Trump retaliates against federal worker unions by destroying collective bargaining rights
Trump escalates his onslaught on federal workers.
Late Thursday night, Trump signed an executive order ending union bargaining for huge swaths of the federal workforce. The Administration is stretching the jurisdiction of the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 (CRSA), which typically only applies to some national security-related agencies, in order to justify the move.
Exceptions were made for police and firefighters, amongst whom support for Trump is overrepresented. Affected agencies include Veterans Affairs, Health and Human Services, the Energy Department, the Treasury, and more.
The move evidently appears to be a retaliatory response to mounting lawsuits against the Trump Administration for its unlawful siege on federal workers’ rights, including the entire dismantlement of agencies without congressional oversight, mass firings of probationary employees for partisan reasons, and the targeting of employees and agencies on the basis of partisan or racial justifications. In fact, in a fact sheet released by the Trump Administration, they more or less admit their motivations:
President Trump supports constructive partnerships with unions who work with him; he will not tolerate mass obstruction that jeopardizes his ability to manage agencies with vital national security missions.
The definition of “vital national security missions” is intentionally ambiguous, but one thing is for certain: the Trump Administration sees legitimate and legal collective action as nothing more than “mass obstruction”, an obstacle to be swatted away.
Labor activists have expressed dismay. National Nurses United, the largest union of nurses in the country, states:
This is union busting. Union nurses have been on the front lines, calling out this administration's attempts to dismantle and privatize our VA system. This latest attempt is a brazen effort to intimidate and silence us.
The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), a union representing 750,000 government employees, condemns the move, stating:
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.
Trump’s anti-worker, anti-union sentiment will likely not stop at federal workers, but will bleed out into the private sector. Expect more actions intended to cripple collective bargaining power in the coming months from both Trump and the Republican-dominated congress.