It was the biggest single act of union-busting in U.S. history: In March, President Donald Trump issued an executive order stripping as many as 1 million federal workers at dozens of agencies of their right to have a union. The 1978 law that recognized limited union rights for federal workers said the president could exclude any agency whose primary function is “intelligence, counterintelligence, investigative, or national security work.” Trump decreed without evidence that agencies as diverse as the Food and Drug Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency fit that description.Federal unions say none of those agencies actually have intelligence or national security functions, and the order flouts the union rights law.
Since then, agency directors have moved forward terminating union contracts for more 400,000 federal workers at about a dozen agencies, including Department of Veterans Affairs, NASA, the National Weather Service, and most recently the Bureau of Prisons.
In response, U.S. Representatives Jared Golden (D-Maine) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Penn.) introduced a bill to undo all that and restore what was clearly Congress’ intent. Cosponsored by more than half of House members — all 216 Democrats and 7 Republicans, the Protect America’s Workforce Act (HR 2550) nullifies the executive order and restores all contracts that were in effect when it was issued. House Republican leaders were refusing to hold a vote on it, so backers gathered signatures on a discharge petition to force a vote. As of Nov. 17, the petition signatures from a majority of the House, which means a vote must follow within a week.
