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A small but essential federal agency plans to get rid of its judges who help resolve government workplace disputes, a move unions say will consolidate more power among President Donald Trump’s political appointees and weaken the collective-bargaining system.

The Federal Labor Relations Authority has told Congress it will eliminate its administrative law judges as part of a reorganization scheme to comply with the Trump administration’s cost-cutting orders. The judges conduct hearings involving unlawful firings and union contract violations, and issue decisions that can be reviewed by the authority’s three presidentially appointed members.

Unions are concerned because the three judges serve as subject-matter experts who are insulated from political meddling to protect their neutrality. With the judges gone, the review of unfair labor practice cases would be left solely to the president’s appointees. 

The FLRA is an obscure federal agency with only around 100 employees, but it serves a critical role in government labor relations. It’s typically where federal unions turn to when they believe their members’ rights have been violated, which has been frequent during the Trump era. 

The plan was laid out in the FLRA’s budget proposal to Congress, dated May 30. The document states that getting rid of the judges is one of many “organizational changes necessary to align with the Administration’s vision for the Federal government.” It argues that the judges don’t have a large enough caseload ― on average, 15 hearings per year ― to justify having three of them. 

Thomas Dargon, deputy general counsel at the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents 800,000 federal workers, said he doesn’t believe the reorganization is really about trimming the agency’s budget.

“I think it’s about the FLRA members wanting more control over the outcomes of complaints,” Dargon said. “It’s more about control than it is about money.”

The agency normally has three members serving staggered 5-year terms. But Trump fired its former Democratic chair, Susan Tsui Grundmann, in an unprecedented move shortly after taking office. That left Republican member Colleen Duffy Kiko, who Trump appointed chair; Democratic member Anne Wagner; and one vacancy. 

An agency spokesperson declined to answer basic questions about the reorganization plan, including how many judges, if any, are still employed there. 

One of the administrative law judges criticized the looming cuts in a June 23 decision, saying it was part of the administration’s mandate that agencies “radically tear down their organizations.”

“n obedience to orders from the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, the FLRA has undertaken its own reorganization by eliminating some of its divisions and coercing as many employees to resign as possible,” the judge, Richard Pearson, wrote. “Within thirty days, the FLRA will no longer employ Administrative Law Judges.”

In its budget plan, the agency also said it will no longer have its regional directors handle union representation cases, a move that will give political appointees more control over determining whether workers are eligible to unionize. The Trump administration has tried to strip away collective-bargaining rights for hundreds of thousands of workers via executive order, under the dubious rationale that nurses, scientists and other employees work in “national security.”

Colin Smalley, an Army Corp of Engineers employee who was speaking as head of his union, the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers Local 777, told HuffPost he found the proposed changes at the FLRA “kind of shocking.”

The loss of independent-minded judges could make it harder to settle workplace disputes fairly and make it easier for the administration to do what it pleases when it comes to managing the federal workforce, he said. Smalley also thought it would take longer to resolve cases, with the delays disproportionately hurting workers.

“You’re just concentrating a lot of power in three people who are political appointees,” Smalley said.

Smalley said he typically files unfair labor practice charges on behalf of members at the FLRA’s office in Chicago. According to the budget proposal, the agency plans to close that office because seven of its nine employees have left this fiscal year. The administration has pushed federal workers to accept deferred resignation and early retirement offers, leading to an estimated 150,000 workers leaving the government.

The FLRA cuts fit within the Trump administration’s broader efforts to cut the federal workforce ― and to assert more political control over supposedly independent agencies. 

In addition to terminating Grundmann mid-term at the FLRA, Trump carried out similar firings at the National Labor Relations Board, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Federal Election Commission and the Federal Trade Commission. Grundmann filed a lawsuit arguing her February dismissal was illegal, but an appeals court allowed her firing to move forward.

The FLRA is still functioning with just two members, but not at full capacity. Trump has not nominated a general counsel to be confirmed by the Senate, so the agency isn’t able to pursue complaints against agencies or unions that may have violated employees’ rights. So even though there are enough members for a quorum, the agency isn’t operating the way Congress intended. 

Smalley said if the agency loses its administrative law judges, unions may become less likely to pursue cases when they think their members’ contracts have been violated. Depending on who the political appointees were, they might consider it a waste of time.

“It’s a dismantling of an agency through a back door,” he said.