The unions filed a lawsuit on April 3, alleging that the Trump administration violated the law when it issued an executive order aimed at stripping more than a million federal workers of their union rights in retaliation for opposing its policies.
Unions presented their argument for a preliminary injunction against the Trump administration at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California June 18th.
The lawsuit was brought by NNOC/NNU, American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), National Association of Government Employees (NAGE-SEIU), National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE), and Service Employees International Union (SEIU).
“The safety and the well-being of our veteran patients is dependent on the ability of nurses to speak out and advocate without the threat of retaliation or intimidation,” said Nancy Hagans, RN, president of NNU, which represents more than 15,000 nurses in Veterans Affairs (VA) hospitals nationwide. “The attempt to silence nurses is retribution for our advocacy and determination to defend our veterans’ right to the highest quality of care.”
According to their lawsuit, the unions allege that the president attempted to strip workers “of their collective bargaining rights in retaliation for protected First Amendment activity,” including lawsuits and public statements opposing the administration’s policies.”
“We know this administration wants to bust our unions, demoralize workers, and destroy the VA to privatize veterans’ health care. But nurses are fierce defenders of decency and health care and we will not allow these punitive actions to silence us,” said Hagans. “We will fight to ensure that we keep our promise to veterans to care for them as they put their lives on the line for us.”
