A federal judge on Tuesday blocked the Trump administration from eliminating union bargaining for thousands of workers across the federal government.
Siding with the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) and other unions, U.S. District Judge James Donato ruled that President Trump’s executive order letting several federal agencies dispense with union bargaining is likely unlawful.
Donato wrote in a 29-page opinion that federal workers have had the right to unionize and collectively bargain for better employment conditions for more than 60 years, but Trump’s order threatened that “long-standing status quo.” The six unions that filed suit “appear to have been deemed hostile to the President,” he said.
The judge barred 21 federal agencies from following Trump’s order until the outcome of a trial in the unions’ lawsuit. Those court proceedings have yet to be scheduled.
The unions sued in April after Trump signed the order directing numerous agencies to end the union contracts, pointing to a provision of the federal civil service law that allows such exceptions for national security agencies.
The White House at the time argued that the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978, which allowed government workers to unionize, “enables hostile Federal unions to obstruct agency management.” An Office of Personnel Management (OPM) memo directed agencies to terminate their collective bargaining agreement.
Donato wrote that the executive branch’s judgment on national security is “entitled to deference and significant weight.” However, courts do not defer to its reading of the First Amendment, he wrote, even when national security interests “are said to be at stake.”
The unions lauded Donato’s ruling.
National Association of Government Employees (NAGE) President David Holway called the decision a “resounding rejection of the Trump administration’s authoritarian tactics,” while American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) President Lee Saunders called it “justice for the federal workers who were unfairly retaliated against and had their freedom to collectively bargain ripped away for standing up to illegal executive actions.”
“President Trump revoked our members’ union rights in retaliation for our advocacy on behalf of federal workers and the American people, and we are grateful that Judge Donato saw through his disingenuous ‘national security’ justification and has ordered the immediate restoration of their rights,” said AFGE National President Everett Kelley.
Donato said a trial date would be set in a separate order.