Posts tagged Everett Kelley
Trump administration proposes having all federal workers sign NDAs
May 28, 2026 // But the federal workforce’s largest union, the American Federation of Government Employees, decried the draft as an attempt to silence staffers, noting the proposal “sweeps in an extraordinarily broad category of information.” The union said it believes the administration will push agencies to require their employees to sign the NDA and then fire those who refuse.
Federal union leaders rally Fort Hood workers amid fears over contract terminations, employee rights and future of federal unions
May 11, 2026 // Throughout the evening, union leaders urged employees to stay engaged, document workplace issues and continue paying union dues through AFGE’s e-dues system. Kelley repeatedly stressed that the union’s strength depends on worker participation. “The union is you,” Kelley said. “You make it a union.” He encouraged workers to recruit coworkers and continue organizing despite uncertainty surrounding bargaining agreements.
Trump strips union rights from 1,400 Fort Drum and Rome defense workers
April 22, 2026 // President Donald Trump’s administration has stripped union rights from more than 1,400 civilians who work at Fort Drum and at the Defense Finance and Accounting Service in Rome, according to union officials. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the move to terminate most collective bargaining agreements for civilian employees at the Defense Department, the officials said.
Largest federal workers union warns ICE agents are not trained to replace TSA and putting them in airports ‘does not fill a gap. It creates one’
March 24, 2026 // TSA officers’ call-out rates reached their highest level of the shutdown on Sunday, with 11.76% of workers, or more than 3,450 employees, not showing up to work, DHS data showed. That included about 40% of TSA officers from George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, according to DHS data.
Trump administration wants to streamline federal worker layoffs
March 10, 2026 // The Office of Personnel Management, the federal government’s HR arm, published a proposed rule Thursday that it says will streamline the layoff process and put a new emphasis on job performance rankings rather than seniority. The new proposal will now undergo a 60-day comment period and has already faced pushback from the largest federal workers’ union, which has argued that the performance review system has been manipulated to cap how many employees receive high rankings.
OPM directs agencies to move forward with ending collective bargaining
February 16, 2026 // An additional “frequently asked questions” document that OPM updated Thursday details various changes agencies should make to comply with Trump’s orders revoking collective bargaining. The guidance, for one, tells agencies to revise federal employees’ personnel files to reflect that they are no longer in a bargaining unit. It also directs agencies to cancel ongoing arbitration proceedings and unfair labor practice (ULP) charges in cases where collective bargaining is being rescinded. OPM said agencies are also allowed to “disregard” union grievances for bargaining units or federal employees that the president has deemed no longer eligible for collective bargaining. Additionally, OPM said agencies should “withdraw” from ongoing union negotiations in cases where collective bargaining is being canceled. Impacted agencies should reclaim office space and resources that were being used for official time, OPM added.
Unions, nonprofits challenge FEMA staffing cuts in court
January 29, 2026 // Their court challenge filed Tuesday evening alleges DHS and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem are breaking the law by directing the termination of hundreds of FEMA employees. The complaint alleges those actions violate the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act of 2006, which gave FEMA more autonomy and restricts the DHS secretary’s ability to make sweeping overhauls and staff reductions at the emergency management agency.
US Invalidates Union Contract Covering 47,000 TSA Officers, AFGE Vows to Challenge
December 16, 2025 // U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Friday terminated the collective bargaining agreement covering 47,000 Transportation Security Administration officers, the department said in a statement.
House passes bill to restore collective bargaining for federal employees
December 15, 2025 // “The president has been fighting back against the deals that public sector unions have negotiated for themselves, at the expense of the American taxpayer, by invoking an existing legal authority,” said Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), chairman of the Oversight committee. “[This bill] directly threatens that progress by overturning the president’s executive order that exercises one of the few tools available to him under the law to more effectively manage the federal workforce.”
House strips its own provision protecting Defense civilians’ union rights from NDAA
December 11, 2025 // 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.