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Mark Brunton of China, Maine, is president of the Maine Service Employees Association, Local 1989 of the Service Employees International Union. A graduate of the University of Maine, he works as a comprehensive health planner for the Maine Department of Health and Human Services.
When Maine voters cast their ballots last November, we thought we were voting for lower prices and leaders who would stand up for working families. We did not expect an unelected billionaire to be handed the keys to federal departments and agencies with unfettered access to the sensitive personal data of the American people.
Elon Musk and his band of clandestine corporate hackers in the so-called “Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)” have gained increasing access to government payment systems and data, putting troves of sensitive data, Social Security numbers, and even our bank account information at risk.
A legitimate audit for fraud, waste, and abuse would employ accountants and auditors with proven track records and security clearances. Instead, President Donald Trump has empowered seemingly bad actors with obvious conflicts of interest, some with questionable work histories, to run amok with the most sensitive data entrusted to the federal government. It’s absurd.
So, what is really going on here? Musk is crippling the very agencies with regulatory authority over the industries in which his own companies operate. SpaceX and Tesla have received billions of dollars of taxpayer funds through government contracts. His involvement in DOGE is a clear conflict of interest.
Even worse, these actions appear to be a precursor to the fight over funding the government and the continuation of the 2017 tax cuts, which benefit Musk and the billionaires. Maine people did not vote for defunding public services to give tax cuts to billionaires!
The American people deserve transparency and integrity from their government. The questionable track record of DOGE and its employees, and the lack of congressional oversight are deeply concerning. We demand to know what is being done with this personal data, particularly in light of Musk’s reported close relationship and conversations with Vladimir Putin, his companies’ dependency on funding from the Chinese government, and his many conflicts of interest as an owner of data and AI tech companies.
The labor movement and grassroots organizations are taking a stand and fighting back – nationally, and here in Maine. We’re proud of the coalition we’ve built to defend working people and families against the overreach of billionaires. At the national level, our international union, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), has partnered with the Alliance for Retired Americans, the American Federation of Government Employees, the AFL-CIO, and public interest attorneys at Public Citizen Litigation Group to bring a lawsuit to confront these risks and to demand accountability. Invoking the privacy rights of its members, SEIU has asked a federal court in Washington, D.C., to make clear that unelected billionaires like Musk have no business meddling in sensitive government records.
Our union, MSEA-SEIU Local 1989, represents over 13,000 public service workers, nonprofit workers, and retirees. We’re alarmed by the Trump-Musk attacks on federal workers. These attacks erode the integrity of public service for all workers. The over 12,000 federal employees in Maine include nurses, doctors, other healthcare workers, police officers, firefighters and correctional officers who selflessly serve their communities.
The federal hiring freeze is also a direct threat to Maine’s economy and the livelihoods of Mainers. Acadia National Park contributes $685 million a year to the local economy. Defunding it would be an economic disaster for this state.
We are grateful for leaders who are standing against this threat. The chair of the Senate Appropriations committee, Sen. Susan Collins, has called out Musk’s attempts to dismantle the U.S. government and destroy the federal workforce. Collins and her colleagues are the rightful, elected leaders with legal authority to determine how our government is run.
Our bottom line: We don’t want billionaires snooping in our personal and financial information, and we don’t want a government of, by, and for the richest people in America.