Jen Kiggans: March-August 2025: Trump Signed Two Executive Orders To Strip Collective Bargaining Rights For Nearly Half A Million Federal Workers Across Agencies In A Move A Nurses’ Union Called “Union Busting, Plain And Simple”

March 2025: Trump Signed An Executive Order To Strip Collective Bargaining Rights From Federal Employees, Which A Nurses Union Called “Union Busting, Plain And Simple”

March 2025: Trump Signed An Executive Order To Strip Collective Bargaining Rights For More Than 1 Million Federal Employees Across Various Agencies. “President Trump has signed an executive order ending collective bargaining for wide swaths of federal employees, as part of his broader campaign to reshape the U.S. government's workforce. The largest federal employee union says the order affects over 1 million workers. In a fact sheet, the White House says the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 (CSRA) gives him the authority to halt collective bargaining at agencies with national security missions. This provision has traditionally applied to certain employees at agencies such as the CIA, the FBI or the National Security Agency. But Trump's order, signed late Thursday, is more far-reaching, and includes employees whose jobs touch on national defense, border security, foreign relations, energy security, pandemic preparedness, the economy, public safety and cybersecurity.” [NPR, 3/28/25]

• National Nurses United Spokesperson: Trump’s Order “Is Union Busting, Plain And Simple.” “Unions are roundly condemning the move. 'This administration's latest executive order is union busting, pure and simple,' said Irma Westmoreland, a registered nurse at a veterans hospital in Augusta, Ga., who spoke in her capacity as chair of Veterans Affairs for National Nurses United. The union represents nurses caring for patients' physical and mental health at veterans facilities around the country. 'We need to feel free as unionized nurses to speak up about patient safety issues,' said Westmoreland. 'Veterans deserve nurses who are free to advocate for their care without fear of discipline or losing our jobs.'” [NPR, 3/28/25]

August 2025: Trump Signed A Second Executive Order, Bringing The Total Of Federal Workers Stripped Of Their Unionization Rights To 445,000

August 2025: New York Times Headline: “Trump Moves To Strip More Federal Workers Of Union Protections” [New York Times, 8/29/25]

August 2025: Trump Signed A Second Executive Order To Strip Employees Of Six Government Agencies Of Their Rights To Unionize. “President Trump expanded his wide-reaching effort to strip union protections from federal employees on Thursday, signing an executive order that commanded roughly half a dozen government agencies to end their collective bargaining agreements with unions representing their employees. […] If the agencies comply with the order, union employees will lose the rights and protections provided by the collective bargaining agreements. Those rights typically include the right to have work disputes resolved by a neutral arbitrator and to have union stewards and leaders be granted official time on the job to work on cases and participate in collective contract negotiations. As he has previously, Mr. Trump framed his expanded order stripping federal workers of labor protections as critical for protecting national security. […] Earlier this month, a federal appeals court panel allowed Mr. Trump to move ahead with the original executive order, which covered more than a million workers across a broad swath of the government, including some agencies with no obvious national security portfolio like the Department of Health and Human Services and the Environmental Protection Agency. The Trump administration then moved forward with the order, even though it had said in court that it would not do so until the legal battle over Mr. Trump’s plan had concluded. Some agencies moved to end collective bargaining agreements almost immediately. The Department of Veterans Affairs stripped more than 400,000 of its workers of union protections, and the E.P.A. followed soon after. Other agencies have not yet begun that process.” [New York Times, 8/29/25]

September 2025: New York Times Headline: “Trump Orders Have Stripped Nearly Half A Million Federal Workers Of Union Rights” [New York Times, 9/1/25]

September 2025: New York Times Estimated More Than 445,000 Federal Employees Lost Their Union Protections Under Trump’s Executive Orders. “More than 445,000 federal employees saw their union protections disappear in August, as agencies moved to comply with an executive order President Trump signed earlier this year that called for ignoring collective bargaining contracts with nearly one million workers. The termination of protections followed an Aug. 1 appeals court ruling on legal challenges to Mr. Trump’s directive. The order, signed in late March, directed 22 agencies to ignore contracts for employees in specific unions. Last Thursday, Mr. Trump signed a second executive order stripping union rights from thousands of other employees at six additional agencies.” [New York Times, 9/1/25]