Power Grab/Fire anyone who can stop him
Trump strips union bargaining rights from two-thirds of the federal workforce by declaring whole departments national-security agencies
Executive Order 14251 of March 27, 2025 ended collective bargaining at State, Defense, Treasury, Veterans Affairs, Justice and Energy, large parts of four other departments, and agencies including the EPA and the FCC.
What happened
On March 27, 2025, Trump signed Executive Order 14251, which ended collective bargaining for about two-thirds of federal employees and three-quarters of those represented by unions, according to the White House. It declared that whole departments have national-security functions and excluded them from the federal labor-relations statute.
The order used a seldom-used provision of the 1978 Civil Service Reform Act for agencies whose primary function is intelligence, investigative or national-security work. It applied that label to State, Defense, Treasury, Veterans Affairs, Justice and Energy, to large parts of Homeland Security, HHS, Interior and Agriculture, and to the EPA, NSF and GSA.
AFGE and other unions sued, and by August 2025 HHS and other agencies were formally cancelling union contracts while the cases were pending. Agencies were told to stop participating in pending grievances and arbitrations. A second order on August 28 added NASA, the National Weather Service and other agencies.
Who benefited
The White House and agency heads gained the ability to reassign, discipline and lay off employees without negotiating or defending grievances. They did so as they carried out mass reductions in force. The White House fact sheet tied the order to unions that had sued over its agenda.
Who wanted something
OMB Director Russell Vought and the Office of Personnel Management issued same-day guidance telling agencies they were no longer bound by bargaining obligations. The order removed the main organized obstacle to the workforce cuts they were directing.
Who lost out
Roughly a million federal employees lost the right to bargain over working conditions and to grieve adverse actions. They include food inspectors, VA clinicians and EPA scientists with no plausible national-security role. Unions lost dues check-off and official time.
Why it matters
The national-security exclusion was written for spy agencies, and it now covers the Veterans Affairs and Agriculture departments. A narrow exception became a power to strip statutory rights from most of the civil service by decree, with no act of Congress.
Sources Federal Register (primary)Government ExecutiveGovernment Executive