
Judge halts Trump’s order to end collective bargaining rights for many federal workers
CNN
A federal judge on Friday blocked the Trump administration from terminating the collective bargaining rights for a sizeable share of the federal workforce.
A federal judge on Friday blocked the Trump administration from terminating the collective bargaining rights for a sizeable share of the federal workforce. The preliminary injunction issued by US District Court Judge Paul Friedman in the District of Columbia also found that a key section of President Donald Trump’s executive order allowing more than a dozen federal agencies to end collective bargaining with unions to be unlawful. As part of his effort to overhaul the federal workforce, Trump signed the order in late March aimed at stripping collective bargaining rights from government employees whose work include national security aspects. The expansive order applies to workers at the departments of State, Defense, Justice and Health and Human Services, among others. It also impacts the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Federal Communications Commission, and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. A fact sheet released by the White House said, “The President needs a responsive and accountable civil service to protect our national security.” And it specified that the order is aimed at stopping federal unions who have “declared war on President Trump’s agenda.” The National Treasury Employees Union quickly filed a lawsuit seeking to block the executive order, arguing that nixing collective bargaining rights conflicts with the law that Congress passed to facilitate and strengthen collective bargaining among the federal workforce. The union, which says Trump’s directive would strip union rights from about two-thirds of its members, then filed a request for a preliminary injunction.

A little-known civil rights office in the Department of Education that helps resolve complaints from students across the country about discrimination and accommodating disabilities has been gutted by the Trump administration and is now facing a ballooning backlog, a workforce that’s in flux and an unclear mandate.












