A federal judge in Rhode Island on Friday ruled for the third time that the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs cannot terminate a union contract covering 320,000 employees, in another blow to the Trump administration's efforts to strip federal workers of collective bargaining rights.
U.S. District Judge Melissa DuBose in Providence, ruling from the bench during a hearing, granted a motion by the American Federation of Government Employees to enforce her earlier decision that left the bargaining agreement in place pending the outcome of the union's lawsuit.
The contract will nominally expire on Saturday, and the VA had told AFGE last month that it planned to terminate the agreement on that date, according to court filings. But like most union bargaining agreements, the contract includes a provision automatically extending its terms while a new agreement is negotiated.
The VA had moved last year to terminate the union contract in light of President Donald Trump's executive order stripping roughly 1 million federal workers of collective bargaining rights.
DuBose in March said that ending the contract amounted to unlawful retaliation for the union's opposition to Trump administration labor policies, and ordered the VA to reinstate the agreement pending the outcome of AFGE's lawsuit.
She then ruled later in March that the VA had flouted her decision by attempting to "re-terminate" the bargaining agreement. The agency has appealed both of the decisions.
The VA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
AFGE President Everett Kelley said the union was grateful for the ruling.
“It is shameful that the VA is hellbent on taking union rights away from the hardworking men and women who provide care to America’s veterans, a third of whom are veterans themselves," Kelley said in a statement.
The order applies to agencies that, according to Trump, "have as a primary function intelligence, counterintelligence, investigative, or national security work." It significantly expanded an existing exception for workers with duties implicating national security, such as federal law enforcement agents.
Trump's order has been challenged in at least three lawsuits, while unions have filed many more challenges to individual agencies canceling bargaining agreements. Earlier this year, a federal appeals court in San Francisco rejected a bid by AFGE and other unions to block Trump's order while their case proceeds.
The VA had claimed Trump properly exempted the agency from collective bargaining because of the role it plays in maintaining national security – namely, as "the primary backup" for healthcare services required by the military during a war or national emergency.
But DuBose in March said the agency had provided no evidence that national security had motivated the decision to cancel the union contract.
The case is American Federation of Government Employees Local 2305 v. U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island, No. 1:25-cv-00583.
For AFGE: Alexandra Wheeler and Brook Dooley of Keker Van Nest & Peters; Carly Iafrate of Law Office of Carly B. Iafrate
For the VA: Tyler Becker and Andrea Hyatt of the U.S. Department of Justice
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