An appeals court issued a formal stay last week allowing President Donald Trump’s March 27 executive order – which aims to end collective bargaining with Federal government unions for much of the civilian workforce – to go into effect.
In an Aug. 1 decision, the three-member U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit lifted a preliminary injunction that had temporarily blocked the Trump administration from implementing the order. The executive order would eliminate union bargaining for nearly a million Federal government employees at 21 agencies.
In a June decision, U.S. District Judge James Donato in San Francisco agreed with the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) and other unions that President Trump’s union-busting executive order likely violates the law.
President Trump said his order would strip collective bargaining rights from Federal employees whose work includes aspects of national security. However, the unions argue that the majority of workers covered by the order do not perform national security work.
Nevertheless, the appeals court decided last week that the fact sheet the White House issued alongside the executive order “demonstrates the President’s focus on national security.”
The appeals court also said that Trump administration had “established a likelihood that it will suffer irreparable harm absent a stay” on the preliminary injunction.
Notably, AFGE issued a statement on Aug. 4 that says the appeals court’s ruling only applies to the government’s request for a stay of Judge Donato’s preliminary injunction. It is not a final ruling on the merits of the unions’ lawsuit, AFGE said.
“This ruling is certainly a setback for fundamental rights in America,” stated AFGE National President Everett Kelley. “While we assess this order’s impact and our next steps in these preliminary injunction proceedings, we remain fully committed to fighting this case on the merits and are confident in our ability to ultimately prevail.”