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national treasury employees union
Unions Cheer After Judge Halts Trump Order on Federal Workers' Collective Bargaining Rights
"Today's court order is a victory for federal employees, their union rights, and the American people they serve," said the head of the National Treasury Employees Union.
Apr 25, 2025
Labor unions representing federal workers celebrated on Friday after a U.S. district judge blocked President Donald Trump's March executive order intended to strip the collective bargaining rights from hundreds of thousands of government employees.
The National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) swiftly took action over what union national president Doreen Greenwald called "an attempt to silence the voices of our nation's public servants," filing a lawsuit in in U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia.
Judge Paul Friedman, an appointee of former President Bill Clinton, granted a preliminary injunction on Friday, blocking implementation of the executive order (EO), which aimed to restrict workers' rights under the guise of protecting national security.
CNN reported that during a Wednesday hearing, Friedman questioned "Trump's motive in issuing the order" and "the administration's contention that certain agencies have national security as their primary function, citing the National Institutes of Health, Federal Emergency Management Agency, and Department of Agriculture."
Also reporting on the hearing earlier this week, Politico detailed:
Attorneys representing the NTEU mentioned that the Trump administration, after issuing the EO, immediately sued an NTEU-affiliate union in Kentucky and Texas—federal districts dominated by Republican appointees.
Shortly after Friedman's hearing Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Danny Reeves, who is hearing the government's case in Kentucky, denied a request from a local NTEU chapter to postpone oral arguments that are scheduled for Friday. Reeves is an appointee of President George W. Bush. A decision in those cases could affect the NTEU's lawsuit before Friedman.
Still, the NTEU welcomed Freidman's Friday decision to halt what it called an "anti-union, anti-federal employee executive order" while also preparing for the Trump administration to "quickly appeal."
"Today's court order is a victory for federal employees, their union rights, and the American people they serve," said Greenwald. "The preliminary injunction granted at NTEU's request means the collective bargaining rights of federal employees will remain intact and the administration's illegal agenda to sideline the voices of federal employees and dismantle unions is blocked."
"NTEU will continue to use every tool available to protect federal employees and the valuable services they provide from these hostile attacks on their jobs, their agencies, and their legally protected rights to organize," she pledged.
The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), the nation's largest federal workers union, also applauded Friday's news.
"AFGE congratulates our union siblings at NTEU on their important victory in the D.C. District Court today," said national president Everett Kelley. "This ruling is a major step toward restoring the collective bargaining rights that federal employees are guaranteed under the law."
Kelley added that "AFGE looks forward to arguing our own case against this unlawful executive order in federal court. We are confident that, together, these efforts will secure the full relief federal employees deserve—and send a clear message that no administration is above the law."
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Judge Halts—For Now—Trump Bloodbath at US Consumer Bureau
"Cutting over 80% of CFPB staff is not only unwise, it's a direct attack on the financial security of millions of Americans," said the National Treasury Employees Union president.
Apr 18, 2025
A federal judge in Washington, D.C. delivered yet another blow to U.S. President Donald Trump's effort to gut the government, pausing plans to fire nearly 1,500 Consumer Financial Protection Bureau employees—which would leave around 200 CFPB staff.
U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson said during a Friday hearing that she was "deeply concerned" about the plan and would be suspending the reduction in force (RIF) until she determines if it violates her previous order, according to The Associated Press.
"I'm willing to resolve it quickly, but I'm not going to let this RIF go forward until I have," said the appointee of former President Barack Obama. She scheduled an April 28 hearing, which is set to include testimony from officials who worked on the plan.
CFPB is temporarily being led by Project 2025 architect and Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought. The agency is a key target of billionaire Elon Musk, the de facto chief of Trump's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
In a sworn statement to the judge—submitted with the pseudonym Alex Doe due to fears of retaliation—someone on CFPB's reduction in force team said that "DOGE member Gavin Kliger managed the RIF. He kept the team up for 36 hours straight to ensure that the notices would go out yesterday (April 17). Gavin was screaming at people he did not believe were working fast enough to ensure they could go out on this compressed timeline, calling them incompetent."
Doe also shared key information about CFPB Chief Operating Officer Adam Martinez and Chief Legal Officer Mark Paoletta: "Team members raised the concern with Adam Martinez that there was a court order requiring that they do a particularized assessment, but they were told that all that mattered was the numbers. The direction to ignore the concern came from Mark Paoletta, who said that the numbers-based RIF should move forward, and that leadership would assume the risk."
"I understand that acting Director Russell Vought may have emailed Adam Martinez a similar direction," added Doe, whose declaration was filed by the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), which is fighting Trump's efforts to gut the CFPB.
As the AP reported Friday:
Martinez told the judge that he believes Kliger is an Office of Personnel Management employee detailed to the CFPB and doesn't work directly for DOGE.
Jackson said she will require Kliger to attend and possibly testify at the April 28 hearing. She said she wants to know why he was there "and what he was doing."
"We're not going to decide what happened until we know what happened," Jackson said.
The NTEU was among the groups that welcomed the judge's halt on mass firings at the agency, with union president Doreen Greenwald calling the bench order "a vindication for NTEU and its members, who wholeheartedly contend that the administration's abrupt and chaotic RIF process does not serve the American people and is a deep violation of the rights of CFPB employees."
"Cutting over 80% of CFPB staff is not only unwise, it's a direct attack on the financial security of millions of Americans," Greenwald asserted. "We will continue to advocate on behalf of the American people and NTEU members in court in response to President Trump's war on civil servants and we aim to demonstrate that these frenzied, thoughtless attempts to shutter agencies that have done nothing but faithfully serve the American people are a detriment to the public good."
Lauren Saunders, associate director of the National Consumer Law Center, said in a statement that "we are gratified that Judge Jackson is not going to tolerate violation of her orders."
"The courts are the last line of defense against this administration's repeated efforts to dismantle the CFPB and clear the way for unscrupulous companies to violate the law and exploit servicemembers, veterans, and their families," Saunders stressed.
"The administration's claim that the CFPB is refocusing its priorities is a sham—the firings are an effort to completely dismantle the CFPB and to violate Congress' mandate to create a consumer watchdog and fix the gaps that led to the devastating 2007 financial crisis," she added.
"The administration's claim that the CFPB is refocusing its priorities is a sham—the firings are an effort to completely dismantle the CFPB."
Wendy Liu, an attorney with Public Citizen Litigation Group, declared that "the Trump administration's attempt to gut the CFPB must be stopped. The court's order halting the administration's attempt at mass layoffs is critical to ensuring that the agency can continue to exist and fulfill its statutorily mandated functions."
Mike Pierce, a former CFPB official who now leads the nonprofit Student Borrower Protection Center, said that "today, the courts stood between Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and their illegal scheme to turn the CFPB into a hollow shell—because a watchdog that can't bark is perfect for a billionaire who can't make an honest buck."
"And let's be blunt: Musk is trying to illegally fire the federal employees who would oversee his Twitter/X payments business and already oversee Tesla's auto lending giant—and who knows what other ventures," he continued. "This chaotic, all-night RIF attempt wasn't just incompetent and unlawful, it was a confession."
"Musk knows the CFPB would crack down on his financial schemes, so he's rushing to gut the agency first," Pierce warned. "The courts saw through this today, but Trump and Musk will keep trying. They have made it their mission to encourage corporate financial fraud, no matter how many laws they break in the process. It's obvious why."
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Federal Workers Union Sues Trump Over Attack on Collective Bargaining
The National Treasury Employees Union president called the order "an attempt to silence the voices of our nation's public servants" and part of an effort "to deny the American people the vital services" they provide.
Mar 31, 2025
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."
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