Exclusive-US cancels FDA bargaining session over layoffs, union says

By Patrick Wingrove

The Trump administration last week canceled the first bargaining session scheduled with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's largest workers union since its ability to represent government staff was temporarily restored by a federal court, according one of the union's bosses.

U.S. President Donald Trump in March signed an executive order that excluded agencies from collective bargaining obligations that he said "have as a primary function intelligence, counterintelligence, investigative, or national security work."

The order applied to the FDA, as well as agencies under the Justice, State, Defense, Treasury and Veterans Affairs departments.

Senior U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman on April 25 issued an injunction to block the executive order from being implemented, pending the outcome of a lawsuit by the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), which represents about 160,000 federal employees including as many as 9,000 FDA staff.

The Trump administration has appealed that injunction.

A five-hour, virtual meeting between the union and the Department of Health and Human Services to discuss mass layoffs at the FDA was axed the evening before it was set to take place. No reason was given for the cancellation and no attempt was made to reschedule it, according to NTEU chapter president Anthony Lee.

Lee said the union had intended to address how the FDA had fired staff and raise union members' questions about terminations and severance pay, along with union proposals.

"We had maybe four or five pages of proposals to discuss during the meeting," Lee said.

HHS, which oversees government health agencies including the FDA and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, did not respond to requests for comment. The FDA website refers all queries to HHS.

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. directed the FDA to fire 3,500 employees as part of a massive restructuring of U.S. health agencies in March. HHS has said 20,000 of 80,000 employees have left the agency through layoffs, buyouts and early retirement offers spearheaded by billionaire Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency.

The union's contract with HHS says the government will provide an opportunity to bargain any and all impact and implementation issues related to layoffs, but the union was not given a chance to bargain before the April 1 layoffs.

Federal labor law also requires agencies to bargain with unions in good faith over terms and conditions of employment.

The May 2 meeting had been set by HHS on April 23. No other collective bargaining sessions have been scheduled for this year, according to Lee.

Lee Adler, a labor lawyer and visiting lecturer at Cornell University, said it is a common strategy among employers to stall communications with unions until the court issues an order saying they are operating in bad faith.

"Until that occurs, it can be a strategy to delegitimize the union," he said.

Samuel Estreicher, director of the Center for Labor and Employment Law at New York University, said the Trump administration is probably unwilling to engage in collective bargaining with unions of executive branches until a ruling is issued on its appeal to the April 25 blocking order.

Some fired employees at the FDA, including those involved with renewing programs under which drugmakers provide user fees that pay for the agency's drug review system, have been asked to return to their jobs.

Lee said the administration also canceled a separate, contractually-obligated meeting with the union slated for the same day to discuss issues that are not typically covered in the collective bargaining agreement.