Shontel Brown

WASHINGTON - Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered the termination of collective bargaining agreements with Department of Defense unions, in a move that threatens the collective bargaining rights of thousands of civilian workers nationwide -- including hundreds at a Cleveland facility that processes military and retiree pay.

Hegseth issued the order in an April 9 memo obtained by Government Executive that directed his deputies to cancel union contracts within 24 hours. The action targets American Federation of Government Employees locals across the department, though unions that have secured federal court injunctions blocking implementation of the underlying executive order are temporarily shielded from its effects.

Hegseth’s move is an aggressive step to implement an executive order President Donald Trump signed on March 27, 2025, which cited national security grounds to strip collective bargaining rights from workers at dozens of federal agencies, including the Defense Department.

“Protecting America’s national security is a core constitutional duty, and President Trump refuses to let union obstruction interfere with his efforts to protect Americans and our national interests,” said a White House fact sheet on Trump’s order.

Cleveland workers on edge

More than 600 members of AFGE Local 3283, which represents workers at the Defense Finance and Accounting Service in Cleveland, are affected by Hegseth’s order. DFAS handles pay and financial services for U.S. military personnel.

Ebonie Douglas, president of Local 3283, said the announcement has rattled her members.

Without a contract, Douglas said, workers would effectively become at-will employees, leaving them vulnerable to management actions with no negotiated protections.

She said some supervisors have already begun acting outside contract terms, including by violating their reasonable accommodation agreements, placing workers on performance improvement plans without first consulting the union, and imposing dress code requirements that weren’t previously in effect.

“It kind of puts people on edge,” she said.

Douglas said her local’s membership declined from more than 1,000 to just over 600 after the Trump administration stopped allowing payroll deductions for union dues following the executive order, and after hundreds of workers left through a deferred resignation program earlier this year.

She said some of those who left under the deferred resignation program are returning to DFAS because they couldn’t find jobs that were better than what they had.

Douglas said her union is part of litigation in California challenging the legality of Trump’s executive order and had expected the status quo to be maintained while that case proceeds.

She said the union has held marches to increase awareness of its plight, and has encouraged its members to contact their Congress members to fight it.

Brown condemns action

U.S. Rep. Shontel Brown, a Warrensville Heights Democrat whose 11th Congressional District includes Cleveland, issued a statement on Wednesday blasting the decision.

“Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth, two unqualified and incompetent hacks who don’t know a thing about public service or hard work, just tore up union contracts at the Defense Finance and Accounting Service and across DOD,” Brown said. “That reckless move targets thousands of workers in Cleveland who actually keep this country running and keep our servicemen and servicewomen paid, in times of peace and times of war.”

Brown is a co-sponsor of the Protect America’s Workforce Act, legislation that would nullify Trump’s executive order and restore collective bargaining agreements that were in effect before it was signed.

The House passed the bill 231-195 on Dec. 11, 2025, with support from all its Democrats along with 20 Republicans, including U.S. Reps. Dave Joyce of South Russell and Mike Turner of Dayton. The Senate has not taken up the measure.

“The Senate needs to pass the Protecting America’s Workforce Act now,” Brown said. “We are not going to let these two charlatans spit in the face of workers and unions and attack the working men and women of this country.”

Cleveland.com has reached out to the offices of Republican U.S. Sens. Bernie Moreno of Westlake and Jon Husted of suburban Columbus for their views on Hegseth’s actions and their effect on Cleveland’s DFAS workers.

National union responds

AFGE represents 300,000 workers across the Department of Defense, said a statement from the union. National President Everett Kelley, an Army veteran with a 30-year career at the Defense Department, called Hegseth’s action “cowardly.”

“For 50 years, these employees have exercised their union rights; under several administrations, during a global pandemic, and throughout peacetime and wartime, including our most recent conflict with Iran,” Kelley said in a statement. “To rip up the union contracts of civilian employees after touting a successful ceasefire in the Middle East is not only a slap in the face to the employees who supported those efforts, but again proves that this action has nothing to do with national security and everything to do with silencing workers’ voices.”

The union said it is reviewing the memo and “determining what appropriate action to take,” and noted that Hegseth’s order “does not alter the fact that AFGE is still here and will continue to fight for our members and all DoD employees.”