A Federal judge has blocked an executive order from the Trump administration last month that direct Federal agencies to cease collective bargaining with Federal employee labor unions.
The preliminary injunction issued by Judge Paul Friedman of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Friday found that a key section of President Donald Trump’s order in late March aiming to strip union rights from Federal workers was unlawful.
The two-page preliminary injunction is expected to be followed by an opinion to accompany the order later this week.
Judge Friedman gave lawyers until May 2 to determine how to proceed with the case that was brought in a suit filed by the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), which represents thousands of Federal workers. The union argued that nixing collective bargaining rights conflicted with a law passed by Congress to strengthen collective bargaining across the Federal workforce.
If Trump’s order were to be allowed to take effect, it would ban hundreds of thousands of Federal workers from joining unions.
Trump’s order in March aims to strip collective bargaining rights from Federal employees whose work included aspects of national security and apply it to the departments of Treasury, State, Defense, Justice, Veterans Affairs, and parts of Health and Human Services, Interior, Energy, Commerce, and Homeland Security, among others.
According to arguments from NTEU, Congress gave the president limited authority to curtail collective bargaining powers of agencies that primarily focus on national security and intelligence – such as the FBI which is excluded from collective bargaining arrangements.
“The President’s sweeping Executive Order is inconsistent with the narrow exception that Congress provided,” said the NTEU. “None of the NTEU-represented agencies that the Order targets … do national security or intelligence work. Indeed, the Administration’s own issuances show that the President’s exclusions are not based on national security concerns, but instead a desire to make federal employees easier to fire and to weaken federal sector unions.”
Meanwhile, the Department of Justice argued that an injunction by the court would limit the president’s ability to ensure that Federal employees are prepared to defend the nation.
“It is vital that agencies with a primary purpose of national security are responsive and accountable to the American people,” argued government lawyers.
In a statement following the order’s issuance, Doreen Greenwald, national president of NTEU, said it was a “victory for federal employees, their union rights and the American people they serve.”
“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,” Greenwald added.