WASHINGTON, DC—A federal judge has barred the federal government from enforcing most of three
executive orders by President Donald Trump intended to weaken federal workers’ labor unions. U.S. District Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson ruled that the President did not have the authority to limit the amount of on-the-job time union officials can spend representing workers on matters such as grievances, nor to restrict the issues unions can bargain on. “No such orders can operate to eviscerate the right to bargain collectively,” she wrote, saying that Congress has guaranteed federal employees that right. “It’s a big win for us,” David Borer, general counsel for the 750,000-member American Federation of Government Employees, told the Washington Post Aug. 25. “The judge rightly found that the president is not above the law,” National Treasury Employees Union President Tony Reardon said in a statement, calling the orders “blatantly anti-union and anti-worker.” Judge Jackson, who was appointed by President Barack Obama in 2013, upheld some parts of the orders, including one that makes it easier for agencies to fire workers, and another which lets them impose contracts unilaterally if the unions have clearly delayed negotiations in bad faith. Read more
