A federal judge on March 13 ordered the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to honor its collective bargaining agreement with a union while litigation over the agreement played out.

U.S. District Judge Melissa R. DuBose of Rhode Island issued an injunction temporarily requiring the department to honor its three-year master collective bargaining agreement with the National Veterans Affairs Council (NVAC), which is a unit of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE). The council represents about 300,000 department employees.

In 2023, NVAC and the department signed the three-year agreement, but on Aug. 6, 2025, Veteran Affairs Secretary Doug Collins terminated it.

The department said at the time that it was ending collective bargaining agreements with most VA bargaining-unit employees to “make it easier for VA leaders to promote high-performing employees, hold poor performers accountable, and improve benefits and services to America’s Veterans.”

The announcement followed President Donald Trump’s Executive Order 14251 of March 27, 2025, that excluded some federal agencies from labor-management relations programs.

The White House said at the time that Trump was using authority bestowed on the president by the federal Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 to end collective bargaining agreements with various federal unions in agencies that have missions related to national security.

“The President needs a responsive and accountable civil service to protect our national security,” the statement read.

Several federal unions have “declared war” on Trump’s agenda and one union said it was “fighting back” against the president. Unions within the VA filed “70 national and local grievances over President Trump’s policies since the inauguration—an average of over one a day,” according to the White House.

Complying with the executive order, the VA on April 25, 2025, ceased withholding union dues from the paychecks of most employees, the department said in a statement dated Aug. 6, 2025.

“Too often, unions that represent VA employees fight against the best interests of veterans while protecting and rewarding bad workers,” said Collins. “We’re making sure VA resources and employees are singularly focused on the job we were sent here to do: providing top-notch care and service to those who wore the uniform.”

DuBose said in her order that NVAC and AFGE Local 2305, which represents about 450 employees at Veterans Affairs facilities in Rhode Island, had asked the court to issue a preliminary injunction to prevent the department and Collins from continuing to implement the termination of the agreement.

In her new order, DuBose granted a preliminary injunction and directed the federal government to “reinstate the Master [collective bargaining agreement]—as well as any amendments, local supplemental agreements, and memoranda of understanding that were in place subsidiary to the [agreement]—for the remainder of the agreed-upon term provided in the [agreement].”

DuBose said she could not ignore the “ample” evidence showing that the agreement termination was driven by “retaliation” for union advocacy for their members.

The government has presented “little counterevidence to indicate the termination was not retaliatorily motivated and/or would have occurred in the absence of the Plaintiffs’ grievances, litigation conduct, and advocacy.”

The government had a “laser focus” on “how much better the VA could operate without the unions,” the judge added.

AFGE National President Everett Kelley welcomed the new order.

“When the VA signed its contract with AFGE/NVAC, it made a binding commitment to provide AFGE/NVAC-represented nurses, doctors, and other VA staff with the rights and support they need to care for our veterans. That contract cannot be unilaterally torn up,” he said in a statement.

“The VA’s actions didn’t just violate the law. Those same actions put veterans’ care at risk by undermining the very people dedicated to serving them.”

“Today’s ruling holds this administration accountable and makes clear: no one can retaliate against workers for standing up for their rights,” Kelley said.

The Epoch Times reached out for comment to the Department of Veterans Affairs. No reply was received by publication time.