Maria Snell feels her work as an Internal Revenue Service contact representative is under attack.

She worries about her job, given President Donald Trump’s recent efforts to slash the size of the federal workforce and end collective bargaining with federal labor unions.

“Federal jobs, they used to be secure,” Snell said. “Now, that is just gone, out the window.”

Snell, 41, of Bridgeville, joined dozens of federal workers for a 30-minute rally in Downtown Pittsburgh Wednesday in support of union rights.

The rally comes as unions representing federal workers have sued the Trump administration over a March executive order that seeks to end collective bargaining with federal unions in agencies with national security missions.

The order impacts a litany of government agencies, including the Departments of State, Defense, Treasury, Veterans Affairs, Justice, Health and Human Services and Homeland Security, as well as the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, among others.

The White House said the president was invoking authority granted by the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978.

A White House fact sheet said, “Certain Federal unions have declared war on President Trump’s agenda.”

It argued cutting unions would allow agencies to operate more effectively.

“The union rights of 1 million federal workers, our very right to have a contract, cannot be wiped out on a whim,” said Elizabeth McPeak, first vice president of the National Treasury Employees Union Chapter 34.

The union represents over 600 IRS employees in Western Pennsylvania, most of whom work Downtown. They answer nearly a million taxpayer calls per year, the union said.

The National Treasury Employees Union joined the local branch of the American Federation of Government Employees — which represents about 4,000 Veterans Affairs workers in the region — to host Wednesday’s rally outside of the William S. Moorhead Federal Building. About 30 people attended.

The building, which houses various federal agencies, was among hundreds on a list of properties the Trump administration has said it could close or sell. That list has since been removed from the General Services Administration website.

For workers like Snell, Trump’s flurry of orders — like seemingly threatening to shutter government buildings while simultaneously demanding federal employees work from an office and cutting employees from an array of federal departments — fosters uncertainty.

“We can’t even do our work without concern,” she said. “We don’t even know if we’re going to have a job day to day.”

She’s been working for the IRS for almost seven years and worries government workers like herself are sometimes taken for granted.

“The work we do here matters,” Snell said. “We keep the country running.”

McPeak said unions are “under attack” by the Trump administration.

She criticized the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, the Elon Musk-led initiative looking to pare down federal spending and the federal workforce. If officials really wanted to improve efficiency, she said, employees could rattle off plenty of ways to do so without harming workers or unions — like upgrading computers, improving training or providing better software.

“All federal workers need to be treated with dignity and respect,” National Treasury Employees Union Chapter 34 President Charleen Cline Stephansky said.

Heather Barlow, 45, of Rochester in Beaver County, has worked in taxpayer services for the IRS for about four years. She said she’s been trying not to let the uncertainty bother her.

“I take every day as it comes and prepare myself for the worst — or the good,” she said. “I still put my best foot forward.”

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