6 hours Ago By Sam Dorman
A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from implementing its policy aimed at ending collective bargaining arrangements with employees in certain federal departments and agencies. In an order on April 25, U.S.
District Judge Paul Friedman granted a union’s request for a preliminary injunction. His order blocked an executive order President Donald Trump signed in March, as well as a related guidance document from the Office of Personnel Management. Friedman said the court would release an opinion in the following few days.
“The Administration’s own issuances show that the President’s exclusions are not based on national security concerns, but instead a policy objective of making federal employees easier to fire and political animus against federal sector unions,” the lawsuit read. The administration said the law at issue—the Federal Service Labor-Management Relations Statute—set up an administrative scheme through which these types of disputes must be processed. Blocking the administration’s actions, it said, “would displace and frustrate the President’s decision about how to best address issues of national security, matters on which the courts typically defer to the President’s judgment.
” The guidance from the Office of Personnel Management stated that “strengthening performance accountability in the Federal workforce is a high priority of President Trump and his Administration.” “Today’s court order is a victory for federal employees, their union rights and the American people they serve,” Greenwald said. “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.
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