Excerpts from the Washington Post:
Members of the American Federation of Government Employees from across the country attend an anti-union-busting rally July 25, 2018, at John Marshall Park in Washington. They decried what they say are anti-union and undemocratic executive orders signed by President Trump. (Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post)
Unions representing federal workers on Saturday declared victory in what they have described as an assault by the Trump administration after a federal judge struck down key provisions of a set of executive orders aimed at making it easier to fire employees and weaken their representation.
The ruling, by U.S. District Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson in Washington, was a setback to the White House’s efforts to rein in federal unions, which have retained significant power over working conditions even as private-sector unions are in decline.
In a 122-page decision, Jackson — nominated to the bench by President Barack Obama in 2013 — took issue with key elements of each order and immediately barred the administration from enacting them.
In her decision, the judge wrote: “While . . . the President has the authority to issue executive orders that carry the force of law with respect to federal labor relations, no such orders can operate to eviscerate the right to bargain collectively as envisioned” in the federal labor-management relations statute.
Under the statute, she added, “the collective bargaining process is not a cutthroat death match.”
