Trump Scraps Union Contracts for FEMA, Immigration Workers (2)

Two Department of Homeland Security agencies severed contracts with employee unions, expanding President Donald Trump’s blitz against federal workers.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency and US Citizenship and Immigration Services terminated agreements with worker unions late last week, according to union officials.

“Under this directive, our bargaining unit at FEMA no longer has the contractual protections that we fought so hard to secure — except for a small group of exempted employees, such as police officers and firefighters,” Khaalis Jackson, president of the American Federation of Government Employees unit that represents FEMA, told union members in an email obtained by Bloomberg Government.

FEMA management put grievances and arbitration on hold and barred the use of government resources and union space, Jackson said.

The move will ensure the agency can use all its resources on disaster response rather than union-related costs, FEMA spokesman Geoff Harbaugh said in a statement.

USCIS, the agency that administers immigration benefits, also ended its contract with the worker union there, according to AFGE.

The Trump administration has moved to strip labor rights from many agencies following a March executive order that said collective bargaining rights conflicted with national security imperatives at many agencies. Contracts have also been nixed at the Transportation Security Administration, Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Veterans Affairs, and other agencies. Unions are challenging the actions in federal court.

“Frankly, it doesn’t change anything though,” said Ruark Hotopp, an AFGE vice president and USCIS employee. “USCIS has been ignoring the collective bargaining agreement and not adhering to its provisions for over 6 months.”

USCIS hasn’t processed a grievance or arbitration in months and management has refused to meet with the union since March, he said.

Jackson maintained that the FEMA union, AFGE Local 4060, hasn’t been dissolved and is working on a strategy to respond to the contract termination.

Democrats assailed the move as an attempt to demoralize the federal workforce and quash potential dissent.

“He just wants to whittle the morale of the federal workforce down to nothing so people with integrity who could stand up to him and tell the truth—those with the experience and institutional knowledge—will leave,” Reps. Bennie Thompson (Miss.), Tim Kennedy (N.Y.), and Shri Thanedar (Mich.), top Democrats on the Homeland Security Committee, said in a statement. “Instead, he curates a compliant, incompetent workforce that will be flat-footed when disaster strikes or when the homeland is threatened.”

Officials from DHS and USCIS didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. The Washington Post first reported on the axed contracts.