Washington, DC – U.S. Senators Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i), Mark Warner (D-Va.), and Susan Collins (R-Maine) Thursday urged President Donald Trump to reinstate federal workers’ collective bargaining rights after he issued an executive order to end collective bargaining at several federal agencies. The order strips more than 1,000,000 federal workers across the country of their collective bargaining rights.

“The presence of collective bargaining rights has created a more stable and productive workforce and has allowed the federal government to better meet the needs of our constituents,” the bipartisan group of senators wrote to the president. “Further, sudden changes to labor-management relations are disruptive to the work of the federal workforce and will result in the loss of valuable federal workers with knowledge and skills critical to completing their respective agency’s missions.”

The senators continued, “We share your goal of streamlining federal operations and enhancing government efficiency, but believe that the March 27th EO impedes, rather than advances, efforts to make the federal government more efficient. Therefore, we respectfully request that you reconsider your executive order and restore federal workers’ collective bargaining rights.”

The full text of the letter is below and available here.

Dear Mr. President:

We write regarding your March 27th Executive Order titled “Exclusions from Federal Labor Management Relations Programs.”

As you know, the Federal Service Labor-Management Relations Statute and the Foreign Service Labor-Management Relations Statute (individually and collectively, the FSLMRS) formalized federal labor relations and provided federal workers with the power to organize labor organizations and collectively bargain with federal agencies. These statutes were created, in part, to reduce labor strife, improve agencies’ recruitment and retention efforts, and make the federal government writ large a better, more productive, and more efficient organization.

Under the FSLMRS, the President has conditional authority to exclude certain federal agencies or subdivisions from its requirements. The use of this authority has two requirements: the President must determine that “the agency or subdivision has as a primary function intelligence, counterintelligence, investigative, or national security work” and that “the provisions of this chapter cannot be applied to that agency or subdivision in a manner consistent with national security requirements and considerations.”

Broadly, unions have long been able to exist in national security agencies. For example, Department of Defense civilian federal workers have had the right to collectively bargain since 1978 with success for both the department and its workers without negative impacts on national security. In many federal agencies, collective bargaining has served to strengthen and advance the mission of the agency by providing a structured channel for communication and addressing employee concerns. The presence of collective bargaining rights has created a more stable and productive workforce and has allowed the federal government to better meet the needs of our constituents. Further, sudden changes to labor management relations are disruptive to the work of the federal workforce and will result in the loss of valuable federal workers with knowledge and skills critical to completing their respective agency’s missions.

We share your goal of streamlining federal operations and enhancing government efficiency, but believe that the March 27th EO impedes, rather than advances, efforts to make the federal government more efficient. Therefore, we respectfully request that you reconsider your executive order and restore federal workers’ collective bargaining rights.

Sincerely,

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