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The order, signed without public fanfare and announced late
Thursday, appears to touch most of the federal government.
Affected agencies include the Departments of State, Defense,
Veterans Affairs, Energy, Health and Human Services, Treasury,
Justice and Commerce and the part of Homeland Security
responsible for border security.
Police and firefighters will continue to collectively bargain.
Trump said the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 gives him the
authority to end collective bargaining with federal unions in
these agencies because of their role in safeguarding national
security.
The American Federation of Government Employees, which
represents 820,000 federal and D.C. government workers, said
late Thursday that it is “preparing immediate legal action and
will fight relentlessly to protect our rights, our members, and
all working Americans from these unprecedented attacks.”
“President Trump’s latest executive order is a disgraceful and
retaliatory attack on the rights of hundreds of thousands of
patriotic American civil servants — nearly one-third of whom are
veterans — simply because they are members of a union that
stands up to his harmful policies," AFGE National President
Everett Kelley said.
AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler said in a statement, “It’s clear
that this order is punishment for unions who are leading the
fight against the administration’s illegal actions in court —
and a blatant attempt to silence us.” She also vowed, “We will
fight this outrageous attack on our members with every fiber of
our collective being.”
The announcement builds on previous moves by the Trump
administration to erode collective bargaining rights in the
government.
Earlier this month, DHS said it was ending the collective
bargaining agreement with the tens of thousands of frontline
employees at the Transportation Security Administration. The TSA
union called it an “unprovoked attack” and vowed to fight it.
A White House fact sheet on Thursday's announcement says that
“Certain Federal unions have declared war on President Trump's
agenda” and that Trump “refuses to let union obstruction
interfere with his efforts to protect Americans and our national
interests.”
“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 White House said.
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