Trump continues to curtail union rights and career pipelines

The Trump administration last week continued its campaign to sideline federal employee unions, putting the kibosh on avenues for labor and management officials to work collaboratively and instructing agencies to ignore contract provisions governing reductions in force.

On Friday, President Trump signed a pair of executive orders, one rescinding a tranche of Biden administration edicts and the other claiming to order the closure of government agencies, including the U.S. Agency for Global Media and the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service.

FMCS, an independent agency, works with labor unions, federal agencies and private sector employers to avert strikes, impasses and litigation stemming from collective bargaining disputes. It was established by Congress as part of the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act, making Trump’s planned closure of the agency legally dubious.

“We are reviewing recent executive orders for immediate implementation,” FMCS stated on its website’s home page Monday. “The requirements outlined in these orders may affect some services or information currently provided on this website.”

Experts have long touted the cost effectiveness of programs like FMCS and the Federal Labor Relations Authority’s alternative dispute resolution process in helping parties reach agreement without the need for litigation.

Trump’s order last week rescinding his predecessor’s executive orders included rescinding former President Biden’s $15 minimum wage for federal contractors, as well as an edict mandating the establishment of labor-management forums, where union and agency leaders meet to work collaboratively, across government.

It also rescinded an edict promoting the use of registered apprenticeship programs, marking the third action that the administration has taken to gut agencies’ pipelines for early career talent, following the shuttering of the presidential management fellowship program and the Federal Executive Institute, which provided training courses for federal executives and managers.

And as federal agencies prepare to commence widespread reductions in force, the Office of Personnel Management has instructed agencies to disregard provisions within union contracts governing RIF procedures.

“Because government-wide regulations prescribe a detailed, comprehensive process for agencies to follow when conducting a RIF, the scope of collective bargaining should be limited to procedures and appropriate arrangement that do not run afoul of these regulations,” wrote acting OPM Director Charles Ezell in a memo to agency heads. “[Any] CBA provisions that are inconsistent with OPM regulations or that excessively interfere with management’s rights to ‘determine the organization’ and the ‘number of employees’ for the agency, as well as ‘layoff, and retain employees in the agency’ are unenforceable.”

This marks the second time that Trump’s OPM has instructed agencies to disregard union contract provisions, the first coming ahead of the governmentwide functional end of telework.

But Ezell did allow for some exceptions in this case. Provisions requiring agencies to provide employees advance notice ahead of a RIF, granting hiring preferences to qualified workers and providing training to employees who have been moved into a new position all may require agencies to negotiate with labor groups before moving forward.

National Treasury Employees Union National President Doreen Greenwald warned leadership at the Internal Revenue Service against abrogating their collective bargaining obligations in a letter last week.

“Any action taken by the IRS seeking to comply with the [Office of Management and Budget] and OPM guidance and instructions discussed above, including: failing to provide notice to NTEU or affording it the opportunity to negotiate over any RIF; failing to offer the mitigation strategies to impacted employees; and conducting any RIF by Sept. 30 of this year or sooner, would violate Article 19 of the parties’ 2022 national agreement,” Greenwald wrote. “The failure to adhere to the contractual requirements of Article 19 would also constitute a repudiation of the article and an unfair labor practice under the Federal Service Labor-Management Relations Statute.”