Federal Workers Union Sues Trump Over Attack on Collective Bargaining

A union that represents employees across 37 federal agencies and offices on Monday sued U.S. President Donald Trump and various leaders in his administration over an executive order that aims to strip collective bargaining rights from hundreds of thousands of government workers under the guise of protecting national security.

The National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) filed the federal lawsuit in Washington, D.C., arguing that the order issued by Trump last week is not only illegal but also motivated by "a policy objective of making federal employees easier to fire and political animus against federal sector unions," many of which have vocally resisted Trump's legally dubious attacks on agencies and key programs.

"The law plainly gives federal employees the right to bargain collectively and the shocking executive order abolishing that right for most of them, under the guise of national security, is an attempt to silence the voices of our nation's public servants," said NTEU national president Doreen Greenwald in a statement.

"It is also a continuation of the administration's efforts to deny the American people the vital services that these talented civil servants provide by making it easier to fire them without any pushback from their union advocates," she declared.

Greenwald vowed that "NTEU intends to protect the ability of frontline federal employees to stand together to improve the conditions under which they serve the American people. Federal workers around the country, through their unions, advocate for the tools and resources they need to do their jobs and help their agencies accomplish important public service missions, and we will not allow the administration to distort the truth."

The complaint filed Monday argues that the new order "plainly punishes NTEU for its legal challenges to this administration's actions, canceling, as relevant here, 12 of NTEU's collective bargaining relationships, including NTEU's largest and longest one" at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The agency's acting commissioner and chief counsel are listed as plaintiffs.

The NTEU is also suing the the U.S. attorney general, the Federal Communications Commission chair, the Bureau of the Fiscal Service commissioner, the acting comptroller of the currency, the acting directors of the Bureau of Land Management and the Office of Personnel Management, the administrators of the Environmental Protection Agency and the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, and the energy secretary, treasury, and health and human services secretaries.

As The Hill reported Monday:

The suit, filed in Washington, D.C., comes as the Trump administration took the unusual move of filing its own legal action in Texas last week, making the first move in litigation by asking a judge to declare as legal its plans to terminate the contracts.

That suit was filed in a single-judge district in Texas, possibly setting the stage for a square-off in the Supreme Court.

The Trump administration's filing in Texas targets another key union, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE).

According to Federal News Network, during a Friday press conference, AFGE national president Everett Kelley called the executive order "plainly retaliatory" and pledged to keep challenging the administration.

"The executive order says plainly that they are taking this action because AFGE is standing up for our members," Kelley said. "But I want to assure everybody that AFGE will always stand up for its members."