Appeals Court Clears Path for Trump Administration to Cancel Federal Union Contracts; IRS, Fiscal Service Terminate NTEU Agreements
A federal appeals court cleared the way for the Trump Administration to cancel collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) across a broad segment of the federal government workforce.
A three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco lifted an injunction that blocked implementation of President Trump’s executive order canceling the contracts on national security grounds.
The Ninth Circuit earlier paused the injunction issued by U.S. District Judge James Donato while the government was appealing the case. Judge Donato wrote that the executive order dismantling the CBAs had raised a “serious question” about whether the First Amendment rights of federal employees had been violated by the White House.
However, the ninth circuit didn’t see it that way.
“It instead expresses that the president’s primary — if not only — concern with union activity was its interference with national security,” wrote U.S. Circuit Judge Daniel Bress.
While the Ninth Circuit lifted the injunction, it also affirmed that federal district courts have jurisdiction to hear the case, rejecting the administration’s argument that the dispute should be handled through an administrative process.
American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) National President Everett Kelley said the ruling means the legal fight will continue.
“The administration argued that unions should be forced into an administrative process that no longer applies after workers are excluded from the statute,” said Kelley in a statement. “The court rejected that argument and confirmed that the federal courts are the proper forum to decide this dispute.”
IRS, Bureau of the Fiscal Service Terminate CBAs
Meanwhile, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Bureau of the Fiscal Service recently terminated their CBAs with the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU).
“This change deepens our commitment of operating as One IRS, a collaborative team focused on serving American taxpayers,” wrote IRS Chief Human Capital Officer Alex Kweskin in an email to employees, who noted that the IRS has cancelled all talks in progress with NTEU and is working on a systematic update of personnel files to revoke bargaining-unit status.
The IRS also released an FAQ saying that employees may no longer select a union official to help represent them in disciplinary or EEO cases.
NTEU says the move is illegal.
“Regardless of whether the IRS continues to recognize NTEU as the exclusive representative of its bargaining unit employees, there is no dispute that the Federal Labor Relations Authority certified that status, as your memorandum acknowledges, and has taken no action to undo it,” wrote NTEU President Doreen Greenwald.
This comes just weeks after the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) encouraged agencies to move forward with terminating union contracts, although it clarified that agencies should not disregard judges’ instructions in doing so.
