EPA is canceling its collective bargaining agreement with its second-biggest union, a fierce critic of the Trump administration.
The agency “terminated” its contract with the National Treasury Employees Union, according to an internal email seen by POLITICO’s E&E News. Since his return to office, President Donald Trump has battled with federal unions on Capitol Hill and in court as he urges agencies to void their agreements.
Now, NTEU’s capacity to mobilize EPA employees will be diminished as the agency tosses its contract.
“Employees must perform agency work while on agency duty time,” said the email, which was sent Tuesday to EPA staffers. “Union activities may only be conducted while employees are not scheduled to work or are on approved leave.”
The email also said official time — work hours used for union business — will not be approved beyond the pay period ending Tuesday. Further, the agreement’s grievance procedures are no longer in effect; EPA won’t participate in arbitration proceedings; and the agency’s equipment and computer systems can’t be used for union work.
“EPA will reclaim office spaces previously allocated for union use,” the email said.
Union leaders were frustrated by the agency’s strike against their contract.
“Canceling a legitimate labor contract is another act of brazen disregard for law and the Constitution by this administration,” said Michael Ottlinger, president of NTEU Chapter 279, which represents EPA employees in the agency’s Cincinnati office.
Ottlinger added, “They will face the consequences in the courts and the polls.”
After the American Federation of Government Employees, NTEU is EPA’s next largest union. It has chapters representing agency employees in EPA’s Washington headquarters as well as other offices around the country.
Overall, NTEU represents federal employees in 38 agencies across the government.
A spokesperson for the national union declined to comment when contacted for this story.
In response to questions, EPA spokesperson Brigit Hirsch said on Tuesday that, “as part of EPA’s continuing efforts to comply with the law and diligently implement President Trump’s executive order on ‘Exclusions from Federal Labor-Management Relations Programs,’ EPA terminated its December 2024 collective bargaining agreement with NTEU.”
Last year, Trump signed that order, which cited national security grounds to bar union contracts at EPA and other agencies. Unions pushed back, filing litigation and lobbying for legislation to void the order, which has since passed the House but not the Senate.
NTEU filed its own lawsuit against Trump’s order. The union won a preliminary injunction in federal court, but that has since been stayed pending appeal. That litigation remains ongoing.
EPA canceled most of its union contracts last August to comply with Trump’s order. Yet NTEU’s agreement remained untouched because the union was subject to “a separate lawsuit,” an agency spokesperson said at the time.
The administration recently upped the pressure to void the union’s collective bargaining agreements across the government. The Office of Personnel Management said in guidance released last month that agencies must comply with Trump’s order as litigation and other factors delayed its implementation.
“Covered agencies” should notify bargaining unit employees that “they are terminating any applicable CBAs, whether represented by the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) or another labor union,” OPM Director Scott Kupor said in the Feb. 12 memo.
Since then, the IRS has canceled its contract with NTEU. At the union’s legislative conference last week, NTEU President Doreen Greenwald told reporters the agency was out of line.
“We still have a valid contract, and we are going to proceed accordingly,” Greenwald said, adding the union will continue to exist and help its members in the workplace.
Asked if she thought more agencies like EPA would follow the IRS’s lead, the union leader said they were monitoring it.
“Those actions are illegal and not appropriate,” Greenwald said.
Contact this reporter on Signal at KevinBogardus.89.
