Trump Scraps Union Contracts for FEMA, Immigration Workers
Two Department of Homeland Security agencies — the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) — have ended their collective bargaining agreements with employee unions, intensifying President Trump’s campaign to limit federal labor rights. FEMA halted grievances, arbitration, and union access to agency resources, saying the change will direct all resources toward disaster response. USCIS’s union leaders said the agency has already been disregarding contract provisions for months. The moves follow a March executive order claiming certain collective bargaining rights conflict with national security and mirror similar actions at other agencies. Union leaders are preparing legal and strategic responses, while Democratic lawmakers criticized the decision as a deliberate effort to weaken the federal workforce and undermine its independence.
See "Trump Scraps Union Contracts for FEMA, Immigration Workers", Ellen Gilmer and Andrew Kreighbaum, Bloomberg Government , August 14, 2025