A group protested proposed NASA budget cuts and workforce reductions outside NASA Headquarters June 30. Credit: SpaceNews/Jeff Foust
By Jeff Foust,
Published by Space News, 29 August 2025
WASHINGTON — The White House has moved to eliminate employee unions at NASA, among other agencies, on national security grounds.
In an Aug. 28 executive order, the White House said it was adding several agencies to a list that are exempted from federal collective bargaining rights under the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978. NASA was among the agencies included, along with the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The order cited a provision of that 1978 act that gives the president the authority to exempt agencies from the protections included in the act if they have “as a primary function intelligence, counterintelligence, investigative, or national security work” and if the act cannot be applied “in a manner consistent with national security requirements and considerations.”
In a fact sheet accompanying the order, the White House argued that NASA’s activities fell under the national security exemption of the act. “NASA develops and operates advanced air and space technologies, like satellite, communications, and propulsion systems, that are critical for U.S. national security,” the fact sheet stated.
Little of what NASA does is generally considered to fall under national security, and the fact sheet did not give any specific examples of technologies developed or operated by NASA that are deemed critical for national security. Moreover, the 1978 act allows the president to exempt just a subdivision of an agency, rather than just the entire agency, if there are cases where part of an agency’s activities would fall under the national security exemption.
According to a NASA document last updated in February, about 53% of NASA’s civil servant workforce was represented by two unions, the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE) and the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE). That percentage predates voluntary buyout and retirements that concluded in July and reduced the agency’s workforce by about 20%.
Most NASA employees who are part of collective bargaining units are affiliated with IFPTE, although AFGE is the larger union overall, representing broad swathes of the federal workforce. IFPTE has locals at NASA Headquarters and the Ames, Glenn, Goddard and Marshall field centers, while AFGE has locals at Goddard, Johnson, Kennedy, Langley and Marshall.
In an Aug. 28 statement, the leadership of IFPTE sharply criticized the executive order, arguing it was part of broader efforts by the Trump administration to strip worker protections.
“Today’s executive order seeks to deny bargaining rights at NASA on a bogus national security rationale, despite long-established unions and bargaining rights for NASA civil servants that extend back to the 1960s,” stated Matt Biggs, president of IFPTE.
“Given that IFPTE is NASA’s largest federal employee union, this is particularly damaging to IFPTE’s NASA locals and members, as well as our members’ work on groundbreaking NASA missions that provide immense scientific value and advance aeronautics and space exploration,” added Gay Henson, secretary-treasurer of the union.
IFPTE is one of several labor unions that filed a lawsuit against President Trump and the heads of several agencies in July, arguing an executive order in March that stripped other federal employees of labor protections under the 1978 law. The union didn’t state if they would formally seek to add NASA to the suit.
See: Original Article
