Trump’s Controversial Executive Order Strips Union Rights from Millions of Federal Workers Amid National Security Debate

Federal labor unions faced an unexpected turn of events in August when the Department of Veterans Affairs announced the termination of nearly all collective bargaining agreements. The agency gave unions a short window to vacate federal buildings.

Sharda Fornnarino, an outpatient surgery nurse at the Rocky Mountain Regional VA Medical Center outside Denver and local director for National Nurses United, shared her experience, stating, “We emptied our office space over the weekend.”

For nearly six decades, federal employees have had the right to unionize and collectively negotiate working conditions. Unlike their private sector counterparts, they cannot bargain wages or strike. However, through collective bargaining, they help establish disciplinary procedures, parental leave policies, and manage overtime, among other aspects.

The belief is that granting workers a voice in workplace policies fosters less workplace discord and more effective government. President Trump, however, has disagreed with this notion. Instead, he argues that federal employee unions pose a threat to the country. In March, he issued an executive order revoking collective bargaining rights for over one million federal workers across approximately 20 federal agencies. Almost immediately, many agencies halted automatic deductions of union dues from employee paychecks, severely impacting the unions’ finances. Ahead of Labor Day, Trump issued a new executive order, expanding the list of affected agencies.

Unions have filed lawsuits, alleging that Trump’s actions are retaliation for their opposition to aspects of his agenda. Lower courts temporarily halted the March order; the government appealed.

Two appellate courts then permitted the administration to proceed with its plan while litigation continues, citing the president’s unique responsibility for safeguarding national security. In their rulings, judges noted that the Trump administration had instructed agencies not to terminate collective bargaining agreements pending litigation.

However, last month, the administration issued updated guidance to agencies, allowing them to terminate most union contracts—with the exception of those with the National Treasury Employees Union due to ongoing litigation. To date, nine agencies have canceled contracts, according to the American Federation of Government Employees.

In late August, a judge on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals called for a vote on whether the case should be reheard by an eleven-judge panel. This vote could occur this month.

Fornnarino expresses hope that the situation will reverse, acknowledging that for now, their union protections have been withdrawn. As an elected union representative, Fornnarino has advocated for increased training for nurses and enhanced safety on the job.

“We were able to put in some protections at their nursing station, increase VA police presence in both the emergency room and the psych unit,” she says. The changes have benefited both nurses and the veterans they serve. However, the VA views it differently. The agency noted that last year, bargaining unit employees like Fornnarino spent 750,000 hours of taxpayer-funded time on union activities.

“With no collective bargaining obligations, those hours can now be used to serve Veterans instead of union bosses,” the VA stated in a press release announcing the termination of the contract. Fornnarino dismisses this suggestion as propaganda.

In his March and August executive orders, Trump relies on a provision in federal law granting him authority to end collective bargaining rights at agencies with national security as a primary function. Previous presidents have sparingly utilized this authority. Trump is now applying it to a broad spectrum of agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency, the Justice Department, the National Weather Service, and the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which oversees the embattled Voice of America.

The president’s rationale is that it undermines national security when unions can obstruct management. In a “fact sheet” issued alongside the March executive order, the White House cited the numerous legal challenges unions have instigated. “Certain Federal unions have declared war on President Trump’s agenda,” the document stated.

Notably, the executive order excludes agencies that support him, including those representing law enforcement and Customs and Border Protection employees. This is particularly frustrating for Agriculture Department employee Cole Gandy, who trains CBP workers stationed at ports of entry on how to inspect agricultural imports for pests.

“They have to know how to find the bugs, how to collect them, how to submit them for identification to somebody else,” says Gandy, who is also president of the National Association of Agriculture Employees. CBP employees still retain their union rights while Gandy’s members at NAAE, including those identifying bugs found at ports, do not.

In fact, they all used to be part of the same union, but the inspectors at the ports were spun off after September 11, as their role was deemed essential to national security. “They’re the first line of defense against terrorism in the United States,” Gandy says. NAAE and other unions have highlighted these inconsistencies in their lawsuits. While litigation continues, Gandy has endeavored to assure members that this is not the end.

“We’re going to fight to be a union until we can’t anymore,” Gandy says. Across the federal government, some workers are not waiting for the outcome of the legal battles. They are quitting their positions, concluding that a government job no longer offers them the benefits they once sought, including flexibility and favorable policies on telework and family leave.

Anthony Lee, a longtime Food and Drug Administration employee who is also president of NTEU Chapter 282, representing some 9,000 FDA employees across the Mid Atlantic, shares this concern. Although the FDA has not yet terminated the union’s contract, it has ordered the union to vacate its offices.

Lee states that the government is losing chemists, toxicologists, engineers, and others who ensure drugs and medical devices are safe and effective and food ingredients aren’t poisonous. “It is already, in my view, harming the public because we’re losing that institutional knowledge,” Lee says. “As much as the current administration thinks that everyone is just quickly replaceable, they’re not.”