8/28/18 On Saturday, a federal judge invalidated key provisions in three executive orders the Trump administration issued in May, which had made it easier for agencies to fire federal workers and placed strict limits on union activities. (The orders did not apply to the Postal Service and its unions.)
In her ruling, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia said the executive orders were a clear violation of the 1978 Federal Service Labor-Management Relations Statute of 1978. Under that statute, Congress gave federal employees the right to unionize and negotiate job contracts as a matter “of public interest.”
“The Court has concluded that many of the challenged provisions of the Orders at issue here effectively reduce the scope of the right to bargain collectively as Congress has crafted it, or impair the ability of agency officials to bargain in good faith as Congress has directed, and therefore cannot be sustained,”
The district court’s ruling on August 25 resolved four lawsuits filed against the Trump administration by several federal employee unions, led by the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE). The unions challenged the three orders Trump signed in May that rolled back labor protections for federal workers.
One order made it easier to fire and discipline federal employees. Depending on the agency, firing an employee for poor performance could take six months to a year, not including the appeals process. This order gave employees only 30 days to improve their job performance, instead of the current limit of up to 120 days. It also instructed agencies to ignore contracts that prioritized seniority during layoffs.
Another executive order directed federal agencies to spend less time negotiating contracts with labor unions and set a goal of no more than six months to reach an agreement, after which the agencies would be free to unilaterally implement contracts containing their “last best offers.” This would have destroyed the agencies’ incentives to bargain in good faith.
A third order placed limits on how much time employees in union leadership roles can spend on union activities during work hours. This is known as “official time,” and it can include helping other employees file grievances or resolve other workplace problems. The administration sought to limit official time to 25 percent of an employee’s yearly work hours.
The administration said it has the legal authority to give such guidance to executive agencies that answer to the president. But the orders prompted immediate litigation from government unions.
The American Federation of Government Employees, which is the largest union involved in the lawsuits, said the efforts were a “direct assault on the legal rights and protections that Congress specifically guaranteed to the public sector employees across this country who keep our federal government running every single day.”
Judge Jackson’s ruling described the Trump administration’s defense of the orders as an attempt to do “verbal jujitsu” with the law. She rejected the argument that the administration had the power to interfere with union negotiations that are protected under federal law.
“There is no rational explanation for Defendants’ suggestion that Congress would have intended for the President to have the power to act in this fashion at all in regard to the matters that the FSLMRS specifically characterizes as negotiable. Quite frankly, it is hard to even imagine a rational statutory exception that is intentionally designed to swallow the rule,” she wrote.
Jackson effectively revoked most of the measures in the executive orders, although federal unions may need to take further judicial action to reverse actions taken under the improper executive orders.
“This is a huge win for all federal employees, including postal employees whose rights could have been targeted next” NALC President Fred Rolando said. “We thank our brothers and sisters at AFGE – and the other federal unions – for defending our rights under the law.”
Sure Fred Rolando what ever you say. That is why we as carriers have to vote for David Noble and clean sweep. We need a real union president.
I’m surprised Rolando and our great NALC didn’t take credit for this. He pats himself on the back for much less. Obama and Democrats are pro labor. Trump and Republicans are are for government and privatization. Yet we hear the same things no matter who is in charge and get the same basic contract each time too……. so does it really matter? Each side spouts victory in something, yet we as postal employees lose because all the unions will do is play the game and line their pockets. That might be harsh reality to some who read this, but that is the way it works. Go back and look at the last several contracts. Really notice any differences outside of a few small things? The P.O. says we’re broke. The Unions say no. And we get the standard 1% raise or so each time. The only way this will change is to vote out our current national officers. ……. think about it
This is indeed a great victory for organized labor. Trump being the egomaniacal moron he is thought he could rule as a dictator through executive orders and is getting repulsed by everybody except the profound idiots who support him.
Republicans in the House and Senate have to understand that just because the terrible laws they’d like to pass against the middle class and American worker would fatten their pockets it does not mean we are going to just let them do it. Again, a Republican voter who only votes with their hate, racism and pro-life stance will gladly surrender their freedom, decent opportunities for good jobs and union protection because of their inherent selfishness and gullibility.
We must make statements this fall that demonstrate to these lawmakers and voters/enablers that we will turn out in full force and render their regressive and divisive agendas moot. I will not try to predict the outcome of the fall elections. However, we can effectively hamstring Trump and the GOP by taking back control of the House, and with a lot of luck, it’s not out of the question to take the U.S. Senate, either.
What must be done is for decent intelligent people who have compassion for others and understand the need to empower the working class with better wages and benefits, and to sweep racist haters back under the filthy rug from whence they crawled out from under when Trumpty Dumpty got elected, is to turn out in numbers that gerrymandering and voter fraud can’t touch.
I couldn’t agree more. Very well-stated. Thank you.
You’re welcome. Even though I’ve been retired since the first of 2017 as a city letter carrier I still care about the carriers and postal employees out there. Management is incompetent, hate organized labor and in the case of PMG Brennan in particular, will lie to Congress, customers and anybody just to get them to leave management alone to carry on their skim operations aka bonuses. That’s all that matters to higher level management at District and Area levels. Service means jack shit nothing – some places like greater Houston can’t manage to even get mail out on some days.
But we watch those idiotic ads on TV bragging about our service and showing some woman carrier smiling, smiling, smiling and spending time to talk to every customer like an old friend. How many stops are on that route? 32?
And I believe my union, the NALC, needs to be much more proactive. They have been embarrassingly silent and only respond when they think it’s safe. We wisely don’t want to bite the hand that employs us too hard – the USPS is, after all, our employer, and giving credit where it is due, it provided a good career for me besides the headaches, and though part of the reason I was able to retire somewhat early was due to personal situations, such as not being able to have kids, which are enormously expensive, and other personal factors, I nonetheless will have good insurance and a decent quality of life for the rest of my wife’s and my lives.
When I had to watch and help my parents financially who were, through no fault of their own, trying to live on two Social Security checks a month, I have been careful to thank my lucky stars.
But we can’t take anything for granted. Now it’s more important than ever to hold those who purport to “serve” us and represent us accountable at every step, both unions and lawmakers. To let our guard down is to open the prison’s front gate and all the cell doors and go take a nap and pay no attention to the exodus.
Our customers are our employer. Not the USPS. We work *at* the USPS.
We work *for* our customers.
At least one in twenty postal workers should be fired now. NO ONE gets fired now. The only problem the APWU has in getting people to work on grievances is there are not enough seats in the union office to go around for the sleepers and TV watchers.
If the decision did not apply to Postal Workers and it’s Unions, this entire story is fluff on this site. Trump- BAD!!!! Anti- Trump – GOOOOOD!!!!!! GFY.
blah, blah, blah po unions just do your job and negotiate us a Trump approved 40K buyout with “Ma Barker” Brennen. moron cliff guffy and fat boy mike morris put a bullseye on our back and mail handlers union and carrier wen along with it too. I do not care if you lose member dues, pick them up with the transient new non-workforce you helped put into place. po mismanagement/po company unions ran this dump into the ground.
The other postal unions did not go along with Cliff Goofy’s great giveaway for the APWU in 2011 that set us back years,the other unions said no and went to arbitration and some of the crap he and his members wanted in their contract was imposed by arbitrators in their contract awards.And forget about any buyout from Muffin Megan, they got plenty of people to go without one.
Some people vote for what is good for the country.
I thought the new rules were good. We need to clear out the lazy and the incompetents.
Happy now ,you jackasses that voted for Trump? In Wisconsin,37% of union members voted for Walker.How dumb can they be?
Just think on how many carriers voted for President Caveman. They asked to be treated like dirt! He wants to privatize the Postal Service and take away your retirement and health care. The great leader froze the “massive” .019 pay increase for the Federal workers, while the military receives a .032 increase in pay. The great leader said the big Federal debt was his reason to cut the pay increase. Then why did the rich receive a massive tax cut? Last Friday I noticed Air Force jets flying all day getting ready for an air show. How much did that cost? The great leader must favor the military now. He thinks he needs them. The government placed Fort Sheridan and Naval Station Great Lakes around Chicago because business felt they needed protection from the labor movement in the 1890’s. Stand up and fight business!
Impeach Trump.
don’t matter………amazon will put the postal circus out of business……….will be moot.
Jeff Mr.Amazon Bezos would buy parts of the postal circus and fire all of management if Drump were successful in selling it of and privatizing it. something he should think about.
Amazon is run by a huge Leftist who has Bernie in his pocket. Besides, most of you fools haven’t bother to find out that Bernie was a cosigner of the 2006 Postal Reorganization Act. He wanted our healthcare money to give to the lazy and the illegals.