OPM guidance pushes quick, forceful action on Trump’s orders to weaken unions, due process
Last week, the Office of Personnel Management delivered guidance to federal agencies on how they should implement three executive orders that were issued by the President on May 25th. The executive orders are designed to completely upend the way that agencies and unions have cooperated for decades. Agencies have been instructed to (1) seek collective bargaining agreements that weaken unions as soon as possible, (2) rush civil service procedures, and (3) curtail official time, which allows union leaders to be paid by the government for representing all employees within a bargaining unit for certain management dealings, regardless of whether or not they pay dues. The guidance, which was issued by OPM Director Jeff Pon on July 5, also sets Monday as the day that agencies must stop allowing unions free use of office or meeting spaces, reserved parking spaces, phones, computers, and computer systems. Federal agencies have been instructed to move quickly and forcibly to implement the workforce orders, and any failure to do so must be explained to the OPM. The orders will affect around 1.2 million federal workers, more than half of the government’s nonpostal, nonmilitary unionized workforce. Opposition to the orders is growing, however, and a federal judge is scheduled to hear arguments against Trump’s anti-union drive later this month.
See "OPM guidance pushes quick, forceful action on Trump’s orders to weaken unions, due process", Joe Davidson, The Washington Post, July 9, 2018