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Trump vs. Federal Unions: Understanding the New Executive Order
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Apr 1, 2025
Delve into the details of President Trump's executive order on "Exclusions from Federal Labor-Management Relations Programs" with FedSmith. This executive order modifies the 1979 mandate initiated by President Carter, bringing significant changes to federal labor relations. In this video, we unpack the implications of these changes, identifying the additional agencies now excluded from the federal labor relations statute. Gain clarity on the complex legal language that underpins this order, helping you navigate the intricate legal framework that governs this policy transformation. We also discuss the rationale behind President Trump's decision to limit union representation across large segments of the federal workforce. Whether you're keen on understanding the legal intricacies, the political ramifications, or the broader impact on federal employees and unions, this video offers valuable insights tailored for the federal community. Stay informed about the evolving landscape of federal labor relations to effectively navigate its challenges and opportunities. Related Articles Trump Takes Aim at Cutting Back Unions’ Involvement in Federal Government https://www.fedsmith.com/2025/03/28/trump-cutting-unions-in-government/ Federal Labor Relations: Cost of Collective Bargaining in the Federal Government https://www.fedsmith.com/2025/03/19/labor-relations-cost-of-collective-bargaining-government/ Chapters 0:00 Introduction 0:21 History of Labor Relations Statute 0:57 Agencies Proposed for Exclusion of Union Representation 1:38 Implications of Trump's Executive Order 2:48 President's Authority Under the Law 4:07 What is the Rationale Behind the Executive Order?
View Video Transcript
0:00
president Trump has issued a new
0:02
executive order technically it's a
0:06
modification of an executive order that
0:08
was first issued by President Carter
0:11
back in
0:12
1979 the topic of the order is excluding
0:17
agencies from the federal labor
0:19
management relations program as most of
0:22
you probably know the civil service
0:25
reform Act was passed in
0:27
1978 largely through the efforts of
0:30
President Carter and also with a lot of
0:33
assistance from the afge national
0:35
president at the time Ken Block but
0:38
there were some types of agencies that
0:41
were specifically excluded from coverage
0:44
of the Labor Relations program when he
0:46
was president President Carter issued
0:49
this executive order number
0:52
12171 and it explained which agencies
0:55
would be excluded now president Trump
0:58
has taken that to a much different level
1:01
and as you can see from the chart that
1:02
we're putting up this one excludes a lot
1:05
more
1:06
agencies in fact uh the exact number of
1:09
people who' be impacted is probably
1:12
difficult to calculate but I would guess
1:15
it would exclude maybe
1:18
70% of the federal Workforce from
1:21
coverage by the labor relation statute
1:23
so it's important for that reason in
1:26
effect it modifies the civil service for
1:29
format
1:31
so that it doesn't cover a large
1:34
percentage of the federal Workforce
1:37
that's the intent and here's the reason
1:39
behind
1:40
it the civil service reform act in 5 USC
1:45
section
1:46
7103 list what the president can do with
1:50
regard to excluding agencies from the
1:54
coverage of the law now the reason for
1:56
that is National Security in a broad
2:00
sense of what constitutes National
2:02
Security uh depends upon who's making
2:05
the definition or who's making the
2:07
decision and in this case president
2:09
Trump wants to exclude unions from
2:12
covering a number of these agencies and
2:15
they're big agencies a Department of
2:17
Defense uh State Department large parts
2:21
of HHS GSA so you're talking about major
2:25
federal agencies and most of their
2:26
employees would be excluded from
2:29
coverage so that means in effect that
2:31
unions wouldn't exist they couldn't
2:33
organize they couldn't negotiate
2:36
Collective marketing agreements they
2:38
wouldn't be representing people in
2:39
grievances at least not under the
2:41
negotiated grievance procedure that most
2:43
federal employees probably have access
2:46
to but what the law does is it gives the
2:49
president a lot of authority and it's
2:51
very direct and here's what it says it
2:54
says the president May issue an order
2:57
excluding any agency or subdivision from
3:00
coverage under this chapter of the law
3:03
so it's strictly within his purview at
3:06
least as the law is written if he makes
3:09
these
3:10
determinations first the agency or the
3:12
subdivision of the agency has a primary
3:15
function involving intelligence Counter
3:18
Intelligence investigative or national
3:20
security work second the provisions of
3:23
the chapter can't be applied to that
3:25
agency consistent with National Security
3:28
requirements and cons considerations and
3:31
again that's within the purview of the
3:33
president to make that decision and the
3:35
president May issue an order suspending
3:37
any provision of the law with respect to
3:40
any agency installation or activity
3:42
located outside the 50 states and the
3:45
District of Colombia if he determines
3:48
that the suspension is necessary for
3:50
National Security so the law gives him a
3:54
great deal of discretion it gives him a
3:56
great deal of power and with this new
3:59
executive order the president is taking
4:02
advantage of that uh to exclude a lot of
4:06
people so why what's has happened that
4:10
has led to this well I don't think it's
4:13
coincidental there are at least 12
4:15
lawsuits that unions have filed and 12
4:19
is probably a pretty low number because
4:22
it excludes any redundant lawsuits
4:24
concerning the same issues it's filed by
4:27
different unions and different courts
4:28
that kind of thing
4:30
President issued a fact sheet to go
4:33
along with this new executive order and
4:35
the fact sheet displays uh his view of
4:39
unions in the government and how they're
4:42
helping or hurting the efficiency or
4:45
effectiveness of the federal government
4:47
Workforce and obviously as you can
4:49
imagine uh this is not a favorable
4:53
impression of unions so the fact sheet
4:56
reflects this opinion it says that the
4:58
Civil Service a form act enables hostile
5:02
Federal unions to obstruct agency
5:04
management and this is dangerous in
5:07
agencies that have National Security
5:10
responsibilities now that term hostile
5:12
isn't my term uh that's what the fact
5:15
sheeet
5:16
says secondly it says agencies cannot
5:19
modify policy policies and collective
5:22
bargaining agreements until they ex they
5:25
expire moreover under the Biden
5:28
Administration political appointees
5:30
worked with the unions in charge of the
5:32
agencies to give the unions the right
5:35
they willingly cooperated with the
5:37
unions to negotiate contracts with
5:40
Provisions uh including Tork as an
5:43
example that did not expire until after
5:46
the second Trump term had passed a new
5:51
president was elected now presumably the
5:53
political appointees under Biden were
5:55
thinking well the next president may
5:57
very well be a Democrat so this is
6:00
beneficial to the unions we like the
6:02
unions we want
6:04
to probably make it more difficult to
6:07
Trump to do things like Antella work and
6:11
that is one of the items listed in this
6:13
fact sheet as to why he wants to exclude
6:17
these agencies uh from the Civil Service
6:20
re form act or at least the Labor
6:22
Relations portion of it because they're
6:24
obstructing eff effective efficiency
6:28
agency management said unions Ed these
6:31
powers to block implementing the VA
6:33
accountability Act and the VA is one of
6:35
the agencies that would be excluded for
6:37
National Security under this executive
6:40
order uh the agency had to offer
6:43
reinstatement of back pay to over 4,000
6:45
unionized employees that the B VA had
6:48
removed for poor performance or
6:51
misconduct and those are the kind of
6:54
things that the administration says they
6:56
want to avoid having U and it's hurting
6:59
na security as determined by the
7:01
president and their contention is that
7:04
the president has the authority to make
7:06
this decision based on the language I
7:08
cited uh just a few minutes ago the fact
7:12
sheet also says that unions have
7:13
declared war on the Trump agenda
7:16
specifically what at least one or two
7:18
Federal unions have said in press
7:20
releases or documents that have become
7:23
available he said that the union
7:25
obstruction interferes with protecting
7:27
Americans and our national interests and
7:29
what he's talking about here is not just
7:32
the military not just agencies like the
7:36
CIA uh are obviously involved in
7:39
intelligence activities but also
7:41
agencies involved in border security uh
7:45
and getting rid of deporting for example
7:48
people who are here illegally under the
7:51
large number of illegals that walked
7:53
across the border uh with the help or
7:56
encouragement of the Biden
7:57
Administration
7:59
said the Biden Administration
8:01
renegotiated Union contracts to last
8:03
through president Trump's second term so
8:06
these are the kind of things that are
8:08
leading to this executive order being
8:11
issued and the purpose of the title is a
8:15
modification of the Carter exe executive
8:18
order is in part for political reasons
8:21
in other words the administration is
8:23
saying this isn't just our idea
8:25
President Carter did this back in
8:28
1979 we're doing doing the same thing
8:30
we're just expanding the agencies that
8:33
are excluded because of problems that
8:35
have come up in dealing with unions
8:38
there's a certain amount of irony in
8:39
some of this uh president Trump in his
8:43
first term issued executive orders that
8:46
were basically against unions by that I
8:49
mean they restricted unions benefits
8:52
they restricted official time for
8:54
example and official time just means
8:56
that a f a federal employee is working
8:58
on behalf of of a union continues to
9:01
receive the pay and benefits of a
9:03
federal employee but isn't doing the
9:05
work he or she was hired for instead
9:08
they're working on behalf of the Union
9:10
in certain areas so by restricting this
9:13
time in effect it increases the cost or
9:16
efficiency of the unions they were also
9:19
doing things like charging unions rent
9:21
for office space charging for the use of
9:24
government equipment Etc so that showed
9:26
his attitude toward the unions and
9:28
that's carried over into the second term
9:31
there are a couple of interesting side
9:34
notes or ramifications of this new
9:37
executive order it's likely to go to the
9:40
US Supreme Court obviously the unions
9:43
are going to file lawsuits in fact by
9:45
the time you're seeing this video the
9:48
lawsuits have probably already been
9:51
filed one of the justices that would
9:54
likely hear this case is Judge katangi
9:58
Brown Jackson
9:59
when she was a circuit court judge she
10:02
had issued a decision involving labor
10:06
relations in the government and found in
10:08
favor of the unions to overturn a number
10:12
of the Trump executive
10:14
orders that decision was overturned by
10:18
the court of
10:20
appeals and in fact by the time the
10:22
court of appeals got that case and
10:24
issued a decision President Biden had
10:27
put Katan Brown Jackson on that court of
10:31
appeals the court of appeals overturned
10:33
her decision she did not appear in that
10:36
decision or did not participate in
10:38
voting on that decision she recused
10:41
herself which was
10:42
appropriate however if this case gets to
10:45
the Supreme Court which is likely then
10:47
she'll be in a position to look at this
10:50
issue again that she has ruled on
10:52
previously so that
10:54
doesn't affect necessarily how the
10:57
decision will be voted on by the Supreme
11:01
Court there's nine justices so there may
11:03
be a six to3 decision uh but a lot of
11:06
times this Supreme Court surprises
11:08
people and you end up with very close
11:11
decisions one vote one way or the other
11:13
the judges have lifetime appointments I
11:16
don't always vote in the same way that
11:18
you might expect on a case so we'll see
11:21
what happens with this case in any event
11:24
there's going to be a number of these
11:25
cases that get to court judge Jackson
11:28
moved up fast uh President Biden put her
11:31
on the court of appeals then
11:33
subsequently nominated her to the
11:35
Supreme Court the the Senate confirmed
11:39
her so that's where she'll be for
11:40
probably for many years to come so it's
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an interesting side note uh involving
11:46
this particular Justice and how what
11:49
goes around comes around uh the court of
11:52
appeals overturned her decision before
11:55
this time around when she's on the
11:56
Supreme Court she'll probably may get a
11:58
chance or probably will get a chance to
12:00
vote on similar issues
12:03
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12:05
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12:08
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12:12
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12:14
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12:21
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12:28
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