Portside

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 Trump administration is telling agencies to ignore any provisions in their collective bargaining agreements with federal unions that would impede reductions in force (RIFs), as agencies take steps toward implementing their initial RIF plans.

Unions representing federal workers -- the American Federation of Government Employees; the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees; and the National Association of Government Employees -- sued to stop the resignation program.

In a Monday memo, the Office of Personnel Management said allowing government employees to telework is a “management right” that lays outside of the bargaining table.

Donald Trump has pledged to revive an executive order known as Schedule F that would give him the power, if re-elected president, to strip employment protections from tens of thousands of government civil servants, a step toward autocracy.