Executive Order on "Exclusions from Federal Labor-Management Relations Programs"

Update: On Wednesday, August 6, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announced that it would terminate most of its union contracts with federal employees of the VA. VA officials cited that this action was being taken because the employee unions have “repeatedly opposed significant, bipartisan VA reforms and rewarded bad employees for misconduct.” This announcement terminates union rights and current collective bargaining agreements for the majority of VA staff, about 370,000 employees, represented by unions including the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), the National Association of Government Employees (NAGE), the National Federation of Federal Employees, National Nurses United and the Service Employees International Union.

On Friday, August 8, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) also canceled its union contracts, citing a goal to “prevent irreparable harm to national security.” This is a more explicit reference to President Trump’s original March executive order, despite the fact that the EPA’s national security responsibilities are just one part of the agency’s overall mission. This announcement terminates union rights and current collective bargaining agreements for thousands of EPA employees, represented by unions including AFGE, NAGE, the Engineers and Scientists of California, and the National Association of Independent Labor.

This specifically violates the federal government’s arguments to judges in related litigation that agencies would not terminate current union contracts until the conclusion of the litigation.

Timeline

July 25, 2025 – A federal appeals court lifted the June preliminary injunction, allowing agencies to proceed with enforcing Trump’s executive order. The order said that any “harm to collective bargaining rights” experienced by federal employees would be “mitigated” because the court’s order also directs agencies not to terminate CBAs until the litigation has concluded, or because any terminated CBAs could be reinstated if the plaintiffs win their case to overturn Trump’s EO.

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https://www.epi.org/policywatch/executive-order-on-exclusions-from-federal-labor-management-relations-programs/