The Beginning of the End of Unions
Federal union protections are being drastically dismantled. This week, a federal appeals court cleared the way for a sweeping executive order issued by Donald Trump to take effect. This executive order strips collective bargaining rights from over 1 million federal employees by labeling their work as tied to “national security.” With this ruling now in effect, we are watching the beginning of the end of unions as we know them today.
Under this order, if federal agencies are said to have “national security functions,” the government can exempt their employees from having bargaining rights. Even if these unions have nothing to do with national security, there is no way to stop them from being gutted.
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The definition of a union is an organization formed by workers who use their strength to have their voices heard in the workplace.
Many federal workers are now worried that mass firings will begin to occur, especially if they speak out or push back against this order. Protections for dozens of unions within federal agencies will now be suspended or severely limited, taking away a sense of community that lies in these agencies in the United States. Stripping away union protections erases the collective voice of federal employees.
The Trump administration is now telling its agencies, “You no longer need to listen to your workers.” It shifts power from the people doing the work to political appointees behind closed doors, and that puts us all at risk.
Here are a few different unions that are directly affected by this:
• NTEU: The National Treasury Employees Union represents the IRS, Customs and Border Protection, FDS, SEC, and many others. All of these government agencies can now be labeled as “national security” roles, so they are not obligated to bargain with any unions.
• AFGE: The American Federation of Government Employees represents workers at the Department of Veterans Affairs, Homeland Security, Social Security, EPA, and others. Many of these agencies also fall under the exemption, meaning that if you are a VA nurse or a file clerk at the EPA, you can be fired without union defense.
• AFT and NEA: The education unions in federal roles represent teachers and educational staff in federal educational programs and grant-funded agencies. With this new order, the Department of Education is now on the exemption list as well.
There are more agencies that are being affected than just those listed.
Union leaders' responses are skeptical that this is a political maneuver aimed specifically at allowing mass firings and weakening resistance to the Trump administration. Many of the unions labeled as national security do not perform national security functions.
The time to act is now. Our voices are being silenced. We are under the hands of an authoritarian leader. Don’t let the fire burn out, keep the fuel.
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Your headline is a misnomer. The beginning of the end of unions happened in 1980 with Ronald Reagan. What’s going on today and what’s happened in the time between with screwed up decisions like the Janus decision, is merely an outcropping of what Ronald Reagan started. When you have unions, specifically Union leadership, that were willing to allow Trumpism to take root within their organizations and the turn around and participate at the RNC when Trump was going for the presidency the first time and again this time, they signed their death warrant.
The GOP has never been a friend to unions. They never will be. They have always been about making the most money that they can in their businesses, and they did not care who they hurt in the process. Usually it came at the expense of the workers in the form of low pay, layoffs, closures, or overseas operations. The headline should’ve read The Final Nail in the Coffin for Unions.
Organize!!! You can clearly see how TERRIFIED the administration is of the PEOPLE!