Commerce Dept unions sue over rollback of collective bargaining rights

Source: Federal News Network

Unions representing thousands of Commerce Department employees are suing the Trump administration over its latest rollback of collective bargaining rights across the federal workforce.

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But in a lawsuit filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the National Weather Service Employees Organization (NWSEO) and the Patent Office Professional Association (POPA) say Trump “clearly exceeded the authority granted to him by Congress” under the law, and that few, if any, of their members primarily work in national security.

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The Trump administration claims employees at the Patent and Trademark Office shouldn’t be able to collectively bargain because they review applications for inventions that could potentially harm national security. The lawsuit, however, claims that the Defense Department largely carries out this work under the Invention Security Act, and that only 26 USPTO employees — out of a workforce of 9,000 employees — refer these cases to DoD as part of their “ancillary” duties.

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The White House said it exempted the National Weather Service from collective bargaining, because it provides weather and climate data “that inform the weather forecasting used to plan U.S. military deployments.” The union, however, says military branches have their own weather forecasting units that carry out this work.


Read more: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/workforce/2025/09/commerce-dept-unions-sue-over-rollback-of-collective-bargaining-rights/?readmore=1

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The two unions represent work that is less than 1% (and probably much less than 1%) related to national security if you squint hard enough and cross your eyes. Maybe.