The Trump administration has accelerated efforts to dismantle collective-bargaining agreements across the federal workforce, voiding contracts at the Department of Veterans Affairs and Environmental Protection Agency and moving to do the same at the Department of Agriculture. The VA’s decision ends union protections for more than 400,000 employees, while the EPA cancellation affects roughly 8,000 staff. Reuters documents show the USDA plans to terminate agreements covering about 8,100 food-safety and plant-health inspectors. The agencies cite a March executive order that permits them to exclude employees from bargaining on national-security grounds. Unions and Democratic lawmakers contend the moves amount to union-busting and will erode public services. The American Federation of Government Employees said it will challenge the actions in court; a USDA inspectors’ union has already filed suit. Congressional Democrats are gathering signatures for a discharge petition to bring the Protect America’s Workforce Act to a floor vote, arguing they have sufficient bipartisan support to overturn the executive order. At the VA, the contract terminations coincide with growing personnel strains. A report released this week by the department’s Office of Inspector General found Veterans Health Administration facilities reported 4,434 severe staffing shortages in fiscal 2025, a 50% jump from the previous year. Ninety-four percent of facilities cited shortages of physicians and 79% reported shortages of nurses. Lawmakers warn the loss of collective-bargaining protections will make recruitment and retention even harder for an agency already struggling to fill medical posts. Agency officials defend the policy shift as a way to create more agile, performance-focused workplaces. The VA said vacancy rates for doctors and nurses stand at 14% and 10%, respectively—levels it described as consistent with historical norms—while the USDA called its move part of a broader effort to become “farmer-first.” The dispute now heads to Congress and the courts, setting up a broader fight over the future of organized labor in the federal government.