Federal judge tosses Trump administration effort to end union rights for federal workers

A Trump-appointed federal judge tossed a suit brought by the administration in a preemptive move to strip collective bargaining rights from federal employees.

The Trump administration brought the suit in the one-judge district in Texas shortly after signing an order seeking to end union rights at 18 different federal agencies.

The suit sought a declaratory judgment from a Waco, Texas, court that the White House has “the power to rescind or repudiate” collective bargaining agreements across numerous agencies.

But U.S. District Court Judge Alan Albright declined to do so, siding with unions in determining that the plaintiff agencies did not have standing to bring the suit and dismissing the suit.

“Plaintiffs ask this Court to do something it should not and cannot do: issue a declaratory judgment pre-approving the acts of executive agencies absent a legally cognizable injury-in-fact,” Albright wrote in the Wednesday ruling.

“This Court is unable to identify a single instance in which a federal court has exercised jurisdiction over agencies seeking a pre-enforcement declaratory judgment approving their desired future course of conduct.”

Albright further wrote that doing so “could open a Pandora’s Box of encouraging the Executive Branch to seek the Judiciary’s blessing for every Executive Order prior to implementation.”

The move is a blow to the Trump administration, which sought Albright’s blessing in a bid to terminate a number of existing collective bargaining agreements signed with unions.

The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), the nation’s largest federal employee union, had been highly critical of President Trump’s move to end bargaining rights at the 18 agencies.

Framed as a national security measure, the executive order from Trump sought to end union rights at a wide range of agencies, including those not traditionally thought to have a national security role.

A White House fact sheet at the time said the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 allowing government workers to unionize “enables hostile Federal unions to obstruct agency management.”

AFGE had condemned the action in an email to its members, saying the Trump administration was “illegally strip[ping] collective bargaining rights from hundreds of thousands of federal workers. 

“Let’s be clear. National security is not the reason for this action. This is retaliation because our union is standing up for AFGE members—and a warning to every union: fall in line, or else.”