Unions
IRS, Fiscal Service defy judges, terminate union contracts
The move to ax collective bargaining agreements with the National Treasury Employees Union, until now protected by a federal court order, comes just two weeks after the Office of Personnel Management issued guidance seemingly encouraging agencies to ignore the courts.
Appeals court declines to block Trump’s anti-union EOs
The lone Democratic appointee on a Ninth Circuit three-judge panel suggested that he and his colleagues may reach a different conclusion with the benefit of a “fully developed factual record.”
OPM clarifies that agencies should not violate court orders to terminate union contracts
A memo last week tasking agencies with pushing forward implementation of a pair of executive orders aimed at stripping two-thirds of the federal workforce of their collective bargaining rights briefly aroused fears that they would violate a series of court orders.
Unions oppose a Trump labor nominee over lack of experience, hostility toward bargaining
Conservative lawyer Charlton Allen has no prior experience in labor-management relations, but said he opposed collective bargaining rights for state workers in North Carolina as a political candidate in 2012.
OPM instructs agencies to terminate union contracts potentially in violation of court orders
A smattering of agencies implicated in President Trump’s executive orders barring labor representation for two-thirds of the federal workforce had held off on formally terminating their collective bargaining agreements due to injunctions barring the edicts’ implementation.
Education Department spent up to $38M paying employees not to work before reinstating them, watchdog reports
The Government Accountability Office also reported that the caseload for the department’s Office for Civil Rights increased by an average of 98 cases per week during part of the time that these staffers were on paid leave.
When trust breaks down at the VA, veterans pay the price
COMMENTARY | A VA employee writes about staffing cuts, labor changes and their impact on morale and care.
Eleanor Holmes Norton to retire from Congress after decades of advocating for federal employees
Norton has been a “loyal friend” to the American Federation of Government Employees, said National President Everett Kelley.
AFGE demands resignations of Noem, Miller following member’s slaying
The nation’s largest federal employee union said key leaders involved in the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration and dissent “defamed” VA nurse Alex Pretti by erroneously describing him as a “domestic terrorist.”
NTEU, White House spar over whether unions can challenge their ouster administratively
The Trump administration contends unions can seek review of their ouster from most federal agencies on national security grounds before the Federal Labor Relations Authority, but labor groups say that analysis misconstrues a term of art in federal labor law.
Judge: TSA ‘plainly’ violated court order with renewed union busting push
The Homeland Security Department’s planned ouster of the American Federation of Government Employees from the Transportation Security Administration, scheduled to take effect Sunday, must now be halted.
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AFGE urges appellate judges to uphold injunction against Trump’s anti-union EOs
A three-judge panel on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals last summer blocked a lower court ruling that found President Trump violated federal employees’ First Amendment rights when it targeted two-thirds of the government workforce for removal of their collective bargaining rights.
Arbitrator: Trump’s union EOs violate ‘hierarchy of law’
Independent federal arbitrator Marvin Hill defied the Trump administration's demand that he dismiss an internal grievance against the Defense Department, remarking that to do so would require "re-writing" most legal textbooks.
‘I am what I am’: American Postal Workers Union’s new president talks leadership during inflection point for U.S. Postal Service
Jonathan Smith said that he is opposed to the ongoing postal modernization plan called Delivering for America, but believes the Postal Service should expand the services that it provides to the public.
The twists and turns of Trump’s 2025 war on unions
Since returning to office, the Trump administration has engaged in a series of efforts to sideline labor representatives within the federal government.
Appellate judges mull challenge to Trump’s efforts to bust most federal labor unions
Much of the discussion in oral arguments for three separate lawsuits revolved around whether an administrative board could hear unions’ legal claims and whether President Trump used a faulty definition of 'national security' when he devised two executive orders banning unions at most federal agencies.
TSA plans to bust labor union despite court order blocking it
The Trump administration’s efforts to unwind collective bargaining for airport security screeners have been blocked since June, when a federal judge found the initiative was aimed at “punishing” the nation’s largest federal worker union.
House passes bill nullifying Trump’s anti-union EOs
Twenty Republicans crossed party lines to support legislation to unwind what opponents described as the largest act of “union busting” in U.S. history.
House strips its own provision protecting Defense civilians’ union rights from NDAA
A source familiar with congressional negotiations said that the bipartisan language effectively nullifying President Trump’s anti-union executive orders as they pertain to the Pentagon was dropped due to lack of support in the Senate.
Correctional officers sue for restoration of union rights
The American Federation of Government Employees’ agency-specific lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s executive orders aimed at excising unions from most federal agencies accused the U.S. Bureau of Prisons of arbitrary and capricious decision-making.
