A USDA employee conducts research for pest eradication programs, including for the emerald ash borer (EAB). Occupations in the 1,500-employee unit include for example biological science laboratory technicians, entomologists, plant pathologists, pest survey specialists, and tree climbers. Image: USDA
By: FEDweek StaffA union representing employees of the USDA’s Plant Protection and Quarantine unit has filed a new lawsuit against President Trump’s executive order to broadly revoke union representation in federal agencies on security grounds, saying their work does not involve such considerations.
The suit by the National Association of Agriculture Employees follows several others against the order still pending in the courts even though injunctions issued in those cases that had blocked the order have now been lifted. While those cases deal with the issue more broadly, the NAAE suit focuses on the specific duties of the employees it affects.
It says that a President’s authority to exclude union representation from a unit of a federal agency applies only if it “has as a primary function intelligence, counterintelligence, investigative, or national security work, and only if the provisions of the [federal labor-management] statute cannot be applied to that subdivision in a manner consistent with national security requirements and considerations.”
However, it says that PPQ employees perform functions such as inspecting incoming passengers and cargo, surveying crops and rangeland for plant pests and diseases, and assisting in eradication of plant pests and diseases. Occupations in the 1,500-employee unit include for example biological science laboratory technicians, entomologists, plant pathologists, pest survey specialists, and tree climbers, says the suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
“Any work that was once performed by these employees that related to national security was transferred to Customs and Border Protection in the Department of Homeland Security by the Homeland Security Act of 2002. Ironically, this Executive Order did not revoke the collective bargaining rights of the employees of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, to whom PPQ’s employees’ national security work was earlier transferred,” it says.
“Because PPQ employees only protect the nation’s crops and food supply from natural threats posed by plant pests and diseases, rather than from espionage, sabotage, subversion or foreign aggression, NAAE has brought this suit to challenge the Executive Order,” the complaint says.
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