Rhode Island U.S. District Court Judge Melissa DuBose ordered the VA to recognize the bargaining contract that represents roughly 300,000 VA employees.
The Trump administration has eliminated health care positions left vacant after a wave of resignations and retirements at the V.A. last year.
“We commend every Democrat and Republican who signed the discharge petition to bring the Protect America’s Workforce Act to a vote, but the fight isn’t over,” said AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler.
President Trump has cut hundreds of thousands of jobs from the federal work force, disproportionately affecting Black employees.
Unions are alarmed by the plan for the Federal Labor Relations Authority, saying it will give the president more power over the federal workforce.
The Trump administration has fired a majority of National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health staffers and is proposing severe reductions to its budget.
Rendering collective bargaining inapplicable to the vast majority of federal workers, combined with the administration’s other attacks on the civil service, would leave the federal workforce in its weakest position in a century.
The mass firings were part of a broader effort by President Donald Trump, a Republican, and billionaire Elon Musk to drastically shrink the federal bureaucracy and slash government spending, which has invited a series of legal challenges.
The American Federation of Government Employees has strongly opposed the bills.
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