PHILADELPHIA (KYW NEWSRADIO) — Federal workers are awaiting a vote on a bill that would nullify a March Executive Order that ended collective bargaining for several federal labor unions.
A discharge petition to force a vote on H.R. 2550, titled the Protect America’s Workforce Act, reached the 218-signature threshold earlier this month, which would force a vote on it.
The legislation would reverse a Trump-penned executive order, which ended union protections like collective bargaining at federal labor unions in agencies with national security missions.
Alex Jay Berman, executive vice president of NTEU Chapter 71, representing Philadelphia IRS workers, is one of the unions targeted by the March Executive Order.
“These are not national security agencies in any way, shape, or form,” Berman said.
“We’re not able to have the pre-decisional input we always have, or the bargaining–the negotiation rights–that we’ve always had when the agency is implementing something new.”
Berman said the lack of union protections was exacerbated by the recent government shutdown–the longest in U.S. history. When employees are denied what union leadership would describe as reasonable accommodations for remote work, the resulting grievances get ignored.
“If someone can’t telework, they’re taking leave. And they’re not able to do the work they want to do on behalf of the American people. This is the agency depriving itself of the work spent helping taxpayers,” Berman siad.
There’s no word on when the House will vote on the bill.