The Trump administration has requested a federal court lift a ban placed on three executive orders that limit the role of unions in the workplace.
What We Know:
- According to The Washington Post, the executive orders limit the topics on which bargaining will be held, set time limits on negotiations, and significantly reduce “official time,” which is paid time that employees may use for certain union-related purposes.
- Andrew Bremberg, head of Trump’s Domestic Policy Council commented on the new regulations. “These executive orders make it easier for agencies to remove poor-performing employees and ensure that taxpayer dollars are more efficiently used.”
- The orders were issued in early 2018. Several unions took issue with the orders and won a lawsuit against the administration last August.
- U.S. District Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson ruled that the President does not have the power to impose the new restrictions. Jackson 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”.
- The Justice Department filed a motion to the U.S. Court of Appeals arguing against the injunction on Tuesday. The motion claims that the government has been “irreparably harmed by conducting collective bargaining under the restrictions of the erroneous injunction.”
- The appellate court did not repeal the decision but did decide that the unions should have brought the case to the Federal Labor Relations Authority.
- The court granted the unions 45 days to ask for reconsideration. In the meantime, the terms of the injunction will remain in effect.
We will continue to follow this story.
