Late last night, President Trump signed an executive order "to end collective bargaining with Federal unions" at more than two dozen government agencies. In theory this puts an end to collective bargaining for more than half of all federal workers.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday evening abolishing union rights at more than two dozen federal agencies and offices, in a major expansion of the administration’s efforts to shrink the federal government.
The White House cited national security concerns for terminating workers’ ability to bargain collectively, but the order applies at agencies with both direct and indirect links to national security. Those include the entirety of the Departments of Defense, Veterans Affairs, State and Justice, and parts of Homeland Security, Health and Human Services, Interior, Energy and Commerce, among others...
Hours later, eight federal agencies sued a group of unions in federal court in Texas, asking a judge to declare the union contracts void under Trump’s executive order...
Trump invoked his authority under the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 to cancel the union contracts, taking a sweeping view of what constitutes national security. The administration also moved to end union rights for workers at the Treasury Department, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Federal Communications Commission and the National Science Foundation, among many other agencies.
In a coordinated move, OPM also released guidance saying that agencies impacted by the new order no longer need to bargain with unions and can carry out reductions in force.
Trump’s executive order, published after 10 p.m. Thursday, was accompanied by guidance from the Office of Personnel Management informing agencies that they are “no longer required to collectively bargain with Federal unions” and to stop participating in grievance procedures — the formal complaint mechanism used by unionized workers. OPM also “advised” agencies that they no longer have to comply with laws that require advance notice and other procedures when implementing layoffs.
This is a bombshell to say the least. The government worker unions have been fighting the Trump administration from day one. They urged employees not to accept the government buyout offer and sued to get fired probationary employees reinstated. So no surprise that the same unions are now threatening to sue to keep their gravy train rolling.
AFGE, which represents more than 800,000 employees, condemned the move in a statement Thursday evening, noting that it affects the collective bargaining rights of more than 1 million federal employees.
“President Trump’s latest executive order is a disgraceful and retaliatory attack on the rights of hundreds of thousands of patriotic American civil servants—nearly one-third of whom are veterans—simply because they are members of a union that stands up to his harmful policies,” AFGE National President Everett Kelley said in the statement.
“AFGE is preparing immediate legal action and will fight relentlessly to protect our rights, our members, and all working Americans from these unprecedented attacks,” Kelley said.
All of the socialists are upset about this.
The Trump-Musk war against workers continues. Last night, Trump issued a blatantly illegal executive order essentially destroying AFGE & NTEU, the unions representing federal employees.
— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) March 28, 2025
The Oligarchs don’t like unions. We do. Let’s stand together against this assault on workers.
United Auto Workers President @ShawnFainUAW tells @MajorCBS the Trump administration is going after unions and federal workers because "billionaires want more tax cuts for themselves."
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) March 28, 2025
"That's not good for the American people," he says. "They want their fair share. They're not… pic.twitter.com/D1l2mhtgHw
Trump and Musk are attacking labor unions because they don't want workers to have power.
— Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (@RepPressley) March 28, 2025
It's why they want to end collective bargaining and continue firing federal workers at will.
Now more than ever, I stand with organized labor because our destinies are tied. https://t.co/RQmMO96rmG pic.twitter.com/SDeamFvgrN
After cheating workers left and right throughout his career, it comes as no surprise that Trump wants to bust unions and silence working people.
— Sheldon Whitehouse (@SenWhitehouse) March 28, 2025
As Barbara Mikulski would remind us: “Don’t agonize. Organize.”https://t.co/WbW6KRvqrC
Trump just declared war on the labor movement.
— Rep. Summer Lee (@RepSummerLee) March 28, 2025
Because he knows what every authoritarian knows: organized workers are a threat to unchecked power.
He wants to end federal unions, strip workers’ rights, and hand everything over to billionaires.
Y’all know what side I’m on. ✊🏾 https://t.co/s4uvrIHsAi
Left wing labor writer Hamilton Nolan says this is the worst thing that has happened to unions in half a century.
You may recall that earlier this month, the Trump administration declared that it was unilaterally tossing out the union contract covering 50,000 TSA workers. When that happened, I said that it was the worst thing to happen to unions in America in my lifetime. And it was. This latest action is many times worse. It is multiplying the unilateral attack on workers at a single agency across the entire federal government. When a presidential administration does the two worst things in the past half century within three weeks of one another, that is enough data to understand what is happening. With two points, you can draw a line. Now is not the time for organized labor to sit in conference rooms with their lawyers going “Ermm, well, this is certainly a rather radical interpretation of the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978!” My brothers and sisters, this is war. Republicans don’t want unions to exist. And they are coming for us. Right now. Rouse yourselves.
They are genuinely upset but there's nothing they can do other than go to court. Trump would dance a little jig if they attempted to hold a strike. That would make his point and give him a reason to fire them all. So this is going to be fought out in court which means it could be significant that Trump got court approval earlier today to fire the head of the NLRB and the head of the Merit Protection System.
This is going to be a big topic over the weekend and next week. The unions are going to see this is a war for survival (even if they aren't impacted by this executive order) and unions are also good at rounding up protesters. So I think we'll see a lot more protests soon.
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