Commerce Department Unions Sue to Restore Contracts,
Bargaining Rights Cancelled by Executive Order
Washington, DC (September 2) - The two leading unions of employees in the Department of
Commerce filed suit in U.S. District Court today challenging the President’s August 28 Executive
Order that cancelled their collective bargaining agreements and stripped them of their bargaining
rights ostensibly on national security grounds. The suit was filed by the National Weather Service
Employees Organization, which represents 3,500 forecasters, technicians and support personnel at
forecast offices across the country, and the Patent Office Professional Association, which represents
nearly 9,000 patent examiners.
The Federal Service Labor Management Relations Statute permits the President to exempt
employees of those agencies whose primary function is national security if he determines that the
Federal employee collective bargaining statute cannot be applied to that agency consistent with the
requirements of national security.
According to a Fact Sheet issued by the White House, the President exempted the Patent
Office on national security grounds because the “Invention Secrecy Act tasks the PTO with
reviewing inventions made in the United States, assessing whether their release could harm national
security, and if so, issuing secrecy orders that prevent public disclosure.” However, the Patent
Examiners union explains in its complaint the USPTO does not assess whether the release of
patent applications could harm national security. Under the Invention Security Act patent
applications whose release might be detrimental to national security are referred to the defense
agencies, who determine whether the invention should be kept secret. Rather than being a primary
function of the USPTO, the screening of the patent applications for referral to the defense agencies
is an ancillary duty of just 26 patent examiners of the nearly 9,000 examiners employed by the
USPTO. And only about 50 of the 600,000 patent applications received each year by the USPTO are
ultimately subject to a secrecy order after being assessed by the defense agencies.
And according to the White House Fact Sheet the National Weather Service was exempted
because it “provide weather and climate data that inform the weather forecasting used to plan U.S.
military deployments.” In the complaint filed today, the forecasters’ union states that “the NWS does
not provide the military with weather forecasts for military operations. The military departments have
their own weather forecasting units (such as the Fleet Weather Centers in Norfolk and San Diego,
the Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center in Monterey, the 1St Combat Weather
Squadron at Fort Lewis, and the 557th Weather Wing at Offutt Air Force Base and many others) that
provide forecasting and support for military operations.”
The two unions allege in their complaint that the reason the President cancelled their
collective bargaining agreements and excluded them from coverage of the labor statute was in
retaliation for their opposition to the Trump Administration’s efforts to end telework in the Federal
government and reduce staffing at NWS forecast offices.
Contact Richard Hirn 202-255-3141