A group of federal employee unions sued the Trump administration over President Trump’s recent Executive Order that excludes most of the federal workforce from union representation.
The lawsuit states that, “The Exclusion Order unconstitutionally retaliates against Plaintiffs for their protected First Amendment activity in opposition to President Trump.”
It also asserts that the Executive Order goes beyond the original intent of Congress when it passed the Civil Service Reform Act (CSRA) into law. The lawsuit states:
In the CSRA, Congress granted federal employees, including those at the agencies listed in the Exclusion Order, the right to join together in unions and collectively bargain with their employers. The statute permits the President in specific narrow circumstances to exclude agencies or subdivisions only upon a determination that those agencies have a primary function of intelligence, counterintelligence, investigative, or national security work, and a further determination that Chapter 71 “cannot be applied . . . in a manner consistent with national security requirements and considerations.” 5 U.S.C. § 7103(b)(1).
The unions that filed the lawsuit are:
- American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE)
- American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME)
- National Association of Government Employees (NAGE-SEIU)
- National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE-IAM)
- National Nurses United (NNU)
- Service Employees International Union (SEIU)
They join NTEU which already filed a lawsuit earlier this week. The lawsuits are not a surprise since the unions had immediately promised to retaliate in the courts when Trump issued the Executive Order. It’s a matter that could wind up before the Supreme Court in order to be settled.
What Does President Trump’s Executive Order Do?
Trump’s Executive Order modifies an Executive Order that was issued by President Jimmy Carter. The Trump Order significantly expands the list of federal agencies that are excluded from union representation on the basis of national security. The Justice Department has already used the Executive Order as the basis to sue the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) to release eight agencies from their collective bargaining agreements.
The reasoning behind excluding the agencies from union representation is that negotiating collective bargaining agreements with the unions is an impediment that can jeopardize national security.
A fact sheet on the Executive Order published by the White House states, “The CSRA [Civil Service Reform Act] enables hostile Federal unions to obstruct agency management. This is dangerous in agencies with national security responsibilities.”
For more information, see Trump Takes Aim at Cutting Back Unions’ Involvement in Federal Government.
