Union rights & collective bargaining — in a rewritten landscape.

Federal sector collective bargaining is a creature of statute. Before the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978, there was no statutory right for federal employees to bargain collectively — the arrangement was governed by executive order. The 1978 Act codified federal bargaining rights in Title VII of the Act, now at 5 U.S.C. Chapter 71, and created the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) to administer the new statute. That framework — the Federal Service Labor-Management Relations Statute, or FSLMRS — has been the legal foundation for federal unionism for nearly half a century.

In 2025 and 2026, the FSLMRS has been applied very differently. Executive Order 14251, signed March 27, 2025, invoked the statute's own national security exception at 5 U.S.C. 7103(b)(1) to exclude the majority of federal agencies from coverage. An August 28, 2025 follow-up executive order extended that exclusion to additional agencies. The Ninth Circuit vacated the district court preliminary injunction against the orders in February 2026. As of April 2026, agencies continue terminating CBAs on a rolling basis. This article explains what federal union rights have been under the FSLMRS, what has changed under the recent executive orders, and what protections remain for federal employees either still in bargaining units or recently removed from them.

Section I The FSLMRS — what the statute provides

The Federal Service Labor-Management Relations Statute is the federal analog to the National Labor Relations Act that governs private-sector unionism. The two statutes have fundamentally different scopes. Private-sector bargaining covers essentially everything about wages, hours, and working conditions. Federal bargaining is far narrower — Congress deliberately withheld from the federal government many of the bargaining subjects that drive private-sector unions.

Under the FSLMRS, federal employees have the right to:

• Form, join, or assist labor organizations, or refrain from doing so, without fear of reprisal
• Be represented by an exclusive representative if one has been certified for their bargaining unit
• Bargain collectively through that exclusive representative over negotiable conditions of employment
• Use negotiated grievance procedures established in the CBA for covered disputes
• Be represented in investigatory interviews likely to result in discipline (Weingarten rights)
• Engage in protected concerted activity in furtherance of labor-management relations

The statute excludes certain categories of employees from coverage: the FBI, CIA, NSA, Secret Service, certain intelligence components, and any agency or subdivision that the President determines has as a primary function intelligence, counterintelligence, investigative, or national security work. This last category — the national security exception under 5 U.S.C. 7103(b)(1) — is the authority EO 14251 invoked to exclude broad swaths of the federal workforce.

Section II The FLRA and its functions

The Federal Labor Relations Authority is the three-member quasi-judicial agency that administers the FSLMRS. Its role parallels the National Labor Relations Board's role in the private sector. FLRA members are appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate for five-year staggered terms.

The FLRA has four principal functions:

1. Determining bargaining unit eligibility — deciding which employees are properly included in a unit and which are excluded as supervisors, managers, or confidential employees
2. Resolving unfair labor practice (ULP) complaints — allegations that an agency or a union violated the FSLMRS
3. Deciding negotiability disputes — whether a proposed contract provision is within the duty to bargain
4. Reviewing arbitration awards on "exceptions" filed within 30 days of an arbitrator's award

The FLRA's caseload depends heavily on the level of bargaining activity in the federal sector. The agency has seen meaningful shifts in posture following the February 2025 removal of then-Chair Susan Grundmann; a subsequent court reinstatement was itself later overturned. As of 2026, the FLRA has a Trump-appointed majority. Unions have noted that ULP complaints challenging CBA terminations under EO 14251 are generally not moving through the FLRA quickly — the FLRA has in several cases deferred adjudication pending the outcome of the broader litigation about the executive order's validity.

Section III What federal unions actually bargain over

This is where federal sector bargaining differs most sharply from private sector bargaining. Congress explicitly carved out major categories of decision-making from the federal duty to bargain. Under 5 U.S.C. 7106, management retains reserved rights that cannot be bargained over:

Management Reserved Right	What This Means in Practice
Mission	What the agency does — not bargainable
Budget	What the agency spends — not bargainable
Organization	Organizational structure — not bargainable
Number of employees	Staffing levels — not bargainable
Internal security	Security practices — not bargainable
Hire, assign, direct, discipline, lay off	Personnel decisions — not bargainable
Technology, methods, means of performing work	How work is done — not bargainable
Pay and benefits	Set by statute/regulation — not bargainable

What unions can bargain over falls into two categories:

• Procedures management will observe when exercising its reserved rights — e.g., the steps for implementing a reduction in force, the process for selecting employees for details or training, procedures for implementing a reorganization
• Appropriate arrangements for employees adversely affected — e.g., training for employees receiving new duties, notification procedures, impact mitigation for employees affected by RIF

This is why federal CBAs are typically long documents heavy on procedures, grievance mechanisms, performance appraisal processes, telework arrangements, and working condition details — but entirely silent on pay. The pay schedule is set by OPM and Congress, not negotiated between the union and the agency. Federal sector unions advocate for pay through lobbying Congress and supporting legislation like the FAIR Act, not through collective bargaining.

Section IV Weingarten rights

Weingarten rights are the statutory right to union representation during an investigatory interview that the employee reasonably believes could result in disciplinary action. Named after a 1975 Supreme Court case in the private sector, the right is codified for federal employees at 5 U.S.C. 7114(a)(2)(B).

Three conditions must be satisfied for Weingarten rights to apply:

1. You are in a bargaining unit with an exclusive representative (a union)
2. The meeting is an investigatory interview — the agency is asking questions rather than providing information or giving direction
3. You reasonably believe the meeting could result in discipline against you

You must affirmatively request representation. The agency is not required to inform you of the right. If you request representation and the agency denies it and proceeds with the interview, the agency has committed an unfair labor practice and any discipline resulting from the interview may be subject to challenge.

Practical triggers for requesting Weingarten representation: being summoned to your supervisor's office without an agenda, being questioned about a specific incident or behavior, being asked to sign a statement about an event, any meeting where the tone suggests you are under scrutiny rather than being managed.

Section V Executive Order 14251 and its successors

On March 27, 2025, President Trump signed Executive Order 14251, titled "Exclusions from Federal Labor-Management Relations Programs." The order invoked 5 U.S.C. 7103(b)(1) — the FSLMRS's own national security exception — to exclude a large number of federal agencies and subdivisions from coverage. A follow-up executive order on August 28, 2025 added additional agencies including NASA, the U.S. Agency for Global Media, International Trade Administration, Patent and Trademark Office, National Weather Service, and NESDIS within NOAA.

The practical effect of being named in the orders:

• The agency's collective bargaining agreements become terminable without notice
• The union's status as exclusive representative ends
• New bargaining obligations cease
• The FSLMRS no longer applies to the covered portion of the agency's workforce
• The agency files decertification and unit clarification petitions with the FLRA

Agencies that have terminated CBAs under the orders as of early 2026 include the Department of Veterans Affairs, Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Agriculture Food Safety Inspection Service, Coast Guard, Citizenship and Immigration Services, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Internal Revenue Service (with NTEU), Treasury Bureau of Fiscal Service, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Department of Energy, and DoD components (which moved to terminate AFGE agreements broadly in early 2026).

Bargaining unit eligibility has shifted sharply

Federal workforce data from OPM shows a sharp shift. As of December 2025, roughly 38 percent of the federal workforce remained in a bargaining unit, with more than half now ineligible for union representation. This is a dramatic change from earlier in 2025, when approximately 56 percent were in bargaining units and about 30 percent were ineligible.

Section VI Where the litigation stands

Unions challenged EO 14251 immediately. The litigation has been extensive and is not yet final. A summary of the key moments:

A smaller number of collective bargaining agreements remain in effect because of surviving court orders — notably the Department of Education CBA, where a district court issued an injunction blocking termination. OPM's February 2026 guidance explicitly states that the broader implementation guidance does not apply to bargaining units where a court order is in effect.

Two legal pathways remain open for unions:

1. Continuing merits litigation on whether the President misapplied the national security exception, potentially reaching the Supreme Court
2. Administrative Procedure Act challenges to individual agencies' termination actions, arguing the terminations were arbitrary and not in line with federal regulations

A discharge petition in the House of Representatives to force a vote on legislation overturning the March 2025 order picked up bipartisan cosponsorship during 2025. As of April 2026, the petition has not succeeded in forcing a floor vote.

Section VII What you lose when a CBA is terminated

If your bargaining unit's CBA is terminated under EO 14251 or a successor order, the concrete things you lose are specific and enumerable. Knowing which is which helps distinguish between protections that vanish and protections that remain.

Lost when the CBA is terminated:

• The negotiated grievance procedure — including binding arbitration. Covered in detail in Grievance Procedures — Agency & Negotiated.
• Weingarten rights under the FSLMRS (arguably — see Section IV)
• Any locally negotiated telework provisions that went beyond agency policy
• Any locally negotiated working conditions — parking, break schedules, alternative work schedule flexibilities beyond what regulation allows
• Union representation rights in formal discussions under 5 U.S.C. 7114(a)(2)(A)
• The union's statutory standing to file ULP charges about your workplace

Section VIII What you retain regardless

Termination of a CBA does not — and cannot — eliminate statutory and regulatory protections that exist independent of the collective bargaining agreement. These survive any executive order:

The practical point: CBAs overlay statutory protections with additional process. When a CBA is terminated, the overlay is gone but the underlying statutory floor remains. For many employment-action disputes, the statutory floor is what actually matters — the CBA mostly provided additional vehicles for enforcement. Losing the negotiated grievance procedure narrows your options but does not leave you without recourse.

Section IX Frequently asked questions