IFPTE Scores Major Court Victory Against Union-Busting Executive Orders for DOD and EPA Members

In a major legal victory for IFPTE's federal membership and for all federal workers, a federal judge granted our petition for an injunction protecting IFPTE-represented employees working at the Department of Defense and the Environmental Protection Agency from the Trump Administration’s March 27th union-busting executive order.

In issuing his ruling, Federal District Court Judge Paul Friedman stated that the unions had demonstrated irreparable harm necessary for a preliminary injunction. He further found that the administration's "retaliation, animus, favoring some unions and not others" are "clearly ultra vires," or outside the scope of the President’s legal authority.

Judge Friedman’s decision made clear that the executive order was retaliatory, stating, “The executive order is in furtherance of unrelated policy goals. The president acted outside the narrow bounds of the national security exclusion to pursue improper goals, that is, to retaliate against unions.”

Meanwhile, IFPTE is preparing another legal challenge in response to the latest union-busting Executive Order, issued on August 28th, which impacts NASA and other agencies. Additional lawsuits targeting the August 28th order have already been filed by AFGE in partnership with AFSCME, and by the Patent Office Professional Association along with the National Weather Service Employees Association.

Read the Government Executive article here.

Read the Motion for Preliminary Injunction [PDF], issued on October 1 in the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia.