Washington, D.C. — Today, the United States House of Representatives passed the Protect America’s Workforce Act, bipartisan legislation cosponsored by Congresswoman Maggie Goodlander to protect New Hampshire’s federal workers. This bill will repeal President Trump’s March 27, 2025, Executive Order that sought to end collective bargaining rights for hundreds of thousands of unionized federal employees across several agencies. Congressman Chris Pappas is a cosponsor of this legislation.
The bargaining rights of federal workers are already limited. Unlike private-sector unions, federal employees cannot bargain collectively over wages, benefits, or classifications, nor can they strike under existing law. Their bargaining rights are limited to conditions of employment. Roughly one-third of all federal workers in unions are veterans.
“The women and men who serve our country and keep us safe — from the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard to FCI Berlin to the Manchester VA — deserve the basic right to negotiate for a fair deal,” said Congresswoman Goodlander. “This commonsense bipartisan bill will stop President Trump’s brazen attempts at union-busting and protect the basic rights of New Hampshire’s public servants.”
“Federal employees play a critical role in ensuring the effective functioning of our government, delivering essential services to the American people in areas such as national security, public health, infrastructure, and more. Collective bargaining rights provide these employees with a voice in the workplace, fostering fair working conditions, ensuring accountability, and ultimately improving government efficiency and service delivery,” said Alana Schaeffer, Portsmouth Federal Employees Metal Trades Council. “On behalf of the Portsmouth Metal Trades Council, I would like to express my sincere appreciation to Congresswoman Maggie Goodlander for her support in passing bipartisan legislation aimed at nullifying the elimination of over a million federal employees’ collective bargaining rights. This structure creates a balanced and stable workforce, and in an environment where the sailors who dedicate their lives protecting our seas put their lives in our ability to execute our work with first-time quality every time, that stability is key. Taking away our collective bargaining will only weaken our workforce and ultimately, this will affect our national security.”
The full text of the bill is available here.
The bill has the support of unions representing federal employees, including the AFL-CIO, American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE), National Postal Mail Handlers Union (NPMHU), National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), Professional Aviation Safety Specialists (PASS), and Service Employees International Union (SEIU).
Congresswoman Goodlander has dedicated her life to serving New Hampshire and our country and is fighting every day to ensure every Granite Stater gets a fair deal. In March, she was proud to help reintroduce the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act. In April, Congresswoman Goodlander also helped introduce the bipartisan and bicameral Public Service Freedom to Negotiate Act, which would guarantee the right of public sector employees to bargain collectively in states that currently do not afford those basic protections. Before taking the oath of office to represent New Hampshire in the People’s House, she served as a Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the United States Department of Justice, where she took on the corporate monopolies and giant corporations hurting New Hampshire families and workers.
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