Without fanfare or grand proclamations, US President Donald Trump launched the biggest attack on unions in modern history since Ronald Reagan fired thousands of air traffic controllers in the 1980s.
The Republican signed an executive order almost silently and without public statement Thursday night that will abolish public sector unions and collective bargaining agreements across a vast portion of the federal government, and instructs a wide range of government departments and agencies to end collective bargaining agreements under the vague justification of protecting national security.
The order cites provisions of a 1978 law that allows agencies to be excluded from regulations and legal frameworks regarding federal labor relations for national security reasons. Trump expanded the definition of national security to include the State and Defense Departments, parts of the Departments of Health, Homeland Security, and Justice, as well as agencies including the Department of Communications and Environmental Protection, among others.
Several federal agencies immediately filed lawsuits against the unions seeking to nullify their collective bargaining agreements. The Trump administration argues that agreements with the bureaucracy hamper the president’s ability to protect the United States from foreign and domestic threats.
The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) – the largest union in the federal bureaucracy – and the AFL-CIO denied that the order was related to national security, but rather a response by the White House to union efforts to halt the mass layoffs pushed by Trump and implemented by his partner Elon Musk since taking office.
The AFGE estimates the order would affect hundreds of thousands of employees, and others estimate it will impact the labor rights of more than a million. According to official statistics, 29.9 percent of the federal workforce was represented by a union in 2024.
Trump’s threat makes it clear: either you fall in line or there will be consequences, declared Everett Kelley, president of AFGE. He charged that the order is illegal and will be challenged in court.
The AFL-CIO denounced what it called an attempt to break unionism in the government. The president is repealing the fundamental right to unionize and collectively bargain for federal workers in more than 30 government agencies, declared Liz Shuler, president of the national labor union.
She agreed with AFGE, emphasizing: “It is clear that this order is a punishment for the unions that are leading the fight against this administration’s illegal actions in the courts—and a blatant attempt to silence us.”
UAW auto union leader Shawn Fain denounced the magnate’s order to trample on the constitutional rights of more than one million federal workers, taking away their ability to negotiate over their working conditions, and declared that his million-member union stands in solidarity to defend federal workers.
