In spite of its claims of “putting American workers first,” the Trump administration has ended collective bargaining for 4 out of 5 federal workers represented by unions at more than a dozen federal agencies. According to a Center for American Progress analysis of federal employment data, the Trump administration ended collective bargaining rights for more than 1 million American workers, or nearly 1 out of every 15 workers nationwide covered by a union contract, via an executive order issued on March 27, 2025, and a prior decision to end collective bargaining at the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). According to Georgetown University labor historian Joseph McCartin, this order is “by far the largest single action of union-busting in American history.”
The Trump administration’s actions end collective bargaining for more than 1 million workers
Federal unions today represent more than 1.3 million workers, and as shown in Figure 1, this executive order, along with a previous Trump administration action ending collective bargaining for TSA workers, ends collective bargaining for 81.8 percent of workers represented by federal labor unions. Most of these workers lost their collective bargaining rights immediately after the order was issued. Although more than 39,000 U.S. Department of Transportation workers still have their rights as of the time of publication, they could lose them at any time since the order delegated the secretary of transportation to end collective bargaining at the agency; therefore, these workers are included in the overall total in Figure 1.
Collective bargaining enables workers to come together to protect themselves for speaking up on the job and to negotiate for improved working conditions, including better overtime, paid leave, and health and safety standards. Without the hopes of being able to negotiate future contracts for the duration of the Trump administration, federal workers lose not only their ability to negotiate for better working conditions but also some of the protections that enable them to blow the whistle when they see something at work that is dangerous to the public.
Many of the affected workers do not have a national security role
President Trump cited national security concerns as his reason for eliminating collective bargaining for the vast majority of unionized federal workers—even though the government has long recognized the right of workers at agencies such as the Department of Defense to bargain under the law, which permits collective bargaining for workers at agencies with national security roles as long as workers’ bargaining is not incompatible with national security needs. This includes the workers who inspect food to prevent outbreaks of disease, conduct research on respiratory hazards faced by mine workers, and keep nuclear power plants safe for the public.
Figure 2 shows the number of workers who lost their collective bargaining rights by agency. The Department of Defense has the most workers represented by unions with nearly 400,000, but hundreds of thousands of workers with no meaningful national security role also lost their rights—for example, 82,000 workers at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, including workers at the Bureau of the Fiscal Service, which runs the government payment system; 39,000 at the U.S. Department of Transportation, including workers who offer safety and maintenance flight inspections at the Federal Aviation Administration; and 8,000 at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), which includes workers who keep the public safe by inspecting food for safety.
Ending collective bargaining for federal workers harms both workers and the public
A closer look at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) workers affected by this order shows how it harms workers and the public. By ending collective bargaining at the VA, 377,000 workers lost their collective bargaining rights, including nurses at VA hospitals and medical centers across the country, marriage and family therapists, and blue collar workers at cemeteries where veterans are buried. These workers negotiated contracts that protect not only workers but also the veterans they serve: Collective bargaining agreements protect VA whistleblowers who have uncovered problems at the agency such as the mismanagement of veterans’ private information or the illegal restraint of a patient at a VA medical center.
Unions are challenging the legality of the executive order in court. The largest unions that represent federal workers—including the American Federation of Government Employees; the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees; the Service Employees International Union; and the AFL-CIO—have all joined together in a lawsuit against the Trump administration, alleging the administration not only violated federal labor law but also retaliated against unions for trying to protect their members from losing their jobs. The National Treasury Employees Union, another union representing federal workers, filed a lawsuit of its own. However, the order has also disrupted union members’ ability to pay dues, which in turn makes it harder for workers to support the negotiations and lawsuits they need to protect their rights. On April 1, 2025, representatives in the House introduced a bill to overturn the executive order, co-sponsored by a majority of members .
In a fact sheet promoting the executive order, the Trump administration claims a federal union is “fighting back” against the administration’s agenda and “filing grievances to block Trump policies,” including the firing of tens of thousands of federal workers and the shutting down of federal agencies. However, joining together to stand up against employer abuses such as illegally firing workers is one of the many reasons workers form unions in the first place. Additionally, workers at the Department of Labor who are meant to enforce labor laws, such as wage and overtime protections on behalf of the public, are being threatened with potential criminal penalties for speaking out against attacks on the agency.
Conclusion
These attacks could not come at a worse time for the American public. Unionized federal workers have negotiated important protections that preserve scientific integrity; compensate workers on recovery or investigation missions for American prisoners of war and soldiers missing in action; protect workers who report patient abuse at VA hospitals; safeguard worker safety for USDA food inspection workers; and reinforce whistleblower protections at federal agencies that protect the public, such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency. At agencies where workers recently lost their bargaining rights, the administration allegedly forced federal regulators overseeing vaccine safety to resign and ordered the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to stop doing its job of issuing new rules that keep nuclear power plants safe.
The Trump administration has launched many attacks on workers—such as cutting the minimum wage for hundreds of thousands of private sector workers—and its latest move targets workers’ right to come together in unions. Workers in the federal government have exercised their collective bargaining rights for decades to improve working conditions at one of America’s biggest employers as well as to enshrine protections for the public they serve. Ending collective bargaining hurts not only workers and unions but also the American public.