Federal unions seek injunction to restore collective bargaining at Pentagon

A pair of federal employee unions on Monday urged a federal judge to issue a preliminary injunction restoring their collective bargaining agreements with the Defense Department. The unions argue that Secretary Pete Hegseth failed to follow the Trump administration’s own process for implementing two executive orders banning organized labor at most federal agencies.

Background

Earlier this month, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) and the National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE) sued the Pentagon over the April termination of their collective bargaining agreements. The Defense Department said the move was aimed at complying with President Trump’s March 2025 executive order barring collective bargaining for two-thirds of the federal workforce on national security grounds.

Legal Argument

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for Maryland, does not challenge the legality of Trump’s executive order. Instead, it focuses on whether Hegseth fulfilled his obligation to conduct “reasoned decision-making” under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) when he ordered the termination of collective bargaining agreements with just 24 hours’ notice.

The unions wrote:

“The Hegseth memorandum did not point to any facts showing that any of plaintiffs’ CBAs, much less all of them, were inconsistent with national security. DOD agencies had voluntarily agreed to these CBAs. Nor did the Hegseth memorandum consider the obvious alternatives to immediate mass termination of all CBAs, such as refraining from terminating CBAs until litigation about [the executive order] runs its course, allowing CBAs to expire pursuant to their own terms, or identifying only those specific parts of CBAs that the secretary determined to be inconsistent with national security. The Hegseth memorandum was the opposite of the reasoned decision-making that the APA requires before final agency action.”

OPM Template Not Followed

The unions noted that the Defense Department did not even follow a template for terminating union contracts issued by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) in February. That template appeared designed to address the APA’s requirements for agencies to explain policy changes and consider the reliance interests of stakeholders.

Instead, Hegseth wrote simply that the actions were “required” in order to comply with Trump’s order.

The unions stated:

“The OPM termination template reinforces that CBA terminations are discretionary and must comply with the APA’s requirements for reasoned decision-making. The OPM template indicates that agencies should specify that, after the issuance of the EO, the agency ‘considered whether to terminate any CBA, in whole or part, as it pertains to those bargaining unit employees who fall within the EO’s scope.’”

Impact on Workers and Unions

Since the contracts’ termination in April, management officials have told union members that their union “does not exist any longer,” and some employees have been required to sign documents attesting that they lack union representation. Additional consequences include:

• Employees in disciplinary proceedings are denied access to union representation.
• Managers are unilaterally changing employees’ work schedules with little notice.
• Union membership is declining.

The unions wrote:

“Plaintiffs face an existential threat because workers are afraid to engage in any union activity or are confused about their right to do so. DOD is telling plaintiffs’ members and prospective members that they are ineligible to join unions and that their unions ‘do not exist.’ Plaintiffs cannot successfully retain or recruit members under such circumstances, and these harms are irreparable.”

Case Assignment

Since its initial filing earlier this month, the case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Stephanie Gallagher, a jurist nominated to the federal bench by both Presidents Obama and Trump.