In addition to the VA, other agencies that have announced cancellation of contracts include EPA, FEMA and USCIS. Image: Jonathan Weiss/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffFederal agencies have begun to disavow union contracts under a March executive order from President Trump to revoke past and future union representation for the majority of federal employees, following the lifting of two court injunctions that had blocked that order.
The first and most prominent move came from the VA, which announced that it was repudiating contracts with five unions covering about four-fifths of the department’s roughly 480,000 employees, mostly in health care-related occupations. The action however does not affect some 4,000 union-represented VA police officers, firefighters and security guards, since the executive order specifically exempted them.
In a statement, VA Secretary Doug Collins said that “Too often, unions that represent VA employees fight against the best interests of Veterans while protecting and rewarding bad workers.” He cited for example union opposition to a law increasing care for veterans outside the VA system on a reimbursement basis and a law strengthening management’s hand against appeals in disciplinary cases.
Other agencies that have announced cancellation of contracts include EPA, FEMA and USCIS. Those likely will be just the first of many more to come, given the wide sweep of the order, which cited a President’s authority to exclude union representation on national security and related grounds.
Federal unions, which continue to pursue lawsuits asserting that the order goes beyond a President’s authority, are denouncing the agency decisions as retaliation (see related story).
In addition to the VA, the order affects DoD and major parts of DHS; the three together employ about two-thirds of the federal workforce and are among the most heavily unionized. Covered DHS components in addition to FEMA and USCIS are ICE, Coast Guard, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.
Among other agencies, in addition to EPA the order also affects: State; Treasury except for the Bureau of Engraving and Printing; Justice, except for parts of the U.S. Marshals Service; Energy, except for FERC; USAID; NRC; NSF; ITC; FCC; GSA; and the CIO offices of each Cabinet department, the SSA and the OPM.
Also: at HHS, the Office of the Secretary, the Office of the General Counsel, FDA, CDC, Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response, National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health and Office of Refugee Resettlement, Administration for Children and Families; at Interior, Office of the Secretary, Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement and Bureau of Ocean Energy Management; at Agriculture, Food Safety and Inspection Service and Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service; and at Commerce, the International Trade Administration.
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