Posts tagged Department of Homeland Security
US agencies shrink layoff plans after mass staff exodus
July 16, 2025 // This is the latest example of the Trump administration walking back announcements to cut federal workers, after more aggressively pursuing staff reductions earlier this year. The Department of Veterans Affairs said in July that it would reduce staff by about 30,000 people rather than 80,000. Upon taking office in January, President Donald Trump launched a campaign to overhaul the 2.3 million-strong federal civilian workforce, led by billionaire Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency. By late April, about 100 days into the effort, the government overhaul had resulted in the firing, resignations and early retirements of 260,000 civil servants, according to a Reuters tally.
Two of Colorado’s biggest unions join a state employee in suing Gov. Jared Polis
June 11, 2025 // Colorado WINS, a union representing 27,000 state employees, and the AFL-CIO say they are joining a top official in the Department of Labor and Employment in suing Gov. Jared Polis after they say he ordered state employees to commit illegal acts. "We are outraged as state employees that our governor wanted us to actively support that assault on our community and make us as state workers accomplices in an illegal and morally reprehensible act," says Diane Byrne, President of Colorado WINS.
US judge blocks Trump from nixing union bargaining for TSA officers
June 4, 2025 // -A federal judge on Monday said the administration of President Donald Trump likely broke the law by stripping 50,000 transportation security officers of the ability to unionize and bargain over their working conditions. U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman in Seattle, Washington, blocked the U.S. Department of Homeland Security from canceling a union contract covering TSA officers pending the outcome of a lawsuit by four unions challenging the move.
Trump Executive Order on Public-Sector Unions Clears Latest Legal Hurdle
May 26, 2025 // These policies have been generated in response to the snowballing effect of public-sector labor unions, whose bosses have swamped government agencies with an inefficient and excess allocation of funds. Because of these union boss abuses, tax dollars have even been paying full-time salaries to union boss lobbyists working to secure themselves higher wages for doing less work. Additionally, the Institute for the American Worker has found that the time and resources spent on collective bargaining has likely cost hundreds of millions of dollars for the taxpayer. As demonstrated, banning collective bargaining with public-sector unions at national security agencies is not only a feasible plan, but one which could return millions to the American taxpayer, increase the efficiency of the government, and allow agencies to reorient themselves toward their actual purpose and mission.
Wellesley faculty ends strike, but still with no contract
April 30, 2025 // Organizers decided to end the walkout to protect vulnerable faculty members from losing health insurance or, in the case of international employees, visa status.
Largest federal employee union, a leading Trump opponent, to lay off more than half of staff
April 28, 2025 // “It’s going to demolish us,” said Justin Youngblood, president of an AFGE chapter that represents workers at a VA hospital in Kansas City, Missouri. “That’s going to cut the legs off of AFGE and all of the locals.” He said the union's national leadership should have been better prepared to manage an expected downturn in revenue during Trump's second term.
Court Rules Trump Move Ending Federal Worker Union Contracts Is ‘Unlawful’
April 27, 2025 // While preliminary, the injunction is significant because it could help to maintain worker protections enshrined in the contracts and enable covered workers to file grievances via processes laid out in them. Most of the nation’s more than two million federal employees are represented by unions. The ruling could also lead to the restoration of dues collection from members, which the NTEU says bring in $25 million annually. That is because follow-up guidance on Trump’s original executive order from the Office of Personnel Management stated that agency resources “should not be expended to facilitate payment of union dues.” Labor groups have filed dozens of legal challenges to Trump’s executive orders, which have led to pauses in firings of some federal workers who lost their jobs as part of the administration’s efforts to reduce government bloat.
Commentary: VA is selectively enforcing Trump’s order stripping workers of union rights
April 22, 2025 // But the same notice, without explanation, exempts eight small labor groups within the VA from Trump’s edict, effectively allowing them to retain their collective bargaining rights. Those unions include the Laborers International Union of North America, the Western Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals, the Veterans Affairs Staff Nurse Council Local 5032 in Wisconsin, the International Association of Firefighters in Arkansas, the Teamsters Union Local 115 in Pennsylvania and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers in Hawaii. While Trump’s order exempts law enforcement and firefighter unions from losing their collective bargaining rights, that exception would apply only to the IAFF local.
Labor demands return of union apprentice jailed in El Salvador
April 20, 2025 // Abrego Garcia’s fate has drawn enormous national attention, including from the union movement. SMART has been demanding his return and asking supporters to call their member of Congress. The national AFL-CIO is echoing that call. At the annual legislative conference put on by North America’s Building Trades Unions (NABTU), NABTU president Sean McGarvey also spoke up for Abrego Garcia.
Backgrounder: Executive Order: Exclusions from Federal Labor-Management Relations Programs
March 31, 2025 // The practice of “official time” is when unionized federal employees perform union-related activities, rather than their actual public service duties, while being paid by taxpayers. The Federal Unions EO requires that agencies, upon termination of an applicable collective bargaining agreement, reassign any workers who performed “official time” to positions where they perform solely agency business. It also contains language regarding existing grievance proceedings and allows for the head of each agency to submit a report to the President within 30 days highlighting any agency subdivisions that were not covered but should have been covered under the Federal Unions EO.