Labor & Employment Law Daily Wrap Up, LITIGATION NEWS, TRENDS—Ninth Circuit halts injunction against Trump’s efforts to stop collective bargaining, (Jul 9, 2025)
Organizations Mentioned:Office of Personnel Management
By WK Editorial Staff
The administrative stay was granted “pending a ruling on the emergency motion for a stay pending appeal.”
Although a group of federal employee labor unions were successful in obtaining a preliminary injunction from a federal district court in California on June 24, 2025, pausing an executive order ending the requirement of federal agencies to collectively bargain with those unions (based on the district court’s determination that irreparable harm would occur without one), the Ninth Circuit earlier this week temporarily put a halt to that victory by granting the administrative stay sought by the Trump administration.
Below, the district court had found that the unions were able to demonstrate a serious question under the First Amendment—possible retaliation for protected speech—that warranted preserving the status quo pending further litigation (American Federation of Government Employees, AFL-CIO v. Trump, No. 25-cv-03070-JD (N.D. Cal. June 24, 2025)).
However, now, a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit, without explanation, has granted the Trump administration’s request for an administrative stay, “pending a ruling on the emergency motion for a stay pending appeal.”
Executive order and guidance. In March, President Trump issued Executive Order (EO) 14251, Exclusions from Federal Labor-Management Relations Programs, an order excluding an unprecedented number of federal employees from the coverage of the Federal Service-Labor Management Relations Statute (FSLMRS). Under that statute, Americans who work for the federal government as civil servants have the right to unionize and collectively bargain for the conditions of their employment.
According to the Trump Administration, the exclusion of certain federal employees from the FSLMRS under the executive order is allowed under Section 7103(b)(1), which allows a President to exclude an agency or subdivision upon a determination that: “(A) the agency or subdivision has as a primary function intelligence, counterintelligence, investigative, or national security work, and (B) the provisions of this chapter cannot be applied to that agency or subdivision in a manner consistent with national security requirements and considerations.”
In tandem with EO 14251, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) issued guidance stating that the cabinet departments, agencies, and subdivisions listed in EO 14251 “are no longer required to collectively bargain with Federal unions” and that the unions would no longer be treated as “exclusive[ly] recogni[zed] labor organizations for employees.”
The case is No. 25-4014.
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