Last Thursday night, President Trump signed an executive order putting an end to unionized collective bargaining at more than two dozen government agencies. This could potentially end union representation for more than half of all government workers. The unions and those who support them greeted Trump's move as a declaration of war and promised a swift response. A statement released by the president of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) said lawsuits were on the way.

"This administration’s bullying tactics represent a clear threat not just to federal employees and their unions, but to every American who values democracy and the freedoms of speech and association. Trump’s threat to unions and working people across America is clear: fall in line or else.

“These threats will not work. Americans will not be intimidated or silenced. AFGE isn't going anywhere. Our members have bravely served this nation, often putting themselves in harm’s way, and they deserve far better than this blatant attempt at political punishment.

“AFGE is preparing immediate legal action and will fight relentlessly to protect our rights, our members, and all working Americans from these unprecedented attacks.”

The lawsuit from AFGE hasn't materialized yet and is still probably a week or two away, but Immediately after Trump executive order was signed last week, some of the agencies involved sued the unions in federal court. One of the unions that was sued was the National Treasury Employees union. Here's a bit of what that lawsuit says.

Since taking office,two ofPresident Trump’s top priorities for his Administration have beento improve the efficiency and efficacy of the federal workforce, and to promotethe national security of the United States.Unfortunately, many Executive Branch departments and agencies have beenhamstrung in advancing both of those important efforts by restrictive terms of collective bargaining agreements (CBAs).

These CBAs significantly constrain the Executive Branch, restricting how agencies hire and manage employees. They also effectivelydelegate important decision-making to unaccountable private arbitrators in the form of grievance arbitration. Virtually all limit the power of the President and his Executive Branch officials to promptly identify and address underperformance...

In light of the Executive Order and OPM guidance, Plaintiff now respectfully seeks a declaratory judgment from this Court that it has the power to rescind or repudiate the national CBA, as well as local supplemental agreements and MOUs(collectively, CBAs)with the National Treasury Employees Union(NTEU)and Defendant, one of the local chapters of NTEU that implements and executes the terms of the CBA in Kentucky.

Plaintiff wishes to rescind or repudiate those agreements, including so it can protect national security by developing personnel policies that otherwise would be precluded or hindered by the CBAs. But to ensure legal certainty and avoid unnecessary labor strife, it first seeks declaratory relief to confirm that it is legally entitled to proceed with doing so.

Today, the NTEU filed a lawsuit in response. 

A union that represents 150,000 U.S. government employees filed a lawsuit on Monday seeking to block President Donald Trump from stripping hundreds of thousands of federal workers of the ability to collectively bargain with government agencies through their unions.

The National Treasury Employees Union said in the lawsuit filed in Washington, D.C. federal court that Trump's executive order last week exempting more than a dozen agencies from collective bargaining obligations violates federal workers' labor rights and the U.S. Constitution and threatens the union's very existence.

The NTEU said the order applies to more than 100,000 of its 158,000 members and would require agencies to stop deducting union dues from those workers' paychecks, a major blow to the union's revenue and bargaining power.

That last paragraph sums up what this is all about for the unionists. Trump is cutting off their dues money so they will fight to protect that. The Trump administration is not only reducing the size of government, it is reducing Democrats' piggy bank for future elections. Given what a serious challenge this represents, I'm surprised this isn't getting more attention. So far the union issue seems to be on the back burner to opposition to DOGE. But that could change. 

As I mentioned before, the public sector unions can't risk a strike because that would give Trump a perfect opportunity to fire them. However, they can continue to protest outside of work hours. There's another big protest planned for this coming Saturday, April 5.

Another test of the strength of the protest movement against Trump will come on April 5, when a coalition of liberal groups is planning nationwide demonstrations, including one at the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

“Donald Trump and Elon Musk think this country belongs to them. They’re taking everything they can get their hands on, and daring the world to stop them,” Indivisible, the organization running the so-called Hands Off! protests, said in a social media post.”

A bunch of unions, including NTEU, are part of the coalition that is supposed to turn out Saturday so we'll have to wait and see how that goes.