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The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee will consider a bill Tuesday morning giving President Trump sweeping powers to unilaterally terminate or ignore the terms of collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) with federal workers.
The bill, Preserving Presidential Management Authority Act, is part of an ongoing and increasingly brazen assault on public sector workers and democratic rights in general, further consolidating power in the hands of the executive as part of a drive for dictatorship.
The bill would “stipulate that provisions of public sector union Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBA) can be terminated by an incoming President,” according to a summary posted on the committee’s website. “This bill would also stipulate that a provision of a CBA that conflicts with a newly issued Executive Order or Presidential Memorandum (or agency guidance to implement such an E.O. or Memorandum), as determined by the President or head of an agency, would no longer be considered binding.”
The bill would effectively reduce contracts to nothing more than pieces of paper that are completely unenforceable. It would provide a pseudo-legal justification for Trump to greatly accelerate his attacks on federal programs, spearheaded by Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency, which aim to fire hundreds of thousands of workers and illegally dismantle whole departments.
Attacks on the post office
Currently, the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) is engaged in expedited arbitration for its city carriers contract, following the overwhelming rejection of the previous agreement by over 70 percent. By moving to arbitration, mandated by laws banning federal employees from striking, workers will not even be allowed to vote on language of the final contract before it takes effect.
The position of NALC and the other postal unions has been that workers must dutifully obey the “official” anti-worker procedures even as Trump violates the law at will to destroy their jobs. Recently, the Postmaster General reached a deal with DOGE to help it slash costs—in particular, by going after legally mandated service standards, pension funding rules and other regulations.
Musk has reiterated the White House’ intention to privatize the United States Postal Service, and Trump has reportedly mulled illegal executive orders to give himself personal control over the USPS.
Instead of mobilizing workers to resist these attacks, the union leadership has done everything in its power to divert opposition into harmless channels, thus playing into Trump’s hand. They are urging workers to call or write their members of Congress, and even offer their assistance in helping find areas to save money.
One postal worker responded to news of the bill: “Who didn’t see this coming? Exactly what I said—they [NALC leadership] bowed down to keep their jobs. They sold all the workers out to save their ass.”
Meanwhile, USPS management is launching its own attacks on postal workers’ free speech rights. One postal worker from Texas told the WSWS:
“Management recently conducted a morning ‘stand-up talk’ with all employees, cautioning them about what they post on social media, even while you are off-duty. Management also said they have a Social Media Team that actively monitors and looks up employees’ social media for anything they deem to be ‘inappropriate’ and that would not ‘reflect favorably upon the Postal Service.’
“Management also stated that failure to comply with the USPS Social Media Policy could lead to discipline up to and including removal from the Postal Service.”
“Fascism and dictatorship has now arrived at the Postal Service,” the worker concluded.
Workers must recognize that they cannot rely on the union bureaucracy to defend their interests. A new, independent movement is necessary to challenge the attacks from above and fight for workers’ demands. Rank-and-file workers in the postal service and other sectors must come together to organize resistance, defend their rights, and fight for a transformation of society that puts workers’ needs ahead of corporate profits.
Such a movement is being built. The Postal Workers Rank-and-File Committee issued a statement last week declaring: “Extraordinary times require extraordinary measures … We postal workers must link up with workers in every city and neighborhood where we make deliveries, uniting with federal workers, teachers, industrial workers and others to build a powerful and unified class movement against dictatorship.”
Other undemocratic bills under consideration
The Preserving Presidential Management Authority Act is just one of several bills being considered by the House Oversight Committee on Tuesday, each of which seeks to significantly expand the power of the presidency while undermining protections for workers.
Among the other measures is the Reorganizing Government Act of 2025, which would grant President Trump the ability to propose sweeping changes to the structure of the federal government, extending executive powers granted to President Reagan in the 1980s under a now-expired act. The new bill would extend that authority until December 2026, granting the sitting president unprecedented control over the federal bureaucracy.
Another proposal, the Federal Employee Health Benefit (FEHB) Protection Act, seeks to add additional hurdles for federal workers attempting to add family members to their health insurance plans.
The Federal Accountability Committee for Transparency (FACT) Act would extend the authority of the of the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee through December 2026, providing grounds for attacks on the limited measures taken in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and on public health science in general.
The District of Columbia Federal Immigration Compliance Act would force local governments to comply with the Trump administration’s anti-immigrant policies.
Additionally, the Protecting Taxpayer Wallet Act would impose new fees on unions that use federal agencies to represent workers, while the Paycheck Protection Act would eliminate the ability of federal employees to have union dues automatically deducted from their paychecks.
While the loyalty of the union bureaucracy to corporate America and the capitalist state was never in doubt, such measures are aimed at all the more securing their collaboration by targeting union dues, which the bureaucracy uses to finance its own bloated salaries.
The escalating assault on the working class underscores the need for collective action. The crisis cannot be solved through filing grievances or lawsuits. It can only be remedied via mass struggle by the working class, including the preparation for strike action and a common offensive against the Trump administration and the entire ruling class.