Grand Theft America / Receipt power-2025-03-27-013
Trump strips union rights from a million federal workers
An executive order strips collective-bargaining rights from federal workers at about 20 agencies, invoking a rarely used national-security exclusion; together with an August follow-on order and an earlier decision ending bargaining at the TSA, 84.4% of the unionized federal workforce loses it. Unions sue.
What happened
An executive order stripped collective-bargaining rights from federal workers across about 20 agencies, using a rarely invoked national-security exclusion; an August order extended it further. Together with a prior decision ending collective bargaining at the Transportation Security Administration, the two orders ended it for 84.4% of the unionized federal workforce, according to a Center for American Progress analysis. Joseph McCartin, a labor historian at Georgetown University, called the March order “by far the largest single action of union-busting in American history.” Unions sued.
Why it matters
A union contract is one of the few structures that lets a federal worker formally contest or refuse an unlawful directive. Removing it, in an election year, strips away another layer of internal resistance and leaves employees isolated against pressure from above.
Receipt details
- Phase 1
- Purge the people who'd say no
- End federal collective bargaining
