Posts tagged Executive Order
USDA moves to end employee union contracts, documents show
August 17, 2025 // The U.S. Department of Agriculture moved to terminate union contracts with thousands of employees of its animal health and food safety inspection agencies, according to documents seen by Reuters, as one union on Wednesday challenged the firings in court. The notices sent to union leaders at the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service and Food Safety and Inspection Service on Tuesday evening said the action was aligned with President Donald Trump's March executive order to exclude some federal workers from collective bargaining because their agencies have national security missions, the documents show.
Unions’ battle for survival hits new wave with Trump termination of bargaining agreements
August 16, 2025 // “The Teamsters contributed to the NRCC and a sprawling list of House Republicans – signaling a monumental shift of working class voters towards the GOP,” the organization highlighted in an email this week. Beyond the court battles, unions are hopeful Congress could take up a discharge petition that would force the House to take a vote on a bill that would overturn Trump’s March order.
FEMA joins other federal agencies in canceling union contracts
August 12, 2025 // On Friday, FEMA’s acting administrator, David Richardson, sent a memo to American Federation of Government Employees Local 4060, the union representing the agency, saying that FEMA’s collective bargaining agreement had been terminated, ending a nearly 10-year contract.
EPA axes contracts with unions
August 11, 2025 // In that decision, the 9th Circuit stayed a lower court order that prevented the administration from enforcing Trump’s executive order. AFGE brought the legal challenge in that case along with six unions representing more than 1 million federal employees.
VA severs ties with most federal unions, terminating worker contracts
August 7, 2025 // Veterans Affairs leaders on Wednesday announced plans to terminate nearly all of its collective bargaining contracts with federal unions, upending employment agreements for hundreds of thousands of department workers. The move affects members of the American Federation of Government Employees, the AFL-CIO (AFGE), the National Association of Government Employees (NAGE), the National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE), the National Nurses Organizing Committee/National Nurses United (NNOC/NNU) and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).
Court allows Trump to end union bargaining for federal workers
August 5, 2025 // Trump's order exempted more than a dozen federal agencies from obligations to bargain with unions. They include the Departments of Justice, State, Defense, Treasury, and Health and Human Services.
New Game Plan: White House and Congress Move to Clarify Student Athlete Unionization Rights
July 31, 2025 // The SCORE bill’s ban is broad. Its key provision says, in part: “no individual may be considered an employee of an institution, a conference, or an interstate intercollegiate athletic association based on the participation of such individual on a varsity sports team or in an intercollegiate athletic competition as a student athlete.” In addition, the bill blocks states from enforcing any law that “governs or regulates the compensation, payment, benefits, employment status, or eligibility of a student athlete (including a prospective student athlete) with respect to participation in intercollegiate athletics.” It specifically blocks any state law that “relates to the right of a student athlete to receive compensation or other payments or benefits directly or indirectly from any institution, associated entity or individual, conference, or interstate intercollegiate athletic association.”
New lawsuit scrutinizes Hegseth’s implementation of Trump’s anti-union EO
July 30, 2025 // While previous lawsuits argued simply that President Trump’s citation of the 1978 Civil Service Reform Act’s so-called “national security exemption” en masse violated federal regulatory law, a new suit from IFPTE drills down on the Defense secretary’s implementation of the controversial edict.
Trump-appointed judge tosses White House lawsuit against labor unions
July 27, 2025 // Albright also noted that a different federal judge in Kentucky came to the same conclusion on standing back in May. Nevertheless, he wrote that the administration offered “compelling arguments” supporting Trump’s determination that these agencies are primarily engaged in national security work and, therefore, can be exempted from unionization. The White House and AFGE did not immediately respond to requests for comment. In the aftermath of Trump’s executive order, agencies worked to stop deducting union dues from workers’ paychecks — a critical blow to AFGE’s and other groups’ ability to fund their operations. Unions have moved to set up alternative collections mechanisms but have said in court papers that the administration’s decision will cost them millions of dollars.
Supporters of Trump’s agency cuts still favor nonpartisan federal workforce, survey shows
July 24, 2025 // In a recent survey, the Partnership for Public Service found that among individuals who approve of the Trump administration’s cuts to federal agencies, there is little support for a politicized federal workforce. The survey results showed that 83% of supporters of the Trump administration’s cuts agreed that having an expert and non-political federal workforce was “critical” to the country’s wellbeing.