Trump Order Cancels Collective Bargaining at More Federal Agencies

U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday, Aug. 28, signed an executive order that aims to end collective bargaining at several prominent federal agencies. A fact sheet was released in conjunction with the order.

The actions append the president’s March 27 executive order (“Exclusions from the Federal Labor-Management Relations Program”) that sought to ban collective bargaining for more than half of the federal unionized workforce, using a little-used clause in the 1978 Civil Service Reform Act that enables such power in instances tied to national security. The long list of agencies called out in the initial order included most (if not all) divisions within the departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Energy, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Interior, Justice, State, Treasury, Veterans Affairs, and others.

Agencies subject to the Aug. 28 order include:

• The International Trade Administration and the Patent and Trademark Office within the Commerce Department;
• The National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service and the National Weather Service within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA);
• The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA);
• Units in the Bureau of Reclamation with “primary responsibility for operating, managing or maintaining hydropower facilities”; and,
• The U.S. Agency for Global Media.

Collective bargaining has traditionally been used within the federal government to provide employees a voice in decisions that impact their working conditions (e.g., schedules, performance reviews, remote/hybrid work availability), thus providing an outlet to mitigate workplace disputes and improve overall labor-management relations.

The president did not provide any commentary within the new executive order. However, the fact sheet stated, “President Trump is taking action to ensure that agencies vital to national security can execute their missions without delay and protect the American people. The president needs a responsive and accountable civil service to protect our national security.”

Federal union leaders decried the new executive order.

Liz Shuler, the president of the AFL-CIO, stated, “Issuing these executive orders just days before the [Labor Day] holiday … shows us that this administration’s callous disregard for workers’ rights knows no bounds.”

Gay Henson, the secretary-treasurer of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE), stated, “Any attack on workers is unacceptable, including this latest one from the administration. Given that IFPTE is NASA’s largest federal employee union, this is particularly damaging to IFPTE’s NASA locals and members, as well as our members’ work on groundbreaking NASA missions that provide immense scientific value and advance aeronautics and space exploration.”

Everett Kelley, the president of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), stated, “Several agencies, including NASA and the National Weather Service, have already been hollowed out by reckless [Department of Government Efficiency] cuts, so for the administration to further disenfranchise the remaining workers in the name of ‘efficiency’ is … abhorrent.”

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