MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
With Labor Day approaching, unions representing federal workers are in a fight for survival. On Thursday, President Trump issued a new executive order stripping additional federal workers of their union rights, including workers at NASA and the National Weather Service. This comes after other agencies, including HHS and the VA, have terminated union contracts. President Trump says it's necessary to protect national security. The unions contend it's about something else. NPR's Andrea Hsu reports.
ANDREA HSU, BYLINE: Early this month, Sharda Fornnarino got the news the Department of Veterans Affairs was ending nearly all of its collective bargaining agreements. Those are contracts that spell out things like disciplinary procedures, parental leave policies, how overtime is managed and much more. Not only are those agreements now void, the unions were told to clear out of federal buildings.
SHARDA FORNNARINO: We went in on the weekend and we emptied our office space.
HSU: Fornnarino works at the Denver VA. She's an outpatient surgery nurse and local director for the union National Nurses United. Since the 1960s, federal employees have had the right to join unions and collectively bargain over working conditions. The idea is that giving workers a say in workplace policies leads to more effective government. As a union rep, Fornnarino has spent time advocating for things like training for nurses who are floated to different departments and enhanced safety on the job.
FORNNARINO: We were able to put in some protections at their nursing station, increase VA police presence in both the emergency room and the psych unit.
HSU: Which, she says, benefits both the nurses and the veterans they serve. But the VA sees it differently. The agency noted that last year, employees like Fornnarino spent 750,000 hours of taxpayer-funded time on union activities. In a press release, the VA said, quote, "those hours can now be used to serve veterans instead of union bosses." Fornnarino scoffs at that suggestion.
FORNNARINO: I think that's just - truly, I feel like that's kind of propaganda.
HSU: Behind all of this is Trump's executive order ending collective bargaining rights at agencies he says have national security as a primary function. The president's rationale is that it hurts national security when unions are able to obstruct management. But the executive order doesn't apply to all federal employee unions. It targets those that have challenged him in court over things like mass layoffs and leaves unions that support him alone. That includes unions representing law enforcement, as well as Customs and Border Protection employees. Even though...
COLE GANDY: They're the first line of defense against terrorism in the United States.
HSU: Cole Gandy doesn't work for Customs and Border Protection. Gandy works at the Agriculture Department and leads a union that just lost its contract there. But Gandy's day job is working with Customs and Border Protection inspectors, training them on how to stop pests from entering the country.
GANDY: They have to know how to find the bugs, how to collect them, how to submit them for identification to somebody else.
HSU: That somebody else being an agriculture employee who no longer has union rights. Gandy's union and others have pointed out these inconsistencies in multiple lawsuits. They've been trying to convince the courts that Trump's attack on unions has nothing to do with national security, that it's retaliation, pure and simple. But two appeals courts have so far ruled that Trump can move forward while litigation continues. Judges cited his unique responsibility for safeguarding national security. Gandy has tried to assure members this isn't the end.
GANDY: We're going to fight to be a union until we can't anymore.
HSU: But across the federal government, some workers aren't waiting around to see what happens. They're quitting now, having decided a government job just isn't worth it anymore.
Andrea Hsu, NPR News.
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