For now, House effort to force vote to restore federal worker union rights falls short

by Emma Davis, Maine Morning Star, Pennsylvania Capital-Star
July 24, 2025

Before the U.S. House of Representatives departed early for its August break on Tuesday, 209 members joined an effort to attempt to force a vote on a bill that would nullify President Donald Trump’s executive order stripping union rights from about two-thirds of the federal workforce — but that’s nine short of the needed threshold.

In light of the Republican majority so far declining to bring Maine Democratic U.S. Rep. Jared Golden’s Protect America’s Workforce Act up for a floor vote, Golden last week introduced a discharge petition, which if endorsed by 218 members would force a vote on the bill.

Maine’s other representative, Democrat Chellie Pingree, signed the discharge petition the day Golden introduced it. So far, only two Republicans have endorsed it — Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, who introduced the bill with Golden, and bill cosponsor Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska  — though the bill has seven GOP co-sponsors out of its total 222.

“The House is now on recess until September, but Congressman Golden will continue working, in solidarity with the one million workers across the country whose collective bargaining rights were stripped by Trump’s executive order, to ensure the House takes action to restore workers’ rights,” his spokesperson said.

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Fitzpatrick did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Capital-Star. But, in a statement from when the bill was first introduced, he said, “Improving government efficiency is essential— but sweeping exclusions from collective bargaining are a blunt instrument that risk weakening the very stability and performance we aim to strengthen.”

Trump’s executive order on March 27 banned collective bargaining agreements at government agencies with “national security interests.” These include the Department of Defense, Department of Veterans Affairs, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Environmental Protection Agency, among numerous others, overall impacting about two-thirds of the federal workforce.

The White House said in a fact sheet that accompanied the order that “certain federal unions have declared war on President Trump’s agenda” and that the order was necessary to safeguard American interests.

A coalition of unions sued shortly after but, as of the latest decision issued last week, a federal appeals court allowed the Trump administration to proceed with implementing the executive order.

While the House is taking a break, union members will not be.

The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations plans to mobilize its members in the districts of representatives who have not signed the discharge petition, said Mia Jacobs, the union’s director of media relations.

That organizing across the country has already begun. On Monday, the group’s “Better in a Union” bus tour stop in Pittsburg concluded with a call to action for attendees to reach out to their members of Congress to sign the discharge petition.

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“The collective bargaining executive order was the single biggest act of union busting in our history,” Jacobs said, “Union members understand the stakes of this, that if they can strip federal workers of their collective bargaining rights then the contracts for a million more workers are at risk, so this is something that is existential to the labor movement.”

While the discharge petition still needs more support, Jacobs said the current endorsements and the 222 bipartisan co-sponsors of the bill show the issue has broad support. This is also mostly true of the general public, as polls show about 70% of Americans approve of labor unions, cutting across party lines.

The discharge petition will start with the 209 signatures when the House returns in September and remain active as long as the underlying bill is, so for the whole Congress that is slated to end in early 2027.

Pennsylvania Capital-Star is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Pennsylvania Capital-Star maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Tim Lambert for questions: info@penncapital-star.com.