its a mind game. a lot of union collective bargain agreements have no strike clauses. that's the primary reason employers have to come to the table. almost all the "rules" have all these off ramps and cool off periods to stop workers from stopping their work, because its too damaging to capital formations.

this is one of those consequences of weakening unions is that part of the benefit to capital of a union is they can create these guardrails. if the great body workers all simultaneously stop seeing the union as having meaningful power enough to protect them from egregious abuses, it opens up wildcatting, sabotage, occupation etc.

ehat is distinct about public service in the austerity era is that few committed public servants wants to actually wreck shit or otherwise degrade public services, especially since that's what the political project causing the shut doen seems to want.

figuring out a tactic for sticking it to the politicians while continuing to provide value to the public is complicated and tends to be specific to the agency, and there usually tend to be laws against it.

There's a lot of misunderstanding about public sector unions and concerted activity.

Essentially most of the private sector has some protections guaranteed by law to engage in union activity including strikes. For instance, private sector workers can strike and the employer cannot terminate their employment because of the strike (there are other legal ways to fuck over striking employees but they are limited somewhat).

If public sector workers strike they have no protections. This means if they walk off the job their employment can be terminated. Trump could just tell them they're fired with no claim to unemployment benefits, COBRA, or severance benefits. They can also be banned from federal employment for life.

Federal strikes are also explicitly illegal and employees or the union would almost certainly be fined. They could also face jail time in theory although that's quite rare.

This doesn't mean they couldn't strike, but it is a lot riskier than a private sector strike.