The Plan to Ban Unions at DHS, Explained

Is it true that a president, with the stroke of a pen, can ban unions at the Department of Homeland Security?

The answer is YES.

It has been done before. And now there is a real threat that it could happen again in 2025.

Let’s be clear about what that would mean for CBP employees:

NO union.
NO contract.
NO BRP.
NO control over your work schedule.
NO way to limit mandatory overtime.
NO union lawyer in your corner.

Every single article of the NTEU-CBP contract that NTEU members rely on today to fight back against unfair treatment and improve the workplace would cease to exist.

How can this happen? The same law that grants federal employees the right to unionize also allows presidents to remove groups of employees from those rights because they perform intelligence, counterintelligence, investigative, or national security work.

Just days before leaving office, President George W. Bush used that provision to eliminate collective bargaining rights for hundreds of NTEU-represented employees at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and several other offices. Instantly, their ability to negotiate over their working conditions vanished.

What is their plan? Now, well-funded and powerful political interest groups—already plotting to fire as many federal employees as possible—have released a 920-page plan for the next Republican administration. It includes a recommendation to issue an executive order eliminating all unions at DHS agencies (pages 135 and 160).

There is no need to speculate or exaggerate: it is in writing. The same people who worked for former President Trump during his first term are advertising their intentions for a second term, and it is a comprehensive, aggressive, unprecedented attack on federal employees and union rights. It is quite a contrast to the current administration which has a plan to protect and expand union membership.

Let’s stand together and make sure our members are educated on what is at stake in the 2024 election and are ready to vote.

Visit vote.org to check your voter registration status today.

This message is part of a continuing NTEU series on the election issues that will directly impact federal employees and their workplace.