Trump Loses Bid to Expedite Revival of Anti-Union Orders

WASHINGTON (CN) – The D.C. Circuit on Wednesday rejected President Donald Trump’s request to fast-track a ruling allowing enforcement of three executive orders tightening regulations on labor negotiations in government workplaces.

The single-page denial order comes four weeks after the federal appeals court overturned a lower court ruling striking down several provisions in the orders. The three-judge panel chose not to immediately lift the injunction, allowing unions 45 days to request a reconsideration of their claims.

A week after that decision, Trump filed a motion asking the panel to expedite its ruling on the “erroneous injunction” put in place last year by U.S. District Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, who sided with the American Federation of Government Employees, or AFL-CIO, collectively representing the unions.

The president argued that the injunction continues to handicap government officials in several agencies who are in ongoing collective bargaining with unions.

The brief order issued Wednesday afternoon stated only that the motion was denied, but an opinion is expected to follow.

The panel is comprised of U.S. Circuit Judges Thomas Griffith and Sri Srinivasan and Senior U.S. Circuit Judge Raymond Randolph. A notation says Randolph would have granted the motion.

The AFL-CIO filed the lawsuit less than a week after Trump issued the orders in May 2018, claiming they violated labor union members’ ability to negotiate grievances on behalf of individual employees or a group of employees.

The orders limit the topics to be taken up and set time restrictions on negotiations, curbing the “official time” during which employees are supposed to be paid for carrying out union-related duties.

J. David Cox Sr., president of the American Federation of Government Employees, said in a statement Wednesday that “this is a vitally important case that the court should rehear.”

“Denying the government’s motion was the right call,” he said. “The government provided no good reason for the court to dissolve the injunction prematurely and speed up the administration’s efforts to violate the law and send the federal workforce into disarray.”

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