President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday that orders additional federal agencies to end their collective bargaining agreements with federal unions.
In the Aug. 28 executive order, President Trump added more federal agencies and agency components to his existing list of agencies banned from having collective bargaining agreements, as outlined in his March 27 executive order.
According to President Trump, the order would strip collective bargaining rights from Federal employees whose work includes aspects of national security. It’s unclear why the agencies added this week were excluded from the original executive order.
The agencies added to the list this week include the International Trade Administration within the Commerce Department; the Patent and Trademark Office’s Office of the Commissioner for Patents and subordinate units, also within the Commerce Department; the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA); the National Weather Service, also within NOAA; NASA; and the U.S. Agency for Global Media.
“Certain procedural requirements in Federal labor-management relations can create delays in agency operations. These delays can impact the ability of agencies with national security responsibilities to implement policies swiftly and fulfill their critical missions,” the White House said in an Aug. 28 fact sheet accompanying the executive order.
“President Trump is taking action to ensure that agencies vital to national security can execute their missions without delay and protect the American people,” the White House wrote. “The President needs a responsive and accountable civil service to protect our national security.”
However, multiple federal unions have sued the Trump administration over the March executive order. They argue that the majority of workers covered by the order do not perform national security work.
American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) National President Everett Kelley slammed the Trump administration’s executive order this week, calling it “another clear example of retaliation against federal employee union members.”
“Several agencies including NASA and the National Weather Service have already been hollowed out by reckless DOGE cuts, so for the administration to further disenfranchise the remaining workers in the name of ‘efficiency’ is immoral and abhorrent,” Kelley said.
“AFGE is preparing an immediate response and will continue to fight relentlessly to protect the rights of our members, federal employees and their union,” he added.