Judge Blocks Trump Order Ending Union Protections for Federal Workers

A federal judge in Washington on Friday blocked President Trump from ending collective bargaining with unions representing federal workers, stymying a component of Mr. Trump’s sweeping effort to strip civil servants of job protections. Judge Paul L. Friedman of the Federal District Court in Washington ruled in favor of the National Treasury Employees Union, which represents tens of thousands of federal workers across the government. The order, if implemented, would strip collective bargaining rights from hundreds of thousands of federal workers, effectively banning them from joining unions. Read more in the NY Times.

"We commend the court for recognizing the Trump administration’s executive order stripping collective bargaining rights for what it was: illegal, retaliatory union-busting," said AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler. "This was the most significant attack on workers’ rights in history, and if Trump was allowed to do it to federal workers, he would be able to do it to every worker in America, in every workplace and every industry. So this ruling to restore federal workers’ collective bargaining rights and reinstate their existing contracts—even if temporarily while the case continues in court—is an important first step. But this fight isn’t over, and it isn’t limited to the courts. Every member of Congress who stands with working people needs to support and vote to pass the Protecting America’s Workforce Act (H.R. 2550), a bill that would reverse this outrageous executive order and restore workers’ union contracts. We won’t rest until this illegal order is struck down once and for all."