Tyler O’Neil writes for the Daily Signal about an interesting source of opposition to President Donald Trump’s reforms.
Who ultimately decides how the executive branch works? Is it the president, elected by the American people, or career federal employees and the unions that represent them?
The American Federation of Government Employees, the largest union representing federal employees, sued the White House’s Office of Personnel Management last month, aiming to block new rules governing how federal employees are evaluated, disciplined, and removed.
The lawsuit represents only the latest in a long series of legal challenges the union has brought against President Donald Trump’s administration since January 2025. According to a July roundup AFGE posted on its website, the union had filed 18 lawsuits against the administration before the latest case.
These lawsuits have targeted a wide range of administration initiatives, including government-wide reorganizations, workforce reductions, collective bargaining restrictions, employee classification reforms, and changes to federal personnel rules.
AFGE has been far from alone in these cases. Democracy Forward, a left-leaning legal advocacy organization that has represented plaintiffs in numerous lawsuits challenging Trump policies, has represented AFGE or other plaintiffs in these cases. Such challenges have involved broad coalitions, including advocacy groups and local governments, alongside labor unions.
Critics argue that these cases amount to more than traditional labor litigation, representing a form of institutional resistance from federal employees and their allies against an elected administration’s effort to reshape the executive branch.
AFGE rejects that characterization. A union spokesman told the Daily Signal that issues involving “politicization of government, corruption, and the refusal to recognize legally valid union contracts” are inseparable from “the everyday experience of federal workers.” The spokesman also accused the administration of engaging in “illegal and retaliatory union-busting” and broader efforts to “rig the system.”
Unions such as AFGE have every right to represent the interests of their members, but these cases concern questions extending beyond wages, benefits, or traditional workplace conditions. They challenge the administration’s attempts to reorganize agencies, alter personnel systems, and change how the bureaucracy operates.
