Appeals Court Allows Trump to End Union Bargaining for Some Federal Workers

Unions sought to challenge the president’s order ending collective bargaining for employees of government agencies with national security missions.

Labor union members hold placards on the day of a rally in support of federal workers during a rush hour protest outside the L'Enfant Plaza Metro Station in Washington on March 24, 2025. Kent Nishimura/Reuters

A federal appeals court on Friday paused a lower court injunction that had blocked the Trump administration from ending union bargaining rights for thousands of federal workers at 21 agencies.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit granted an emergency stay sought by the administration, putting on hold a preliminary injunction issued by District Judge James Donato in June in response to a lawsuit filed by the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) and five other unions representing federal employees.

The unions sought to challenge President Donald Trump’s March 27 executive order, which aimed to eliminate collective bargaining rights for employees of government agencies with national security missions.

In a 15-page decision, the San Francisco-based Ninth Circuit panel stated that the government is likely to succeed on the merits of the plaintiffs’ retaliation claim, finding that Trump’s order does not, on its face, “express any retaliatory animus.”

“Even assuming that plaintiffs have made out a prima facie claim of retaliation, on this record the government has shown that the president would have taken the same action even in the absence of the protected conduct,” the judges stated.

The three-panel judges said that while parts of a fact sheet published with the order may “reflect a degree of retaliatory animus toward plaintiffs’ First Amendment activities,” it also “demonstrates Trump’s focus on national security” when taken as a whole.

“In other words, the fact sheet conveys an overarching objective of protecting national security through its assessment that collective bargaining impedes the functioning of agencies with national security-related responsibilities,” the panel said.

The Ninth Circuit said the government has shown that it will likely suffer irreparable harm if the injunction remains in place pending appeal, and that putting it on hold “will serve the public interest.”

In a statement, AFGE National President Everett Kelley described the ruling as a blow to First Amendment rights in the United States, but said that the union is “confident in our ability to ultimately prevail.”

White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers said the Ninth Circuit’s decision affirms Trump’s “lawful executive authority” to act in America’s interests, including eliminating collective bargaining agreements in those agencies.

“The Trump Administration looks forward to continued victory on the issue,” Rogers said in an emailed statement to The Epoch Times.

In the lawsuit, the unions said they had been harmed by Trump’s order, with workers losing contractual rights and protections governing their working conditions, including those regarding working hours, sick leave, disciplinary actions, and reduction-in-force actions.

The order applies to workers across more than a dozen agencies within the departments of State, Defense, Veterans Affairs, Energy, Health and Human Services, Treasury, Justice, Commerce, and the part of Homeland Security responsible for border security.

It stated that ending collective bargaining with federal unions in those agencies is necessary because of their primary function involving “intelligence, counterintelligence, investigative, or national security work.”

Reuters and Katabella Roberts contributed to this report.

This article has been updated with a response from the White House.