EPA becomes the second federal agency to cancel its union contracts

The Environmental Protection Agency on Friday informed union officials that it would terminate the contracts it signed with various labor partners effective immediately, making it the second agency to fully implement President Trump’s March executive order stripping most federal workers of their collective bargaining rights.

EPA announced the move in an email to union officials Friday afternoon. Affected unions include the American Federation of Government Employees, the National Association of Government Employees, the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers and the National Association of Independent Labor.

President Trump in March signed an executive order purporting to strip two-thirds of the federal workforce of their collective bargaining rights, exempting a slew of agencies and agency subcomponents from federal labor law under the auspices of national security. The Veterans Affairs Department was the first agency to fully implement the edict, terminating its collective bargaining agreements last week, seemingly disregarding Office of Personnel Management guidance and Justice Department arguments in court that the administration would wait until the conclusion of litigation before proceeding.

“On August 1, 2025, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals granted a stay of the Northern District of California’s preliminary injunction [blocking the executive order], finding the government ‘suffers irreparable harm . . . in the national security context’ because of the injunction,” EPA’s email states. “To prevent irreparable harm to national security and consistent with the 9th Circuit Court decision noted above, the EPA determined it is necessary to terminate its contracts with AFGE, NAGE R4, NAGE Narragansett, [IFPTE] and NAIL.”

As part of the decision, the agency will no longer allow union officials to employ official time, the practice by which the federal government pays an official their regular salary while they work on representational matters, like collective bargaining negotiations, grievances and representing employees in investigatory or disciplinary proceedings. EPA also said it will “reclaim” office space previously occupied by unions and cease participating in arbitration proceedings—arbitrators will be paid only for “work performed to date” and their decisions are now deemed “nonbinding.”

“As an EPA employee, you must perform 100% agency business while on agency duty time,” the email states. “Work on behalf of the union may only be performed when you are not scheduled tow ork or are on appropriate and approved leave. Employees requiring additional training on how to perform non-union EPA duties must work with their supervisors who will determine what additional training may be needed.”

In a statement Friday, Justin Chen, president of AFGE Council 238, which represents EPA workers, said that contrary to the administration’s invocation of “national security,” the decision to bust the agency’s unions will make Americans less safe. Chen vowed to fight EPA’s actions in court.

“The Trump administration and EPA’s unlawful and authoritarian move to unilaterally strip EPA workers of their collective bargaining agreement and workplace rights is nothing short of an assault on our democracy, the rule of law and the lives of working people in America," Chen said. "When you strip the rights of EPA workers, you weaken the EPA’s ability to do its job and ensure Americans can drink clean water and breathe clean air—and that’s exactly what Trump, [EPA Administrator Lee] Zeldin and their billionaire supporters want.”