Unions representing thousands of educators in Department of Defense Education Activity schools have filed a lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump’s executive order excluding certain federal workers from the right to collective bargaining.
The lawsuit, filed Monday in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, argues Trump’s executive order issued on March 27 violates the First and Fifth Amendment rights of educators and their unions. The complaint contends the executive order and its implementation are an abuse of authority by Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. In addition to Trump and Hegseth, the Defense Department and Charles Ezell, acting director of the Office of Personnel Management, are named as defendants.
Trump’s executive order excludes agencies and agency subdivisions from coverage under the federal labor-management statute if their primary function is in intelligence, counterintelligence, investigative or national security work, and states the law’s provisions “cannot be applied to that agency or subdivision in a manner consistent with national security requirements and considerations.”
In effect, the executive order removed collective bargaining rights from about two-thirds of the federal workforce.
“DODEA educators provide military-connected families with a world-class education, and they deserve to be respected and honored for their high levels of achievement — not have their rights taken away and their academic freedom trampled upon,” Federal Education Association Executive Director Richard Tarr said in an announcement of the complaint.
The Federal Education Association, Federal Education Association–Stateside Region and Antilles Consolidated Education Association are plaintiffs in the lawsuit.
Other unions have filed lawsuits related to the executive order. A federal judge recently temporarily blocked Trump’s executive order as it applies to the National Treasury Employees Union, which represents over 150,000 federal bargaining unit employees in 33 departments and agencies. But the Defense Department was not named as a defendant in that lawsuit, so it isn’t directly bound by the judge’s order, sources said.
FEA, an affiliate of the National Education Association, represents more than 5,400 educators and education support professionals in DODEA-operated schools. Those schools serve more than 64,000 children in pre-K through 12th grade of military and civilian personnel stationed in the U.S., U.S. territories and overseas.
The Antilles union represents educators in four DODEA schools located in Puerto Rico.
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The plaintiffs seek preliminary and permanent injunctions to block the government from implementing the executive order and OPM guidance with respect to FEA. Or, if that relief isn’t granted, the plaintiffs ask the court to direct Hegseth to address the question of whether it’s warranted under law to suspend the executive order as it applies to DODEA. Hegseth took action to preserve collective bargaining for a subset of employees in four other DOD subdivisions, the lawsuit states.
“Trump’s executive order doesn’t just break the law; it violates the U.S. Constitution,” Tarr said. “The Trump administration is attacking the very people who serve this country by educating the children of our service members on military bases at home and around the world.”
FEA members and other educators have used collective bargaining to advocate for student learning conditions, including smaller class sizes and more learning time, and increased staffing of school nurses, counselors and mental health professionals.
Because of the executive order and OPM’s implementation, DODEA “has already effectively repudiated its obligations” under the existing collective bargaining agreement that has been in force with FEA since 2023, and was expected to be in force until August 2028, the lawsuit alleges.
DODEA has canceled union dues deductions from members’ paychecks, which are normally labor organizations’ primary source of income. DODEA also has stopped participating in any grievance proceedings that have come up or were pending before the executive order.
FEA had been prosecuting grievances on behalf of more than 800 educators who seek relief from DODEA because of “DODEA‘s chronic failure to correctly calculate their overseas employees’ pay,” the lawsuit alleges. These grievances were pending in various stages of the arbitration process. In cases involving nearly 500 employees, arbitrators had already issued decisions in favor of the employees, and ordered DODEA to make payments of back pay and interest, but DODEA has yet to make those payments, the lawsuit alleges.
Karen has covered military families, quality of life and consumer issues for Military Times for more than 30 years, and is co-author of a chapter on media coverage of military families in the book “A Battle Plan for Supporting Military Families.” She previously worked for newspapers in Guam, Norfolk, Jacksonville, Fla., and Athens, Ga.
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