BURSTUnions representing employees of the National Weather Service and U.S. Patent and Trademark Office sued President Trump on Tuesday over an executive order that sought to end employee rights to collectively bargain with the government.
Last week, Trump issued an order ending collective bargaining with unions representing the Weather Service and patent office, as well as employees at NASA, the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service, the U.S. Agency for Global Media and hydropower facilities in the Bureau of Reclamation.
He did so using an exemption that allows the president to end collective bargaining at national security agencies.
A White House fact sheet argued that the move ensures that “agencies vital to national security can execute their missions without delay and protect the American people.”
“Certain procedural requirements in Federal labor-management relations can create delays in agency operations,” it said. “These delays can impact the ability of agencies with national security responsibilities to implement policies swiftly and fulfill their critical missions.”
However, in their new lawsuit on Tuesday, the National Weather Service Employees Organization and the Patent Office Professional Organization alleged that the move came in retaliation for speaking out against administration actions.
“The fact that the … bargaining units were not included among the first tranche of exemptions in the March Executive Order but were excluded after they engaged in robust opposing to the Defendants’ policies evinces that national security concerns were not the motivation for their exclusion,” their suit alleges.
The administration has sought to end union contracts at other agencies including the Department of Veterans Affairs as well as the Environmental Protection Agency.