Trump strips union rights from a million federal workers
An executive order strips collective-bargaining rights from federal workers at about 20 agencies, invoking a rarely used national-security exclusion; together with an August follow-on order and an earlier decision ending bargaining at the TSA, 84.4% of the unionized federal workforce loses it. Unions sue.
What happened
An executive order stripped collective-bargaining rights from federal workers across about 20 agencies, using a rarely invoked national-security exclusion; an August order extended it further. Together with a prior decision ending collective bargaining at the Transportation Security Administration, the two orders ended it for 84.4% of the unionized federal workforce, according to a Center for American Progress analysis. Joseph McCartin, a labor historian at Georgetown University, called the March order “by far the largest single action of union-busting in American history.” Unions sued.
Why it matters
A union contract is one of the few structures that lets a federal worker formally contest or refuse an unlawful directive. Removing it, in an election year, strips away another layer of internal resistance and leaves employees isolated against pressure from above.