A federal judge on Friday signaled she may hold the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) in contempt for ending a union bargaining agreement for about 320,000 agency employees shortly after a court had ordered the contract reinstated.
U.S. District Judge Melissa DuBose, presiding in Providence, Rhode Island, said during a hearing that the VA’s late-night notice on Thursday that it had re-terminated the contract was openly defiant of her March 13 ruling and had "thrown the case 'into chaos.'" The abrupt action was announced in an after-hours court filing, the judge noted.
The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) is challenging the VA’s decision last August to cancel the bargaining agreement in the wake of President Donald Trump’s 2025 executive order that removed collective bargaining rights from roughly 1 million federal workers. In her earlier ruling, DuBose ordered the VA to temporarily reinstate the AFGE agreement while the litigation proceeds.
At the hearing, the VA, represented by Tyler Becker of the U.S. Department of Justice, told the court that it had again terminated the contract but did not explain how the judge’s prior order permitted that step. Becker argued the union could no longer contest the initial termination and would need to refresh its legal claims after the second cancellation.
"For you to suggest that all of the work that was done prior to the re-termination is kind of mooted out is really a blatant disrespect for not just this court’s order but for the rule of law," DuBose said during remarks directed at Becker.
Travis Silva, counsel for AFGE, told the court the VA had other lawful avenues available, such as appealing DuBose’s decision or asking the judge to reconsider, rather than what he described as a "self-help maneuver." "Not this self-help maneuver that they’re trying to do here," he said.
Following the hearing, DuBose granted AFGE’s motion to enforce her prior order reinstating the bargaining agreement. In a written directive issued after the hearing, she instructed the VA to immediately inform employees that the agreement was in effect "in both form and substance." She also ordered the agency to submit status reports explaining how it is complying with her ruling.
The judge, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, gave the Trump administration until Tuesday to justify why the VA should not be held in contempt for violating her earlier decision. She set a further hearing on the contempt question for April 3.
In a separate written order on Friday, DuBose temporarily enjoined the VA from canceling additional bargaining arrangements with seven unions that together cover about 2,800 employees.
In her prior opinion, DuBose concluded that the VA improperly canceled the AFGE bargaining agreement in August and that the agency’s action appeared to be retaliation for the union’s opposition to policies of the Trump administration. She found the VA had offered no evidence to support its contention that national security concerns motivated the cancellation.
Trump’s executive order exempted the VA and more than a dozen other federal agencies from bargaining obligations, citing that some of their work involves intelligence and national security. The order significantly broadened an existing exception for workers whose duties touch on national security, such as certain federal law enforcement personnel.
The executive order has been challenged in at least three lawsuits, and unions have mounted numerous challenges to individual agencies’ decisions to end bargaining agreements. Last month, a federal appeals court in San Francisco rejected a request by AFGE and other unions to immediately block the executive order while their broader challenge moves forward.
Note: This report presents the facts and rulings as addressed in the court hearing and written orders; where information in filings or statements was limited, the account reflects that limitation rather than adding inference.