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TRUMP SIGNS ORDER ENDING UNION BARGAINING RIGHTS FOR WIDE SWATHS OF
FEDERAL EMPLOYEES  
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Andrea Hsu
March 28, 2025
NPR
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_ The executive order signed Thursday night covers all or some
unionized employees at around 20 agencies, including the departments
of Agriculture, Veterans Affairs, Health and Human Services, State,
Justice, Energy, Interior, Treasury, Defense. _

Protesters hold signs in solidarity with the American Federation of
Government Employees at a March 4 rally in support of federal workers
at the Office of Personnel Management in Washington, D.C., Alex
Wroblewski/AFP via Getty Images

 

President Trump has signed an executive order ending collective
bargaining
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wide swaths of federal employees, as part of his broader campaign to
reshape the U.S. government's workforce. The largest federal employee
union says the order affects over 1 million workers.

In a fact sheet
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the White House says the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 (CSRA) gives
him the authority to halt collective bargaining at agencies with
national security missions.

This provision has traditionally applied to certain employees at
agencies such as the CIA, the FBI or the National Security Agency.

But Trump's order, signed late Thursday, is more far-reaching, and
includes employees whose jobs touch on national defense, border
security, foreign relations, energy security, pandemic preparedness,
the economy, public safety and cybersecurity.

It notably excludes law enforcement. "Police and firefighters will
continue to collectively bargain," the White House fact sheet states.

Unions are roundly condemning the move.

"This administration's latest executive order is union busting, pure
and simple," said Irma Westmoreland, a registered nurse at a veterans
hospital in Augusta, Ga., who spoke in her capacity as chair of
Veterans Affairs for National Nurses United.

The union represents nurses caring for patients' physical and mental
health at veterans facilities around the country.

"We need to feel free as unionized nurses to speak up about patient
safety issues," said Westmoreland. "Veterans deserve nurses who are
free to advocate for their care without fear of discipline or losing
our jobs."

Trump had previously issued executive actions eroding employee rights
under union contracts. For example, one directive sought to invalidate
collectively bargained telework provisions, declaring that they were
in conflict with management rights. He's also taken aim at the amount
of time employees serving in union leadership positions could spend on
collective bargaining and other union-related business.

The administration had also already ended collective bargaining rights
for Transportation Security Administration officers who run airport
checkpoints.

The executive order signed Thursday night covers all or some unionized
employees at around 20 agencies, including the departments of
Agriculture, Veterans Affairs, Health and Human Services, State,
Justice, Energy, Interior, Treasury, Defense and others.

Unions point out that the CSRA granted federal workers collective
bargaining rights in order to provide them a way to address workplace
issues without disrupting government operations.

"Labor organizations and collective bargaining in the civil service
are in the public interest," the CSRA states
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In its fact sheet, the White House made clear it thought unions were
standing in its way.

"Certain Federal unions have declared war on President Trump's
agenda," the fact sheet states. "The CSRA enables hostile Federal
unions to obstruct agency management."

Federal employee unions have sued the Trump administration to block a
number of its actions, including the mass firings of probationary
employees
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dismantling of USAID
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to sensitive data
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Unions have also pushed back on the administration's return-to-office
demands, citing provisions in their contracts allowing for some
telework, and were prepared to bargain over procedures related to
upcoming reductions-in-force as their contracts allowed.

Now, labor leaders are calling Trump's new executive order a
"retaliatory attack."

"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," wrote Everett Kelley, president of the American
Federation of Government Employees, in a statement.

AFGE, which represents 800,000 civil servants, has vowed "immediate"
legal action to fight it.

"AFGE isn't going anywhere," wrote Kelley. "Our members have bravely
served this nation, often putting themselves in harm's way, and they
deserve far better than this blatant attempt at political punishment."

_ANDREA HSU is NPR's labor and workplace correspondent._

_Hsu first joined NPR in 2002 and spent nearly two decades as a
producer for All Things Considered. Through interviews and in-depth
series, she's covered topics ranging from America's opioid epidemic
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research at the intersection of music and the brain
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She led the award-winning NPR team that happened to be in Sichuan
Province, China, when a massive earthquake
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in 2008. In the coronavirus pandemic, she reported a series of stories
on the pandemic's uneven toll on women
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capturing the angst that women and especially mothers were
experiencing across the country, alone. Hsu came to NPR via National
Geographic, the BBC, and the long-shuttered Jumping Cow Coffee
House._

_Have information you want to share about ongoing changes across the
federal government? NPR's Andrea Hsu can be contacted through
encrypted communications on Signal at andreahsu.08._

_Calls to defund PUBLIC MEDIA are getting louder._

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_And, we do it with you._

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_Can you please pitch in?  [[link removed]]_

* unions
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* federal employees
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* Donald Trump
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* AFGE
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