This story is part of WTOP’s ongoing series, Trump Impact, which looks at how the new administration could change the D.C. region.
Many federal workers are viewing President-elect Donald Trump’s return to the White House with caution. The unions that represent federal workers are concerned over how contract negotiations with federal agencies could proceed during a second Trump administration.
“Many federal unions saw policies that limited their abilities for collective bargaining, limited their ability to negotiate, ability to use ‘official time’ — that’s time spent working on union activities during work hours,” said Drew Friedman, who covers federal workforce issues for Federal News Network.
Friedman added that during his first term in office, Trump signed a number of executive orders, which limited the ability of unions, “to negotiate some of the articles of those contracts.”
The biggest concern for many federal workers is Schedule F — an executive order signed by Trump just before the 2020 election. When President Joe Biden took office in January, he revoked the order.
That order would allow agencies within the federal government to reclassify workers, removing many job protections that federal workers have had for a long time.
“Once they were reclassified as ‘Schedule F,’ they would have their civil service protections removed. They would be made ‘at-will,’ and they would be easier for agencies to fire for any reason,” Friedman said.
With a new Trump administration taking office in January, unions are worried about the reappearance of a policy similar to Schedule F, which would look different in his second term.
“This is something that, on the campaign trail, he did promise to revive in a second term. So there is a strong possibility for it to come back and for it to come back much sooner than later,” Friedman said.
That’s on top of union worries about losing some bargaining tools in contract negotiations with the new administration.
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