Trump acts to remove unionization rights from the majority of federal employees
This marks the president's most recent initiative aimed at diminishing the influence of the federal bureaucracy.
TroibNews 
President Donald Trump is moving to strip collective bargaining rights from a significant portion of federal employees as part of his ongoing initiative to diminish the federal workforce.
Late Thursday night, Trump signed an executive order utilizing a seldom-invoked section of federal labor law, which permits the president to exclude agencies from traditional unionization rights if they are deemed primarily involved in national security tasks.
This executive order aims to end collective bargaining with federal unions across various agencies and subdivisions, including the Departments of Agriculture, Defense, Health and Human Services, Justice, State, Veterans Affairs, along with the EPA and USAID. It also allows the Transportation Secretary to omit the Federal Aviation Administration and other subdivisions from labor rights.
According to a report by Government Executive, this order would strip collective bargaining rights from approximately 67 percent of the federal workforce and 75 percent of unionized workers.
This anti-union action aligns with other initiatives to significantly reduce the federal workforce and assert tighter control over the bureaucracy by the Trump administration. The administration has attempted to terminate tens of thousands of probationary federal employees, despite court rulings that have initially blocked these dismissals. Additionally, many agencies are carrying out widespread “reductions in force.”
Federal employees’ unions have actively initiated legal challenges against many of Trump's actions in the early months of his presidency. These lawsuits include efforts to prevent billionaire Elon Musk’s government-efficiency initiative from accessing sensitive federal information, to block policies that facilitate the dismissal of government employees, and to restore thousands of terminated federal workers among other actions.
In response to Trump’s new executive order, a prominent federal employees union has vowed to challenge it in court swiftly.
“President Trump's latest executive order is a disgraceful and retaliatory attack on the rights of hundreds of thousands of patriotic American civil servants — nearly one-third of whom are veterans — simply because they are members of a union that stands up to his harmful policies,” stated American Federation of Government Employees President Everett Kelley. “AFGE is preparing immediate legal action.”
The rights of federal employees to join unions and engage in collective bargaining regarding their employment conditions were established by the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978.
The executive order issued by Trump after 10 p.m. Thursday was accompanied by guidance from the Office of Personnel Management, which informed agencies that they are “no longer required to collectively bargain with Federal unions” and should cease participating in grievance procedures, the official mechanism for unionized workers to file complaints. OPM also advised agencies that they are no longer obligated to comply with laws requiring advance notice and other protocols when carrying out layoffs.
Mathilde Moreau for TROIB News
Late Thursday night, Trump signed an executive order utilizing a seldom-invoked section of federal labor law, which permits the president to exclude agencies from traditional unionization rights if they are deemed primarily involved in national security tasks.
This executive order aims to end collective bargaining with federal unions across various agencies and subdivisions, including the Departments of Agriculture, Defense, Health and Human Services, Justice, State, Veterans Affairs, along with the EPA and USAID. It also allows the Transportation Secretary to omit the Federal Aviation Administration and other subdivisions from labor rights.
According to a report by Government Executive, this order would strip collective bargaining rights from approximately 67 percent of the federal workforce and 75 percent of unionized workers.
This anti-union action aligns with other initiatives to significantly reduce the federal workforce and assert tighter control over the bureaucracy by the Trump administration. The administration has attempted to terminate tens of thousands of probationary federal employees, despite court rulings that have initially blocked these dismissals. Additionally, many agencies are carrying out widespread “reductions in force.”
Federal employees’ unions have actively initiated legal challenges against many of Trump's actions in the early months of his presidency. These lawsuits include efforts to prevent billionaire Elon Musk’s government-efficiency initiative from accessing sensitive federal information, to block policies that facilitate the dismissal of government employees, and to restore thousands of terminated federal workers among other actions.
In response to Trump’s new executive order, a prominent federal employees union has vowed to challenge it in court swiftly.
“President Trump's latest executive order is a disgraceful and retaliatory attack on the rights of hundreds of thousands of patriotic American civil servants — nearly one-third of whom are veterans — simply because they are members of a union that stands up to his harmful policies,” stated American Federation of Government Employees President Everett Kelley. “AFGE is preparing immediate legal action.”
The rights of federal employees to join unions and engage in collective bargaining regarding their employment conditions were established by the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978.
The executive order issued by Trump after 10 p.m. Thursday was accompanied by guidance from the Office of Personnel Management, which informed agencies that they are “no longer required to collectively bargain with Federal unions” and should cease participating in grievance procedures, the official mechanism for unionized workers to file complaints. OPM also advised agencies that they are no longer obligated to comply with laws requiring advance notice and other protocols when carrying out layoffs.
Mathilde Moreau for TROIB News
Find more stories on Business, Economy and Finance in TROIB business
