Trump Appeals Loss in Federal Workplace Union Contracts Case (1)

The Trump Administration told a federal district court that it’s appealing an order blocking an executive order designed to rescind collective bargaining rights for two-thirds of the federal workforce.

The preliminary injunction, issued earlier this week, was necessary because the executive order seeks to advance “unrelated policy goals” and is designed to retaliate against unions that challenge the administration, Judge Paul Friedman said in the April 28 opinion.

The holding was a setback for the administration’s effort to assert executive privilege to redefine the national order.

Trump’s order said that over 1 million federal workers were exempt from federal labor laws because they served national security interests. But the National Treasury Employee’s Union, which represents workers from the Treasury Department and the IRS, argued that Trump exceeded his authority when he issued the order.

All federal employees are covered by the Federal Service Labor-Management Relations Statute, but the statute carves out an exception when an agency’s “primary function” is “national security.” The administration argued that Trump has broad discretion to interpret the statute.

But Friedman said that the White House didn’t define “primary function” or “national security.” The administration’s interpretation of national security is “startlingly broad” to include government activities that “contribute to the strength of the Nation only through their impact on the general welfare,” he said.

“Even if an agency performs some work that implicates national security, that does not mean that the entire agency has ‘a primary function’ of ‘national security work,’” Friedman said.

NTEU attorneys represented the union. The US Department of Justice represents Trump.

The case is Nat’l Treasury Emp. Union v. Trump, D.D.C., No. 1:25-cv-00935, notice of appeal filed 4/29/25.