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Trump takes away Federal employee union rights in executive order [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-03-28
It was only a matter of time before Trump got around to one of his biggest hatreds from doing business. Unions. They had the temerity to actually demand payment for their work. He likes putting people out of business instead by delaying payment, going to court and paying pennies on the dollar or just refusing to pay it at all.
He's used his power in determining what constitutes national security to say you can't fight for your rights.
National security takes top priority over everything. He's plugging that into everything he attacks. He attacks law firms that are defending people he doesn't like as working against national security. He can't give out information about the deportation flights because of national security. But shutting down our forward facing agencies like USAID and Agency for Global Media are supposedly good for national security because we don't have to spend the money on them anymore. Everything DOGE is doing and destroying the government and the entire country is for national security. National security has never been in worse shape in our history, thanks to Trump.
Trump is now using the weapon of choice, national security, as a method for turning the already skittish federal workforce into subservient lackeys without rights.
He detailed the change in labor relations in his latest executive order called:
"Exclusions from Federal Labor Management Relations Programs."
The title on the Fact Sheet is much more revealing:
"President Donald J. Trump Exempts Agencies with National Security Missions from Federal Collective Bargaining Requirements."
Guess who he includes as national security missions? Everything under the sun.
Department of Defense Department of Veteran Affairs National Science Foundation Department of Homeland Security leadership components US Citizen and Immigration Services US Customs and Immigration Enforcement Dept. of Justice Executive Office of Immigration Review Office if Refugee Settlement with Health and Human Services Department of State US Agency for International Development Dept. of Commerce International Trade Commission US International Trade Commission Department of Energy Nuclear Regulatory Commission Environmental Protection Agency Dept. of Interior units dealing with energy production HHS Secretary's Office HHS Office of General Counsel Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response Food and Drug Administration National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases USDA Office of General Counsel USDA Food and Inspection Service USDA Animal and Plant Inspection Service Office of the Chief Information Officer in each cabinet level department DHS Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Federal Communications Commission General Services Administration Department of the Treasury Federal Labor Relations Agency Department of Justice (most components) Federal Emergency Management Agency
Hundreds of thousands of employees are affected. Nobody knows what the total body count will be.
What he's taking away from all these people are their rights under the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978. The CSRA was passed in Jimmy Carter's administration to make up for half a century of half hearted efforts at treating government employees fairly. Trump just tried to take it away. There will be lawsuits. How many, I'm not going to try to calculate because there are so many different unions involved, but the biggest ones are the American Federation of Government Employees (750,000) and the National Federation of Federal Employees (100,000).
AFGE has a report of everything they've done since Trump took office. They've already filed lawsuits and they're going to file one on this action immediately.
Included because I just thought it was a cool logo.
NFFE also has an immediate response and also promise to fight it in the courts.
The Civil Service Reform Act is 173 pages long. I already found a spot where it says section does not apply to the Federal Labor Relations Agency, which Trump included, but no other ones.
In each instance of the use of "national security" in the Act, it is when it has been determined by the President. Trump can easily be challenged on each individual agency listed.
Trump's reasoning from the fact sheet is:
"The CSRA enables hostile Federal unions to obstruct agency management. This is dangerous in agencies with national security responsibilities."
"...hostile Federal unions..." Just like in all of Trump's attack orders, he tries to put the subject of his attack on the defensive by creating an adversary to be subjugated.
Since the president is in charge of national security, he can determine what it means whenever he needs to. And he has been doing it in cases that are completely incongruous.
Lawsuits can fight back on the definitions of natural security, and on how it applies to each agency.
This isn't the first time he's tried this tactic. In 2020 Trump told the Department of Defense that they could determine who national security could apply to in determining who could collectively bargain and who couldn't. The idea received massive criticism on both sides of the aisle and Department of Defense employees retained their collective bargaining rights.
It is a much different Congress this time. The law, however, is still the same. You can't just snatch away rights without any sort of due process.
"Certain Federal unions have declared war on President Trump's agenda. The largest Federal Union describes itself as 'fighting back' against Trump. It is widely filing grievances to block Trump policies."
Gee, do you think he might be talking about the American Federation of Government Employees? Of course, because it's against President Trump, it must be illegal by definition.
"For example, VA unions have filed 70 national and local grievances over President Trump's policies since inauguration, an average of more than one a day."
Good for them. That massive number doesn't even show up in the Just Security Litigation Tracker against Trump.
"Protecting America's national security is a core constitutional duty, and President Trump refuses to let Union obstruction interfere with his efforts to protect Americans and our national interests."
Unions are not going to roll over like certain law firms have. They have way too much at stake for all their members.
This will cause a massive blowback from Democrats. Republicans, not so much. It'll hit news at the top of the hour and then fade a bit, but not much. When you've got a million people you just screwed, they aren't going away quietly. In fact he just added one million people to the protests against him.
Saturday will be interesting with the Tesla Takedown protests across the nation. This may add a couple extra.
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