AFGE Sues President Trump Over Executive Order
On May 30, 2018, AFGE sued the Trump administration in response to an executive order Donald Trump issued that aims to deny workers their legal right to representation at the worksite.  On May 25, President Trump signed three executive orders that chip away at due process and collective bargaining rights for federal employees. A third executive order, which impedes employee representation at the job site, is the focus of the lawsuit. The order seeks to rewrite portions of the Federal Service Labor-Management Relations Statute, which governs labor relations in the federal civilian workplace. In particular, the order seeks to restrict ‘official time’ – the hours federal employees who are union volunteers use for legally mandated representation of their coworkers in the workplace, such as filing a grievance on retaliation or unfair termination. 

Trump’s Executive Orders Remove Checks and Balances
Donald Trump issued three executive orders on May 25, removing checks and balances in the federal civil service and opening employees up to retaliation, discrimination, and unjust termination.   The three executive orders seek to undermine three things that serve as a protection for the merit systems and against the politicization of the civil service: removal procedure and merit principles, official time, and collective bargaining. In light of the misinformation campaign against federal employees, including those at the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Veterans Affairs, it’s clear the administration is trying to undermine our democracy and usher in the spoils system, in which those who agree with the administration are rewarded and those who oppose are pushed out.

House Committee approves VA Privatization Bill
AFGE opposes the bill because it would: Give a VA Secretary the authority to privatize and dismantle broad swaths of the VA health care system through a permanent private sector health care program. Devastate veterans’ communities by closing vibrant VA medical centers that have become their communities, not just hospitals. Lead to deterioration of VA facilities and in-house skills as resources are moved to private sector program.