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Union Allegations of Retaliation Resurface Amid VA Policy Changes

The largest federal employee union has expressed renewed concerns regarding alleged retaliation by the Trump administration against labor organizations that have legally contested its workforce actions. This follows a recent move by the Veterans Affairs (VA) Department to exempt a few small unions from a controversial policy that strips collective bargaining rights from a significant portion of the federal workforce.

In a significant development last month, President Trump signed an executive order essentially using a seldom-invoked provision of the 1978 Civil Service Reform Act. This order classified extensive areas of the federal government as ineligible for collective bargaining, under the premise of national security. Agencies such as the Defense and Homeland Security departments, as well as the Environmental Protection Agency and the Federal Communications Commission, were affected by this decision.

Historically, the national security exception within the Civil Service Reform Act had predominantly applied to the intelligence community and certain federal law enforcement entities. However, since the issuance of the executive order, the administration and various unions have engaged in a legal battle over its implications, while federal payroll processors recently halted the collection of union dues from employees’ salaries.

In a notice submitted to the Federal Register, VA Secretary Doug Collins stated his agreement with the president’s assertion that the VA, which aims to provide healthcare and support services to veterans, has a core function that involves national security work. This classification effectively disqualifies numerous employees from collective bargaining rights.

Notably, the same notice curiously exempts eight smaller labor groups within the VA, allowing them to maintain their collective bargaining rights despite the overarching policy. The unions included in this exemption are the Laborers’ International Union of North America, the Western Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals, the Veterans Affairs Staff Nurse Council Local 5032 in Wisconsin, the International Association of Firefighters in Arkansas, the Teamsters Union Local 115 in Pennsylvania, and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers in Hawaii.

While the executive order does preserve the collective bargaining rights of law enforcement and firefighter unions, this exception applies solely to the IAFF local. The VA did not provide an immediate comment regarding the developments.

The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) argued that the exemptions reveal the retaliatory nature of the president’s order, which aims to suppress unions that have legally challenged the administration on various workforce policies. These include the Deferred Resignation Program, widespread terminations of probationary employees, and efforts to block the closures of agencies such as the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, as well as the reinstatement of Schedule F.

All unions at the VA not included in Collins’ exemptions, such as AFGE, the National Federation of Federal Employees, and others, have engaged in legal actions against the administration’s workforce strategies.

AFGE National President Everett Kelley remarked, “AFGE members at the VA, a third of whom are veterans themselves, have exercised their union rights through wars, terrorist attacks, a global pandemic, and throughout Trump’s first term without incident. [This] is not about national security; it is purely retaliation against AFGE, the independent labor movement in America, and the veterans we serve at the VA. This is underscored by Secretary Collins’ questionable claim that AFGE-represented cemetery workers, housekeepers, cooks, mechanics, nurses, and other healthcare employees are engaged in national security work, while comparable employees represented by other unions are not.”

The union’s assertions come amid an increasing number of lawmakers from both parties who are voicing their discontent with the administration’s attempts to weaken federal employee unions. In a letter released last Thursday, Senators Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), and Mark Warner (D-Va.) urged President Trump to reconsider and rescind the order.

Within the letter, they articulated, “In many federal agencies, collective bargaining has served to strengthen and advance the mission of the agency by providing a structured channel for communication and addressing employee concerns. The presence of collective bargaining rights has created a more stable and productive workforce, allowing the federal government to better meet the needs of our constituents. Furthermore, abrupt changes to labor-management relations disrupt the operations of the federal workforce and may result in the loss of skilled federal workers essential to their respective agency missions.”

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