Foreign Service union representing 18,000 workers sues Trump administration
The union representing foreign service workers is suing President Donald Trump and his administration for unilaterally ending its ability to negotiate work conditions with the federal government.
The American Foreign Service Association alleged in the lawsuit filed Monday in Washington, D.C. federal court that Trump broke the law when he issued a March executive order eliminating collective bargaining for agencies with national security missions.
The White House and the State Department did not respond to a request for comment.
The suit questions whether collective bargaining harms national security, as Trump contends, since the union was allowed to function during wars dating back to Vietnam and in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
The executive order also strips bargaining rights from "three-quarters of the federal employees who are currently represented by federal sector unions, demonstrating that it was not a targeted assessment based on national security concerns," the suit says.
A fact sheet from the White House says the executive order also affected bargaining rights at the Department of Justice, the Department of Energy, sections of the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Department of the Treasury, among others.
"The (Civil Service Reform Act) enables hostile Federal unions to obstruct agency management," the fact sheet said. "This is dangerous in agencies with national security responsibilities."
The American Foreign Service Association represents 18,000 foreign service workers at the U.S. Agency for International Development, the State Department, and the Commerce Department, among others.
The Department of Homeland Security in early March ended collective bargaining for airport security workers, and Trump said in January he would not recognize a contract that Joe Biden's administration negotiated with Department of Education employees in the late days of his presidency.