The Trump administration is being sued over President Donald Trump’s move to strip collective bargaining rights from a host of federal government employee unions.
The president announced last week that hundreds of thousands of workers would no longer enjoy collective bargaining through their union, stepping up his battle with the federal workforce. But the unions are fighting back, with the National Treasury Employees Union filing a lawsuit just days later.
TEN TRUMP EXECUTIVE ORDERS THAT HAVE BEEN STRUCK DOWN
“The law plainly gives federal employees the right to bargain collectively,” NTEU president Doreen Greenwald said. “The shocking executive order abolishing that right for most of them, under the guise of national security, is an attempt to silence the voices of our nation’s public servants.”
Trump’s order would affect government employees and the unions that represent them at the Department of Defense, Veterans Affairs Department, Health and Human Services Department, National Science Foundation, Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Department of Justice, and the Department of State, among others.
The legal question hinges on the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978, which Trump says gives him the authority to remove collective bargaining powers from the unions owing to national security concerns. Unions such as NTEU and the American Federation of Government Employees disagree.
The suit was filed Monday in the U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia, saying Trump’s order would affect two-thirds of the federal workforce and that it violates the law.
NTEU argues that the Civil Service Reform Act protects collective bargaining for most government workers, that Trump’s order is therefore “absurdly broad,” and that his true goal is to fire as many federal employees as possible.
NTEU represents employees across 37 federal agencies and offices.
Police and firefighters, whose unions are more friendly toward Trump, are exempt from the executive order and will maintain collective bargaining rights regardless of what happens in the lawsuit.
Trump and the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency have been warring with the federal workforce since Trump’s second term began on Jan. 20, moving to slash jobs and shutter entire federal agencies with thousands of layoffs.
Trump ends collective bargaining for government unions as DOGE cuts continue
Federal workers unions are fighting back with public statements, rallies, and court actions that have impeded the administration’s wishes.
“The Executive Order plainly punishes NTEU for its legal challenges to this administration’s actions, cancelling, as relevant here, twelve of NTEU’s collective bargaining relationships, including NTEU’s largest and longest one at the IRS,” the lawsuit states.
