HHS de-recognized union contracts at CDC, FDA, and other agencies, stripping collective bargaining rights

On August 22, 2025, the Department of Health and Human Services moved to de-recognize all collective bargaining agreements covering workers at the CDC, FDA, and other HHS divisions, stripping thousands of federal public health employees of their union rights. The action implemented a Trump labor-management executive order directing agencies to eliminate federal employee unions, making HHS the latest major agency in a rolling campaign that had already reached the Department of Veterans Affairs on August 6 and the Environmental Protection Agency on August 8.

The Federal Service Labor-Management Relations Statute (5 U.S.C. Chapter 71), enacted by Congress, gives federal employees the right to organize and bargain collectively. The Trump administration's campaign to de-recognize agency union contracts—executed through executive directive rather than legislation—bypassed that statutory framework entirely. HHS houses the CDC, FDA, NIH, CMS, and other public health agencies; stripping workers of collective bargaining protections at these institutions affects the capacity of career scientists and public health professionals to resist politically-motivated directives, a concern particularly acute given the administration's documented interference with scientific output at the CDC and ACIP.

The American Federation of Government Employees condemned the action as an illegal decertification of unions at multiple CDC and HHS components. The de-recognition campaign represents the executive branch dismantling congressionally-established labor protections across the federal government without statutory authorization, accelerating a pattern that—within three weeks—had swept the VA, EPA, and now the entire HHS portfolio.