May 17 (UPI) — A federal appeals court reversed a lower court decision, allowing President Donald Trump to move ahead with a directive to end collective bargaining rights for thousands of federal workers.
“The Government is likely to prevail in its appeal of the district court’s preliminary injunction. To obtain a preliminary injunction, a plaintiff must demonstrate that it will suffer irreparable harm while the case is pending. The National Treasury Employees Union failed to establish irreparable harm,” the U.S. Court of Appeals For The District of Columbia wrote in its 2-1 ruling this week.
Trump in March issued an executive order directing several federal departments and agencies to cease collective bargaining.
Later that month, the National Treasury Employees Union filed a lawsuit in federal court, arguing the government’s move to direct its 150,000 employees to “cease participating in grievance procedures” was unlawful.
“The Union says it will suffer two irreparable harms. Neither qualifies,” Judges Karen Henderson and Justin Walker wrote in the court’s majority opinion.
Henderson was appointed by former president George H.W. Bush, while Walker was appointed by Trump during his first term.
The court rejected the National Treasury Employees Union’s argument that it would lose bargaining power “and suffer reputational harm that will deter present and future membership,” arguing the government put off any decertification until after all litigation is settled.
“The Union claims that a stay will ‘nullify the collective-bargaining rights of over one-hundred thousand NTEU-represented federal workers.’ But that ignores the Government’s self-imposed restrictions, so it misses the mark,” the court wrote.
“Second, the Union says it will suffer an irreparable financial injury from the loss of automatically withheld union dues. But such ‘financial injuries are rarely irreparable because they are presumptively remediable through monetary damages,'” the court wrote, pointing to the union’s ability to recover any potentially lost dues in future Federal Labor Relations Authority proceedings.
Trump’s executive order applies to more than 12 agencies, exempting them from any requirements to engage in collective bargaining with employees and unions.
The Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Departments of State, Defense, Homeland Security, Treasury, Veterans Affairs and Health and Human Services are all covered by the order.
“How can the Government argue that the district court injunction will cause irreparable injury when the Government itself voluntarily imposed that same constraint?” Judge Michelle Childs, who was appointed by former president Joe Biden, wrote in the dissenting opinion.