The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, along with four of its affiliated unions and the Economic Policy Institute, filed a lawsuit to stop Elon Musk and his “Department of Government Efficiency” team from accessing Department of Labor data.
The lawsuit, filed Feb. 5, alleges that giving Musk and his team access to the department’s information systems violates federal law, as those systems include “highly sensitive data,” including medical and benefits information of certain federal workers as well as “investigative and litigation records of the Bureau of Labor Statistics data crucial to an accurate understanding of the state of our economy.”
“Elon Musk has absolutely no business raiding the Department of Labor to obtain the sensitive personal information of workers,” AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler said in a Feb. 5 news release. “It’s outrageous that Musk thinks he has the authority to access private data on workers from an agency that’s entrusted with protecting the fundamental rights of working people. With this lawsuit, we intend to stop Musk’s power grab cold.”
Filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the lawsuit names the Labor Department, acting Labor Secretary Vince Micone, U.S. Digital Service — recently renamed the U.S. DOGE Service — and U.S. DOGE Service Temporary Organization as defendants.
The plaintiffs ask the court to declare that sharing DOL’s information systems with “Department of Government Efficiency” personnel is unlawful, halt the Labor Department from doing so, and block the department from “taking any adverse personnel action against any employee who refuses to provide DOGE employees with unlawful access to Department of Labor systems,” among other things.
The Labor Department and USDS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Also on Feb. 5, a rally took place outside the Labor Department to protest against granting the “Department of Government Efficiency” access to the department’s information systems.
“The Trump administration, including the Musk shadow government, seems intent on dismantling much of the federal government and the vital services it provides, in violation of the Constitution, federal statutes and federal regulations,” Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., said at the rally, according to her published remarks.
The lawsuit follows a similar lawsuit filed Feb. 3 by the Alliance of Retired Americans, along with two employee unions, to halt Musk and his team from gaining access to the Treasury Department’s payment systems.
On Feb. 6, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly signed an order temporarily limiting access to such systems. The order states that Tom Krause, CEO of Cloud Software Group, and Marko Elez, an engineer who worked for Musk’s SpaceX and X, formerly known as Twitter, will have “read only” access to Treasury’s payment systems while the judge considers the unions’ request for a broader temporary restraining order, according to Bloomberg.
