A federal judge granted Foreign Service workers a preliminary injunction against President Donald Trump over his attempt to strip them of collective bargaining rights.
On March 27, Trump signed an executive order determining that federal workers whose primary function was listed under “intelligence, counterintelligence, investigative, or national security work” could not be protected by collective bargaining due to “national security requirements and considerations.” The American Foreign Service Association, representing over 18,000 Foreign Service workers, sued the administration for the order. U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman granted the association a preliminary injunction while its case is heard
Friedman favored the AFSA, arguing that Congress was on its side.
“Congress could not have been clearer in passing the Statute that it intended for the protections of the Statute to extend broadly to the covered departments and agencies in the foreign service,” he said, according to the Associated Press.
In its court filing, the AFSA argued that Trump’s executive order wasn’t about “legitimate ‘national security’ issues” but rather about retaliating against unions.
“Foreign Service employees have lost the ability to bargain collectively at a time when it matters the most, as the Administration continues to make significant, ongoing changes to employees’ working conditions and employment. This lost ability and opportunity to bargain results in harms to those employees and AFSA that are immeasurable and that will become irreparable absent emergency relief,” the AFSA’s lawyers said.
Government lawyers argued the action was fully in line with the Foreign Service Act, as Trump determined “agencies with a primary national security focus are being hamstrung by restrictive terms of collective bargaining agreements that frustrate his ability to safeguard the interests of the American people.”
TRUMP’S RIGHTEOUS BATTLE TO END GOVERNMENT UNION COLLECTIVE BARGAINING
“The democratically elected President’s determination regarding the public interest in that sphere is entitled to deference,” they added.
Friedman, an appointee of former President Bill Clinton, previously blocked Trump from removing the collective bargaining rights of hundreds of thousands of federal employees.