EPA Terminates Collective Bargaining Pacts With Workers’ Unions

The Environmental Protection Agency will no longer abide by the collective bargaining agreement struck with unions representing its employees.

The EPA notified four unions representing thousands of agency workers that their labor pacts were terminated and they wouldn’t be recognized as workers’ bargaining representatives Friday. The affected unions are the American Federation of Government Employees, the National Association of Government Employees, the Engineers and Scientists of California and the National Association of Independent Labor, AFGE Council 238 President Justin Chen told Bloomberg Law.

The EPA is the second agency to pull recognition from its workers’ unions this week. The Department of Veterans Affairs also terminated its collective bargaining agreement for all employees except for police, security, and firefighters.

The move comes as the administration continues to litigate over a March executive order by President Donald Trump that stripped labor rights from two-thirds of the federal workforce. The AFGE, along with several other unions, sued the government over the order accusing it of violating the First Amendment.

“Our union of more than 8,000 members will not back down,” Chen said in a statement. “AFGE Council 238 is united in our fight to defend our rights, our agency’s mission, and to protect the future of our country and planet. We will see the administration in court.”

“EPA is working to diligently implement President Trump’s Executive Orders with respect to AFGE, including ‘Exclusions from Federal Labor-Management Relations Programs’, in compliance with the law,” an EPA spokesperson said in an emailed statement.