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The North Alabama Area Labor Council on Monday announced their condemnation of the Trump administration’s executive order to eliminate collective bargaining rights for two-thirds of federal workers and 75 percent of those that are currently represented by a union.
“North Alabama’s unions strongly condemn the Trump administration’s latest assault on worker rights, and encourage members of affiliate unions to attend the protest on April 5 at Big Spring Park at 2 p.m. to tell Trump and Musk to keep their HANDS OFF our union rights. Federal workers should also join the Federal Unionists Network at savepublicservices.com to become a part of a nationwide rapid response network. Finally, it is important that federal workers ensure they are paying dues directly to their union through e-dues rather than paycheck deduction. Federal workers can reach out to their local union steward or officer to find out how to do that,” the release stated.
“As we speak, federal unions and our allies are preparing legal action. But federal workers themselves must be part of the fight right here in our local communities and on the shop floor, so that everybody in our chain of command from our front line supervisor to the cabinet secretaries know that federal workers will not back down without a fight,” the release continued.
The North Alabama Area Labor Council, AFL-CIO is the regional federation of unions in North Alabama.
North Alabama’s unions have called on Alabama’s congressional delegation “to stand up for their constituents against this flagrant violation of the law and our rights.”
Jacob Morrison, president of the North Alabama Area Labor Council and member of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 1858, shared the following statement:
“Last week, President Donald Trump issued an executive order that purports to eliminate collective bargaining rights for two-thirds of federal workers and 75 percent of those that are currently represented by a union. He alleges that collective bargaining is inconsistent with national security at all the affected agencies.
“This is bullshit.
“Workers across the federal government won the right to unionize when in 1978 we pressured Congress into passing the Civil Service Reform Act. In that Act Congress declared – and it is still the official policy of the United States as set forth in the law – that ‘labor organizations and collective bargaining in the civil service are in the public interest’ because, among other things, the protection of the fundamental right of a worker to organize ‘safeguards the public interest… contributes to the effective conduct of public business, and facilitates and encourages the amicable settlements of disputes between employees and their employers involving conditions of employment.’
“Since 1978, no president – not Republican nor Democratic, not even Ronald Reagan – has attempted to lie so blatantly to the American people with respect to the effect of collective bargaining in the government. Every president has respected the fact that Congress sought to extend protections of the right to collective bargaining to the vast majority of the federal workforce. Neither Congress nor any previous president pretended to believe that collective bargaining would imperil national security in the vast majority of instances. Indeed, even in the President’s so-called ‘Fact Sheet’ about the order, there is no evidence presented that workers engaging in collective bargaining have imperiled national security. If national security is genuinely a concern of this administration, a more target rich environment in which to look would actually be his political appointees.
“No, Trump does not believe that federal workers who engage in collective bargaining actually imperils national security. He gives away the game in his ‘Fact Sheet’: this is retaliation against federal workers and our unions who have refused to sit idly by as Trump and his billionaire buddies take a chainsaw to our sisters and brothers. It is on its face a farcical argument, as the National President of the American Federation of Government Employees pointed out on Twitter: ‘If Trump is using ‘national security’ to justify the elimination of collective bargaining rights for hundreds of thousands of federal workers, then what is going to happen to our national security when Trump tries to fire those same workers?’
“This order is a middle finger to the one million working people it affects directly, and to all working people everywhere. The order tells Alabamians at Redstone Arsenal that we don’t deserve a voice on the job. It tells us that we shouldn’t speak up and defend our fellow workers. It tells us that we don’t deserve due process and that our expertise on our jobs do not matter.
“The removal of collective bargaining rights not only harms federal workers and further degrades our working conditions, but it also hampers our ability to serve the public and execute our missions. Collective bargaining, due process, and worker rights are important safeguards against mismanagement, inefficiencies, and abuse. Attempting to take away these tools from federal workers will help no one except the billionaire class.”
