IFPTE Joins Lawsuit Preventing RIFs during a Shutdown

On October 15th, a judge in the US District Court ruled in a lawsuit brought by federal labor unions, that recent layoffs by the Trump administration during the shutdown were illegal, and placed at least a temporary halt on those actions and any future Reduction and Force (RIF) actions across the federal government impacting employees under those unions during a shutdown.  In response to this ruling, NASA Chief Human Capital Officer, Kelly Elliot made a declaration in court on October 17th that NASA would abide by this ruling.  On October 21st the lawsuit was amended to add additional unions and plaintiffs, including IFPTE, the international union under which GESTA is a local. And on October 22nd, the judge in the case ordered that the temporary restraining order be expanded to include those additional agencies and unions. The restraining order was extended by the judge  “indefinitely” on October 28th. The bottom line is that under this amended lawsuit and restraining order, NASA is now prevented from carrying out RIF actions impacting GESTA or other NASA IFPTE employees during this shutdown.  Note the direction by the judge in this case is that this ruling applies even though NASA and other agencies may no longer be recognizing union bargaining rights. If interested, you can follow this case on Court Listener.