New York – The United States Ministry of Health and Social Services has moved to strip thousands of employees of the Federal Health Agency for their collective negotiation rights, according to a union that has qualified the illegal effort.
HHS officials confirmed on Friday that the department ends its recognition of unions for a number of employees and resume offices and equipment that had been used for union activities.
This is the last decision of the Trump administration to end collective negotiations with unions that represent federal employees. The previously affected agencies include the Ministry of Veterans Affairs and the Environmental Protection Agency.
In May, a court of appeal declared that the administration could move forward with the executive decree of President Donald Trump aimed at putting an end to collective negotiation rights for hundreds of thousands of federal employees while a trial takes place.
“This action guarantees that HHS resources and staff are fully focused on safeguarding American health and security,” said HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon in a statement.
Officials of the American Federation of Government employees said that solid union contracts did not lead to a strong responses to public health emergencies. Rather, they help to ensure that agencies like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have a stable, experienced and sustained workforce, said the union.
Some CDC employees said the union had been a source of information and advocacy for agency employees during the layoffs this year and following the August 8 attack on the CDC’s main campus in Atlanta.
Since then, the union has been trying to plead for a better emergency alert system and better security.
The other affected agencies include Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health, the administration of strategic preparation and response, and at the Reinstallation Refugee Bureau in the Administration for Children and Families.
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