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President Donald Trump has signed an executive order seeking to end collective bargaining for any agencies dealing with “national security,” affecting a majority of federal agencies.
A White House fact sheet on Thursday outlined a number of agencies with mission areas that will see their collective bargaining agreements removed — including any involved in national defense, foreign relations, cybersecurity, border security and public safety, among many others.
“President Trump supports constructive partnerships with unions who work with him,” the fact sheet states. “He will not tolerate mass obstruction that jeopardizes his ability to manage agencies with vital national security missions.”
Specifically, the order will cancel collective bargaining agreements at the departments of Defense, Veterans Affairs, State, Treasury, Justice and Energy, as well as the National Science Foundation, Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Nuclear Regulatory Commission, International Trade Commission, Federal Communications Commission and General Services Administration.
The order also impacts components of the departments of Interior, Agriculture, Commerce, Homeland Security, and Health and Human Services.
On top of that, employees working in any agency offices of the chief information officer will also see their collective bargaining removed, according to new guidance from the Office of Personnel Management.
The impacted agencies and components “are no longer required to collectively bargain with federal unions,” OPM acting Director Charles Ezell wrote.
While the 1978 Civil Service Reform Act generally allows unions to bargain with agencies on behalf of groups of federal employees, Trump cited one specific provision of the 1978 law as grounds for moving forward with broadly canceling collective bargaining.
One part of the statute allows the president to issue an order excluding an agency or subcomponent from coverage under the law if he “determines that the agency has a primary function of intelligence, counterintelligence, investigative or national security work, and the provisions of this chapter cannot be applied to that agency or subdivision in a manner consistent with national security requirements and considerations.”
The Civil Service Reform Act “enables hostile federal unions to obstruct agency management,” the White House wrote in Thursday’s fact sheet. “This is dangerous in agencies with national security responsibilities.”
Multiple federal unions are already preparing to take legal action against Trump’s executive order, calling the move illegal.
“The president is attempting to silence the voice of federal employees and prevent your elected labor union representatives from fighting to protect their rights,” the National Treasury Employees Union wrote in a message to its union members Thursday night.
“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,” Everett Kelley, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees, said in a statement.
OPM’s guidance detailed further requirements for agencies that stem from Trump’s latest executive order. In addition to canceling collective bargaining agreements, OPM recommended that agencies circumvent “procedural impediments” in union contracts to be able to fire poor performers, limit federal employees to a 30-day period for performance improvement plans, and end grievance procedures.
The move mirrors one that Trump made in 2020, when he told the Defense Department it could make its own determinations about who should and shouldn’t be able to bargain. At the time, Trump’s move received bipartisan criticism in Congress, and DoD civilian employees ultimately retained their collective bargaining rights.
Over the past few months, the Trump administration has taken several other actions seeking to limit federal unions. The administration has said collective bargaining agreements should be ignored as agencies move forward with reductions in force (RIFs), and in returning federal employees to the office full-time.
Trump also signed an executive order in February to cancel collective bargaining agreements signed within the last month of the Biden administration. And the administration has pushed agencies for detailed information on any federal employees who spend any of their work hours on official time — or on-the-clock hours that go toward negotiating union contracts or resolving employee disputes.
Earlier this month, DHS announced an end to collective bargaining for tens of thousands of employees at the Transportation Security Administration. AFGE, which represents TSA workers, is now suing the agency in response.
“These threats will not work. Americans will not be intimidated or silenced. AFGE isn’t going anywhere,” Kelley said. “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.”
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