Yahoo: Treasury and IRS Terminate Collective Bargaining Agreements in Sweeping Labor Move
The Treasury Department has terminated collective bargaining agreements for workers at the Internal Revenue Service and the Bureau of the Fiscal Service, a development that immediately reshapes labor relations at the agencies and leaves rank-and-file employees and union leaders contesting the move. yahoo
Treasury’s termination and the Fiscal Service action
The Treasury Department notified staff that it has ended its collective bargaining agreement with unionized workers at the Internal Revenue Service. Two people familiar with the decision, who were not authorized to speak with the media, said the union contract for the Bureau of the Fiscal Service was also terminated this week. Agency leadership cited an executive order signed by President Donald Trump last March as the authority for the terminations.
President Donald Trump had been photographed gesturing from the stairs of Air Force One upon his arrival at Joint Base Andrews, Md., on Friday, Feb. 27, 2025, a detail included in the record of the period when the administration advanced the orders cited by Treasury.
Alex Kweskin’s memo: cancelled agreements, arbitration and personnel updates
IRS Chief Human Capital Officer Alex Kweskin told employees that the agency has terminated the 2022 national agreement and a 2025 addendum and has cancelled all negotiations in progress with the National Treasury Employees Union. Kweskin wrote that the move "deepens our commitment of operating as one IRS, a collaborative team focused on serving American taxpayers. "
Kweskin said the IRS will cancel arbitration hearings and pay arbitrators for work already performed, will implement changes to conditions of employment without bargaining, and is working with the Treasury on a "systematic update" of personnel files to revoke bargaining-unit status. He also instructed managers not to invite union representatives to formal discussions or respond to union requests for information, and to forward negotiated grievances to Labor Employee Relations and Negotiations.
Legal fights, court rulings and OPM direction — Yahoo in the mix
The Office of Personnel Management, led by director Scott Kupor, issued a memo this month calling on agency heads to comply with President Trump’s March order and to notify labor unions that they are terminating any applicable collective bargaining agreements. OPM had instructed agencies earlier this month to terminate their union contracts and asked them to comply with two executive orders released in March and August last year.
Unions filed suits challenging the orders last year. A D. C. court issued a preliminary injunction against the government that was stayed pending an appeal. Meanwhile, a three-judge panel of the U. S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued a decision in a separate case on Thursday that cleared the way for implementation of the executive order. -era reporting included a finding that the orders stripped over 1 million federal workers of collective bargaining rights and exempted more than 20 agencies on national security grounds; those facts have shaped the legal landscape surrounding the terminations.
NTEU response, membership and grievances
National Treasury Employees Union President Doreen Greenwald told the agency in a letter that the IRS "cannot unilaterally end" its collective bargaining agreement and that the CBA remains in effect. Greenwald said the federal sector labor statute requires the IRS to have a collective bargaining agreement with the exclusive representative of its bargaining unit employees, and noted that the Federal Labor Relations Authority certified that exclusive representative status and has taken no action to undo it.
The NTEU represents roughly 150, 000 employees in 37 departments and agencies and, at the IRS, represents roughly two-thirds of the agency’s workforce. The union filed a national grievance last week after the IRS placed more than 1, 000 back-office employees on involuntary 120-day details to perform frontline filing season work—assignments that many of those employees had no prior experience doing. NTEU told bargaining unit members that a response from the IRS was due by April 2.
Workforce numbers, protections and operational implications
One report in the record noted that the IRS workforce has been reduced by roughly a quarter and that the agency had about 100, 000 employees when President Trump took office a year ago. Separately, the Office of Personnel Management released a rule this month to loosen job protections for policy-related positions, a change described in the context as making it easier for political appointees to remove and replace those employees.
Union leaders have said that the contract terminations and the rule changes together raise concerns about employees’ protections and the ability of career staff to raise legal objections without risking dismissal. The union has told arbitrators that the agency’s notice of termination "means nothing in terms of our cases going forward, " and arbitrators have been moving forward with disputes whether the agency participates or not.
Next steps: grievances, appeals and unresolved questions
The union had sued the federal government last year over the executive order; the D. C. court’s preliminary injunction remained stayed pending appeal, and the Ninth Circuit panel’s decision in a separate case has been cited by agencies as clearing the way for implementation. Scott Kupor’s memo and OPM guidance prompted agency action this month, but legal disputes, national grievances and pending appeals mean the status of collective bargaining and exclusive representative recognition remains contested and subject to further judicial and administrative rulings.
