, acting Chief Human Capital Officer Adam Martinez sent an email on Sunday telling employees to respond to the OPM message by the deadline of 11:59 p.m. Monday. However, most CFPB workers were put on administrative leave and were not working last week, which caused further confusion, prompting the email from Martinez.

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"CFPB leadership understands that certain work tasks have stopped," Martinez wrote. "If you were not able to perform tasks/work as a result, you may reply and simply reference that you were complying with the current work stoppage." 

The NTEU Chapter 335 then sent a follow-up email, also obtained by American Banker, stating that acting CFPB Director Russell Vought had "illegally ordered all CFPB workers to stop work, with few exceptions." 

The NTEU said that labor organizations and collective bargaining in the civil service "are in the public interest," and that Martinez and Vought "continue to operate in complete violation of this law, among many."

The union directed employees to reply to the email by listing all the tasks they were instructed by Vought earlier this month not to perform. The email listed examples of how CFPB employees should respond, including by stating: "I have followed orders by Russell Vought not to approve or issue any proposed or final rules or formal or information guidance that have been issued or published but that have not yet become effective; and to not commence, take additional investigative activities related to, or settle enforcement actions, and not to open any new investigation in any manner, and to cease any pending investigations."

Martinez also told CFPB employees on Sunday that the bureau's D.C. headquarters building will remain closed this week.

Musk, a White House advisor and billionaire entrepreneur, posted on X on Saturday: "Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation."