President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order to end collective bargaining with federal labor unions in agencies with national security missions across the federal government.
Newsweek has contacted the White House for comment via email.
Why It Matters
The order will effectively strip collective bargaining rights from thousands of federal employees in sensitive roles. The Trump administration is working to shrink the size of the federal workforce with mass layoffs, which are facing legal challenges.
The order says it is aimed at agencies with national security missions, but it appears to affect much of the federal government. Eighteen agencies are affected, including the Departments of State, Defense, Veterans Affairs, Energy, Health and Human Services, Treasury, Justice and Commerce and Homeland Security.
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What To Know
The White House said the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 gives Trump the authority to end collective bargaining in the agencies with national security missions.
A fact sheet from the White House cites the agencies’ roles in safeguarding national security through national defense, border security, public safety and pandemic preparedness, prevention and response. Police and firefighters will continue to collectively bargain, it said.
The Office of Personnel Management cited the order in a memo instructing agencies to terminate their collective bargaining agreements, or CBAs.
The memo also says “agencies should cease participating in grievance procedures after terminating their CBAs.”
The order comes after previous moves by the Trump administration to strip away collective bargaining rights in the government.
Earlier in March, the Department of Homeland Security said it was ending the collective bargaining agreement with employees at the Transportation Security Administration who staff checkpoints at airports and other transportation hubs across the country.
The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), the largest federal worker union representing more than 800,000 federal government employees, sued over the move, alleging it was retaliation for challenging other moves by the Trump administration.
What People Are Saying
AFGE National President Everett Kelley said in a statement: “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.
“This administration’s bullying tactics represent a clear threat not just to federal employees and their unions, but to every American who values democracy and the freedoms of speech and association. Trump’s threat to unions and working people across America is clear: fall in line or else.”
AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler said in a statement: “It’s clear that this order is punishment for unions who are leading the fight against the administration’s illegal actions in court—and a blatant attempt to silence us.”
Schuler added: “To every single American who cares about the fundamental freedom of all workers, now is the time to be even louder. The labor movement is not about to let Trump and an unelected billionaire destroy what we’ve fought for generations to build. We will fight this outrageous attack on our members with every fiber of our collective being.”
The White House said in the fact sheet: “President Trump is taking action to ensure that agencies vital to national security can execute their missions without delay and protect the American people.”
It said certain unions “have declared war on President Trump’s agenda” and that the largest union “describes itself as ‘fighting back’ against Trump” and is “widely filing grievances to block Trump policies.”
It added that the president “refuses to let union obstruction interfere with his efforts to protect Americans and our national interests.”
What Happens Next
Kelley said the AFGE is “preparing immediate legal action and will fight relentlessly to protect our rights, our members, and all working Americans from these unprecedented attacks.”
