Court allows Trump to end union bargaining for federal workers
Source: Aol/Reuters
Fri, August 1, 2025 at 7:40 PM EDT
(Reuters) -A federal appeals court on Friday lifted a judge's order blocking U.S. President Donald Trump's administration from stripping hundreds of thousands of federal workers of the ability to engage in union bargaining with U.S. agencies. A three-judge panel of the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals put on hold an injunction issued by a lower court judge that had been obtained by six unions including the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE).
U.S. District Judge James Donato in San Francisco in June had issued the injunction blocking 21 agencies from implementing Trump's March executive order exempting many federal agencies from obligations to bargain with unions. Donato concluded Trump's order retaliated against unions deemed critical of the president and that had sued over his efforts to overhaul the government, including the mass firings of agency employees, violating their right to free speech under the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment.
But the 9th Circuit panel said Trump's order on its face "does not express any retaliatory animus," and it agreed with the Trump administration that the president "would have taken the same action even in the absence of the protected conduct." The 9th Circuit panel included U.S. Circuit Judge John Owens, an Obama appointee, and U.S. Circuit Judges Bridget Bade and Daniel Bress, two Trump appointees. Another federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., had in May paused a similar order that had also blocked Trump's order.
AFGE National President Everett Kelley in a statement called the Friday ruling "a setback for First Amendment rights in America." The 9th Circuit put the injunction on hold pending a further appeal, and Kelley said the union is "confident in our ability to ultimately prevail."
Read more: https://www.aol.com/news/court-allows-trump-end-union-234002741.html
Link to ORDER (PDF) - https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/legaldocs/zdpxkqroqvx/union.pdf
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You can guarantee that I will never, ever get on your bad side. 
Last edited Sun Aug 3, 2025, 07:39 AM - Edit history (1)
....is to become a repuglikan! 
Takes A LOT to get YOU riled up. 
So glad that we live in such a just nation!
...trump has shown you don't need congress or legislation to have your way as long as you're willing to use raw power and the levers of the executive branch to attack your political enemies...
...I will never again support any Dem not willing to do the same for us...
...we're in a political civil war and it's time to acknowledge it...
...if the assholes want a fascist state, so be it...
...
the MAIN (and very important) issues for negotiation were -
1.) Flexitime - i.e., the "working" day time range, with "core hours" (when all employees needed to be on the clock), where we eventually ended up with a 6:00 am - 6:00 pm "day", with employees options for arriving at 6:00 am (earliest, which was mostly a HQ thing), and 9:30 am (10:00 am for HQ, the latest arrival), with a depart time of 2:30 pm (earliest HQ) or 3:00 pm (most others), to 6:00 pm (most) or 6:30 pm (HQ). My office ended up with a 6:30 am - 3:00 pm range.
The "core hours" were 10:00 am - 2:00 pm (ET - adjusted through timezones, although those outside of ET were often stuck with "way too early" conference calls scheduled by the east coasters )
2.) Flexiplace - this was the "Work at Home" / "remote work" option (where there was also "hoteling" in HQ where they would go to some designated network-configured location to work)
3.) Timekeeping - I know at one time, some of our district offices had literal physical time cards that would need to be used with a punch clock for arrival/departure time stamps. This was not across the board (my office just had a "sign in book" for arrival/departure times). So eventually the punch cards went away, replaced by sign-in books, and eventually the whole system was automated for timekeeping (including incorporating the employees' selected "work schedule" time frame per the Flexitime agreement).
4.) Credit Hours - a biggy when I was first in the union early in my career where the option was heavily bargained, and was finally made available. It allowed an employee to work extra hours (up to a fixed amount per pay period - I think it was 10 hours) and be able to be used that time as the equivalent of annual leave, but it would not have been considered "overtime" (which would have required extra pay for the extra hours over 40 hours/week or 80 hours per pay period). IIRC, there was a max that could be earned (I think 24) before it needed to be used if any additional credit hour work was desired.
5.) Office space - this was particularly notable when an office moved within a building moved to a new building and/or if there was a renovation going on and/or new cubicles/workstations were being procured and installed, where the union could bargain on how much space each employee (who was not already in an individual office) would be allocated to make it "fair".
6.) Subsidized transit - that was something the national chapter was able to obtain, where employees who used public transit to get to work would get reimbursed for some portion of the monthly cost.
7.) Training (and training opportunities, including conference attendance, etc) - mostly to thwart favoritism and allow reasonable seniority considerations versus need to get newer employees up and running
So there ARE things to "bargain" - notably things related to "working conditions" and "employee advancement" (through training), which are beyond "salary/benefits" (which are guided by law).
THAT is "the truth". 