Pressure is mounting on Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer to reconsider proposed mass layoffs at the US Department of Labor, as the Trump administration warns more reductions in force are on the horizon.

Former DOL officials and staffers gathered Monday outside the agency’s Washington, D.C. headquarters in protest of staffing cuts that are planned in the coming weeks. And more than two dozen members of the Democratic Women’s Caucus penned a letter Monday to the Labor Secretary directly, urging her to reverse course on “abandoning” the DOL’s Women’s Bureau.

“Every one of the pink slips that’s going to be handed out is an attack on American workers,” said Chris Lu, former deputy secretary of labor in front of the Frances Perkins Building. “This is no ordinary federal agency. This is literally the firewall between workers and exploitation. The people in this building are training people for jobs. They’re ensuring that they come home safe.”

The pushback comes after Chavez-DeRemer gave most DOL employees until April 18 to opt into early retirement or deferred resignation programs, cautioning that layoff plans “should be expected” in the coming weeks. Workers at the DOL’s International Labor Affairs Bureau, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, the Women’s Bureau, and the Office of Public Affairs were given a shorter timeline, having to decide by Monday whether to separate from the agency.

Federal agencies also face a Monday deadline to submit the next phase of their agency reduction in force and relocation plans to the White House as part of President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency executive order, including all staffing reductions, relocation plans for teams, and office closures.

Former DOL staffers and officials who spoke at the protest said they feared the layoffs would hit agencies targeted in the first exit offer sent by Chavez-DeRemer, which was sent only to staffers at the Women’s Bureau, ILAB, OFCCP, and the public affairs office.

“I’m worried about what’s going through Secretary Chavez-DeRemer’s head right now,” said Helen Luryi, a former Women’s Bureau staffer, at the protest. “I’m worried she’s listening to Elon Musk and that she’s getting ready to eliminate agencies like the Women’s Bureau and the Office of Public Affairs.”

Cuts at the Women’s Bureau in particular would undermine the agency’s ability to address economic disparities among women in the workforce, members of the Democratic Women’s Caucus said in a letter shared with Bloomberg Law.

“We urge you to stand with women workers by protecting the Department of Labor’s Women’s Bureau and maintaining its current staffing levels —or risk abandoning the only federal agency solely dedicated to advancing the rights and economic opportunity of women workers,” more than two dozen lawmakers said in the letter to Chavez-DeRemer April 14.