U.S. District Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote that the directives from President Donald Trump undermine federal employees’ right to bargain collectively. | Evan Vucci/AP Photo Judge strikes down Trump’s federal workforce executive orders

A federal judge on Saturday struck down most of President Donald Trump’s executive orders limiting the power of federal employee unions.

The ruling, from the D.C. Circuit, is a victory for the multiple labor unions that sued to block the executive orders on the grounds that the president lacked authority to make the changes without approval from Congress.


“These directives undermine federal employees’ right to bargain collectively as protected by the [Federal Service Labor-Management Relations statute],” U.S. District Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote. “As a result, the president must be deemed to have exceeded his authority in issuing them.“

Public-sector unions are still reeling from a June Supreme Court decision that barred state and local unions from collecting so-called “fair share“ fees from union nonmembers to cover their portion of collective bargaining costs. But this month they've notched a couple of victories. In addition to Friday night's favorable verdict, labor leaders soundly defeated Republicans Aug. 7 in a ballot measure to repeal Missouri’s “right-to-work” law.

Trump’s three executive orders, signed in May, made it easier for managers to fire under-performing federal employees, limited the amount of “official” work time in which unions could weigh grievances, and ordered the renegotiation of collective bargaining agreements. The White House said the changes would protect taxpayers, saving an estimated $100 million a year.

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In her opinion, Brown Jackson wrote that the Trump orders sought to hamstring unions’ ability to negotiate, and “cut off any digits that union representatives might seek to extend in the hopes of reaching an agreement.”

“In effect,“ Brown Jackson wrote, “agency negotiators are told that they must enter into the negotiating arena wielding predetermined goals, and must be prepared to fight to the death … in a manner that, in this court’s view, is not meaningfully susceptible to the open 'give and take' negotiating process that the duty to bargain in good faith anticipates.”

J. David Cox, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, on Saturday praised the judge’s ruling and called on agency leaders to stop enforcing Trump’s orders.

“President Trump’s illegal action was a direct assault on the legal rights and protections that Congress specifically guaranteed to the public-sector employees across this country who keep our federal government running every single day,” Cox said in a written statement.

