Update: The original version of this column was published on May 22, 2025. On October 1, 2025, the column was updated to include new information and statistics reflecting the additional workers who lost collective bargaining rights due to an August 28 executive order. The administration has also announced that it will cancel signed union contracts at several of the affected agencies; these workers are already counted in the total figures presented here.
In spite of its claims of “putting American workers first,” the Trump administration has ended collective bargaining for more than 1 million federal workers represented by unions at more than a dozen federal agencies. According to a Center for American Progress analysis of federal employment data, the Trump administration ended collective bargaining rights for 84.4 percent of the unionized federal workforce—or 1 out of every 14 workers nationwide covered by a union contract—via executive orders issued on March 27 and August 28, 2025, and a prior decision to end collective bargaining at the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). According to Georgetown University labor historian Joseph McCartin, the March 27 order was “by far the largest single action of union-busting in American history.”
The above excerpt was originally published in Center for American Progress.
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