“Nearly 200 TSA officers employed at the taxpayers’ expense spend their workdays focused on matters important to labor unions instead of keeping Americans safe, and I applaud the Trump administration’s action to help make our government more efficient,” said Senator Blackburn. “This legislation would end federal labor unions and immediately terminate their collective bargaining agreements to ensure the federal government is working on behalf of the American people – not labor unions – by increasing the productivity of its workforce.”

“Public servants are not like private sector employees. They should not be able to collectively bargain for leverage over their employers, because they work for the American people,” said Senator Lee. “Even famous Democrat leaders like FDR once recognized this fact, and it is time that we required all federal workers to spend their days working for the public instead of union business.”

BACKGROUND

• According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 25.3% of the federal employee workforce are members of public sector unions. The largest organizations include the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), the National Treasury Employees Union, and the National Federation of Federal Employees.

• The federal government acts as a bill collector for federal employee unions, deducting membership dues from workers’ paychecks and transferring them to these organizations. This forces taxpayers to bear the administrative costs, and public sector unions impede government efficiency, fiscal responsibility, and accountability.

• Unions have also played a major role in enabling widespread telework among federal employees. In December 2024, the AFGE secured a five-year contract with the Social Security Administration to ensure employees are only required to work in person for a minimum of two days per week.

• Additionally, federal employees serving as union representatives are currently permitted to conduct union business during work hours rather than performing their government duties. In Fiscal Year 2019, federal employees spent approximately 2.6 million hours on union activities during work hours, costing taxpayers an estimated $135 million.

• Federal employee unions overwhelmingly support Democrats, who in turn support union interests. During the 2024 election cycle, approximately 96% of AFGE’s political contributions went to Democratic candidates and committees.

FEDERAL WORKFORCE FREEDOM ACT

The Federal Workforce Freedom Act would:

• Repeal the statutory framework that currently governs federal labor relations.
• Prohibit federal employees from being allowed to organize, join, or participate in labor unions for the purposes of collective bargaining or representation.
• Ban federal agencies from engaging in collective bargaining negotiations with labor unions on behalf of federal employees.
• Immediately terminate all collective bargaining agreements, whether established before, on, or after the date of enactment of this bill, and dismiss any arbitration, dispute resolution, or grievance proceeding related to the collective bargaining agreements.

Click here for bill text.