Trump Celebrates Labor Day With An Attack On Union Workers
Just ahead of Labor Day weekend, President Donald Trump escalated his attack on the federal workforce by trying to strip union rights from more federal employees.
Trump signed an
executive order Thursday purporting to strip collective-bargaining abilities from workers at the National Weather Service, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and other federal agencies, claiming a “national security” exemption.
The move builds on a sweeping executive order in March that aimed to
end bargaining rights for an estimated 1 million federal workers under the same premise.
Federal unions continue to challenge that order in federal court, noting that many of the workers covered by it — including nurses and park rangers — obviously serve no national-security functions. They’ve called the administration’s actions retaliation for their opposition to Trump’s federal workforce agenda.
Matt Biggs, president of the International Federation of Professional & Technical Engineers, which represents NASA workers who would lose their union under the order, said it was “particularly upsetting” that Trump chose to sign his latest order just ahead of Labor Day, a federal holiday meant to honor the U.S. labor movement and how it has improved the lives of American workers.
“The Trump Administration has doubled down on being the most anti-labor, anti-worker administration in United States history,” Biggs said in a
statement.
He added that bargaining rights for civil servants at NASA “extend back to the 1960s.”
Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, noted that some of the agencies in Trump’s Thursday order had already been “hollowed out” by cuts from the administration and its so-called Department of Government Efficiency. In fact, the weather service is having to hire hundreds of workers after
pushing too many out the door.
The Trump Administration has doubled down on being the most anti-labor, anti-worker administration in United States history.Matt Biggs, president of the International Federation of Professional & Technical Engineers
Another agency covered by the order, the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which supervises the government-funded Voice of America broadcast overseas, has already been
gutted by the administration.
“This latest executive order is another clear example of retaliation against federal employee union members who have bravely stood up against his anti-worker, anti-American plan to dismantle the federal government,” Kelley said in a
statement.