{"id":83267,"date":"2025-05-07T21:39:25","date_gmt":"2025-05-07T21:39:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/uncategorized\/2025\/05\/07\/dod-educator-unions-sue-trump-over-collective-bargaining-rights\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T16:40:19","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T16:40:19","slug":"dod-educator-unions-sue-trump-over-collective-bargaining-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2025\/05\/07\/dod-educator-unions-sue-trump-over-collective-bargaining-rights\/","title":{"rendered":"DOD educator unions sue Trump over collective bargaining rights"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Unions representing thousands of educators in Department of Defense Education Activity schools have filed a lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump\u2019s executive order excluding certain federal workers from the right to collective bargaining. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lawsuit, filed Monday in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, argues Trump\u2019s executive order issued on March 27 violates the First and Fifth Amendment rights of educators and their unions. The complaint contends the executive order and its implementation are an abuse of authority by Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. In addition to Trump and Hegseth, the Defense Department and Charles Ezell, acting director of the Office of Personnel Management, are named as defendants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump\u2019s executive order excludes agencies and agency subdivisions from coverage under the federal labor-management statute if their primary function is in intelligence, counterintelligence, investigative or national security work, and states the law\u2019s provisions \u201ccannot be applied to that agency or subdivision in a manner consistent with national security requirements and considerations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In effect, the executive order removed collective bargaining rights from about two-thirds of the federal workforce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDODEA educators provide military-connected families with a world-class education, and they deserve to be respected and honored for their high levels of achievement \u2014 not have their rights taken away and their academic freedom trampled upon,\u201d Federal Education Association Executive Director Richard Tarr said in an announcement of the complaint.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Federal Education Association, Federal Education Association\u2013Stateside Region and Antilles Consolidated Education Association are plaintiffs in the lawsuit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other unions have filed lawsuits related to the executive order. A federal judge recently temporarily blocked Trump\u2019s executive order as it applies to the National Treasury Employees Union, which represents over 150,000 federal bargaining unit employees in 33 departments and agencies. But the Defense Department was not named as a defendant in that lawsuit, so it isn\u2019t directly bound by the judge\u2019s order, sources said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FEA, an affiliate of the National Education Association, represents more than 5,400 educators and education support professionals in DODEA-operated schools. Those schools serve more than 64,000 children in pre-K through 12th grade <\/b>of military and civilian personnel stationed in the U.S., U.S. territories and overseas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Antilles union represents educators in four DODEA schools located in Puerto Rico. <\/p>\n\n\n\t