Do Federal employees have free speech rights? My father was a mail carrier when I was growing up, and according to the union's material that they mailed to the mail carriers, Federal employees don't have free speech rights and that was how Reagan was able to fire the striking air traffic controllers. Mail carriers are not able to complain about working conditions in the post office (that is what the union mailer was complaining about, I guess since a union staffer was writing it they could complain -- it was like 25 years ago that I read this, so I could have the details wrong).