Trump Celebrates Labor Day With An Attack On Union Workers

The move builds on an earlier executive order eliminating collective-bargaining rights for an estimated 1 million federal employees.

Just ahead of Labor Day weekend, President Donald Trump escalated his attack on the federal workforce by trying to strip union rights from more federal employees.

Trump signed an executive order Thursday purporting to strip collective-bargaining abilities from workers at the National Weather Service, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and other federal agencies, claiming a “national security” exemption.

The move builds on a sweeping executive order in March that aimed to end bargaining rights for an estimated 1 million federal workers under the same premise.

Federal unions continue to challenge that order in federal court, noting that many of the workers covered by it — including nurses and park rangers — obviously serve no national-security functions. They’ve called the administration’s actions retaliation for their opposition to Trump’s federal workforce agenda.

Matt Biggs, president of the International Federation of Professional & Technical Engineers, which represents NASA workers who would lose their union under the order, said it was “particularly upsetting” that Trump chose to sign his latest order just ahead of Labor Day, a federal holiday meant to honor the U.S. labor movement and how it has improved the lives of American workers.