Last year, the Environmental Protection Agency did something that should trouble every American when it tore up a legally negotiated union contract covering approximately 8,000 civil servants. The contract took years to negotiate and was undone in a single day, with claims that its protections somehow threatened “national security”.
EPA workers lost union representation in disciplinary proceedings, the ability to challenge unfair treatment through independent grievance and arbitration proceedings and first-of-its-kind protections for employees who raise concerns about scientific misconduct or political interference.
In short, an entire workforce lost its rights.
Last month, we took action. The American Federation of Government Employees Council 238 sued the EPA and Administrator Lee Zeldin to restore our contract and defend the rights our members fought for and won.
This is much bigger than a labor dispute. It is a fight over public health, the rule of law and what public service is supposed to mean in this country. Federal employees do not work for a president, a political party or an ideology — we work for America.
The American Federation of Government Employees was born in 1932, a precarious time for the civil servants as politicians tried to dismantle the civil service system. Decades of organizing eventually led President Kennedy to recognize federal employees’ right to bargain collectively in 1962, and to the implementation of the Federal Service Labor-Management Relations Statute, which declared that collective bargaining in the civil service “safeguards the public interest.”
There is a reason Congress connected workers’ rights to the public interest. Federal unions give career public servants the independence to do their jobs when political pressure comes from above. Those protections give workers the backbone to tell the truth, do the job right and put the American people first.
That independence matters more than ever at the EPA. Climate change, pollution and even science itself has become more partisan, with powerful industries lobbying for policies that only serve their interests.
But there is too much at stake for science to be twisted or gagged for a political agenda or a corporate bottom line.
Our members are scientists, engineers, environmental specialists, enforcement officers, field inspectors, biologists, chemists, lab technicians and other professionals whose work directly protects communities. When a pollutant threatens children with asthma, when a community cannot trust its drinking water or when a wildfire leaves behind hazardous chemicals and contaminated runoff, EPA workers have a responsibility to follow the science, take action and protect the public.
Our union contract was built for exactly those moments. It protected workers’ right to follow the evidence, raise concerns about scientific misconduct or political interference and speak up when public health is on the line without fearing that doing their jobs could cost them their careers. It served as a safeguard for every American who expects government scientists to tell The unilateral termination of our contract throws all of that out the window, and we have already seen what happens when those safeguards disappear.
Just before our contract was terminated, hundreds of EPA employees signed a declaration of dissent in June 2025, raising concerns about political interference in science-based decision-making and threats to public health. The agency did not immediately discipline the workers who signed it. Instead, it moved to terminate our contract. Only after workers had lost their union representation and their ability to challenge discipline did the EPA punish the signers.
Ultimately, 139 employees were disciplined. Twenty were fired and 119 were suspended without pay. Of those disciplined, 110 had been covered by our contract.
This went beyond stripping away workplace protections. It violated workers’ First Amendment rights by targeting employees who exercised protected speech and spoke out on matters of public concern. It also sent a message: Speak out against political interference, and you could pay for it with your career.
What the agency failed to consider is that EPA workers are not intimidated. We do this work because we believe in the mission to protect human health and the environment. Thousands of dedicated civil servants make up this agency, and we are not afraid to take on this administration in court and in the streets to defend our ability to do our jobs. The stakes are too high to remain silent and cowed.
We also know this fight also reaches far beyond the EPA. The administration has targeted collective bargaining across the federal government, including at the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, the Bureau of Prisons and the Department of Defense. What is happening at EPA is part of a broader attack on a federal workforce whose job is to serve the public, not bend to a political ideology.
Public servants need to be able to tell the truth without first asking whether the truth will cost them their jobs and livelihood. We are fighting for our contract, but we are also fighting for a government that works for the people it serves.
Administrations come and go. Our responsibility does not.
Justin Chen is president of the American Federation of Government Employees Council 238.
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