Posts tagged National Security
Judge blocks Trump from removing Foreign Service workers’ collective bargaining rights
May 18, 2025 // The union said Trump's order upended decades of stable labor-management relations in the Foreign Service, removing all members at the State Department and US Agency for International Development from coverage of a law that gives them the right to organise and bargain collectively. Government lawyers said Trump determined that agencies with a primary national security focus are being hamstrung by restrictive terms of collective bargaining agreements that frustrate his ability to safeguard the interests of the American people.
Exclusive-US cancels FDA bargaining session over layoffs, union says
May 7, 2025 // Senior U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman on April 25 issued an injunction to block the executive order from being implemented, pending the outcome of a lawsuit by the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), which represents about 160,000 federal employees including as many as 9,000 FDA staff. The Trump administration has appealed that injunction. A five-hour, virtual meeting between the union and the Department of Health and Human Services to discuss mass layoffs at the FDA was axed the evening before it was set to take place. No reason was given for the cancellation and no attempt was made to reschedule it, according to NTEU chapter president Anthony Lee.
Podcast Newt Gingrich, Vinnie Vernuccio; Episode 837: Protecting the American Worker
May 5, 2025 // Newt’s guest is Vincent Vernuccio, president and co-founder of the Institute for the American Worker. They discuss the significant labor policy developments and legislative efforts aimed at increasing transparency and accountability in both public and private sectors. Their conversation covers the introduction of the Start Applying Labor Transparency (SALT) Act, which seeks to amend the Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959 to ensure greater transparency in financial transactions between unions and labor consultants. Vernuccio also explains the implications of President Trump's executive action, Schedule F, which aims to make certain federal employees at-will to enhance accountability. They also discuss the challenges posed by public sector unions and the potential impact of Senator Josh Hawley's Faster Labor Contracts Act, which could impose arbitration on private sector union negotiations. Vernuccio emphasizes the need for modernizing union models to align with today's workforce demands for flexibility and merit-based advancement.
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.
Trump’s stance on unions is what Roosevelt wanted all along
April 11, 2025 // Trump’s executive order, even with its limitations, addresses a longstanding problem in federal governance. The question isn’t whether you support unions or management, but whether you believe the government should prioritize serving citizens over protecting entrenched union interests, regardless of which party controls the White House.
Trump administration ends union dues collection for most feds without notice
April 10, 2025 // An official at another federal employee union familiar with the matter told Government Executive that local unions at agencies serviced by the Interior Department’s Interior Business Center and the Agriculture Department’s National Finance Center, both of which provide payroll services to large swathes of the federal government, took similar action this week, all without notifying the unions or customer agencies. And, in at least one case, the National Finance Center deducted union dues from employees’ paychecks and then failed to pass that money along to the union, requiring them to then refund those dues back to the employees. None of the three payroll providers responded immediately to a request for comment Wednesday. The cancellation comes amid news, first reported in The New York Times, that operatives from Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Governmental Efficiency had gained access to the Interior Department’s Federal Personnel and Payroll System, which underpins the IBC’s work.
GOP Unveils Bill To End Taxpayer-Funded Union Organizing
April 8, 2025 // Lee and Cline’s No Union Time on the Taxpayer’s Dime Act would end the practice of “official time”— paid time given to federal employees to perform union duties during work hours and using government office space. This practice costs taxpayers more than $100 million annually, according to data from the White House Office of Personnel Management (OPM).
Pro-labor Republicans push Trump to rescind order busting most federal unions
April 3, 2025 // “This executive order, which ruthlessly strips collective bargaining agreements for over 1 million federal workers, is the most recent attack your administration has levied against our merit-based civil service in the effort to cut the workforce and replace them with political cronies,” they wrote. “While the CSRA does give the president the authority to limit collective bargaining agreements due to national security concerns, the executive order’s direction to terminate mass swaths of federal employee collective bargaining agreements is clearly intended to broadly dismantle the CSRA, which is specifically designed to grant federal employees the right to collective bargaining as a means to resolve workplace issues while maintaining the smooth functioning of government operations.”
Face The Nation UAW president Shawn Fain says “tariffs are a tool in the toolbox” in helping auto workers
April 1, 2025 // "Tariffs are a tool in the toolbox to get these companies to do the right thing, and the intent behind it is to bring jobs back here, and, you know, invest in the American workers," Fain told CBS News chief Washington correspondent Major Garrett in an interview that aired Sunday on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan." Mr. Trump announced the 25% tariffs last week, which he said will take effect on April 2, escalating his administration's effort to boost domestic manufacturers through aggressive trade measures. Fain, who leads the 400,000-member union that went on a 46-day strike in 2023, called the tariffs a "motivator,"
‘This is the revenge’: Unions lash out at Trump administration over collective bargaining clampdown
March 31, 2025 // “This is the retaliation. This is the revenge. This is the shut ’em up effort,” said Hoyer, adding the actions are “consistent with the Republican Party’s long-standing hostility for the rights of working men and women to organize.” “Federal law gives federal employees the right to engage in collective bargaining,” said Raskin, adding, “That’s how these unions were formed.”