Judge blocks Trump from ending union bargaining for federal workers

A FEDERAL JUDGE blocked President Donald Trump’s administration from eliminating union bargaining for hundreds of thousands of federal workers at 21 agencies.

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US District Judge James Donato in San Francisco agreed with the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) and other unions that Mr. Trump’s March 27 executive order exempting many federal agencies from obligations to bargain with unions was likely illegal.

Eliminating collective bargaining would allow agencies to alter working conditions and fire or discipline workers more easily, and it could prevent unions from challenging Trump administration initiatives in court.

Mr. Donato issued a preliminary injunction that blocks 21 agencies from implementing Mr. Trump’s order pending the outcome of a trial in the lawsuit by the six unions, who he said, “appear to have been deemed hostile to the president.”

The judge, an appointee of President Barack Obama, said the unions had established they were likely to prove Mr. Trump's executive order had a chilling effect on their right to free speech under the US Constitution's First Amendment.