Um…happy Labor Day.

Federal employees have had the right to join unions and collectively bargain over working conditions since the 1960s. Unlike private sector workers, government employees cannot negotiate wages or strike. But through collective bargaining, they do help shape disciplinary procedures, parental leave policies, how overtime is managed and much more.

Giving workers a say in workplace policies, the thinking goes, leads to less friction in the workplace and more effective government.

But President Trump has abandoned that idea. Instead, he’s argued that federal employee unions pose a danger to the country. In March, he issued an executive order ending collective bargaining rights for more than one million federal workers at about 20 federal agencies. Almost immediately, many agencies halted automatic deductions of union dues from employee paychecks, cutting off a critical source of cash flow to the unions. Just ahead of Labor Day, Trump issued a new executive order, adding about a half dozen agencies to the list.

Of course he did.

In his March and August executive orders, Trump leans on a provision in federal law that gives him authority to end collective bargaining rights at agencies that have national security as a primary function. Past presidents have used that authority sparingly. Trump is applying it to a broad swath of agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency, the Justice Department, the National Weather Service and the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which oversees the embattled Voice of America.

The president’s rationale is that it hurts national security when unions are able to obstruct management. In a “fact sheet” issued alongside the March executive order, the White House cited the many legal challenges unions have brought. “Certain Federal unions have declared war on President Trump’s agenda,” the document said.

And the workers must not be allowed to challenge the bosses. End of.

Across the federal government, some workers aren’t waiting around to see what happens. They’re quitting now, having decided a government job just isn’t worth it anymore. Many workers fear with unions gone, they won’t have a say in matters such as telework or family leave policies that make a difference to their quality of life.

…

Lee says the government is losing chemists, toxicologists, engineers and others who ensure drugs and medical devices are safe and effective and food ingredients aren’t poisonous.

“It is already, in my view, harming the public because we’re losing that institutional knowledge. We’re losing that subject matter expertise,” Lee says. “As much as the current administration thinks that everyone is just quickly replaceable, they’re not.”

Pfffff. One worker is like any other worker. It’s like replacing a light bulb.