Erich Wagner

The U.S. Bureau of Prisons director reportedly said in a meeting shortly before an injunction required him to restore the agency’s union contracts, “I don’t take directives from the court. I take my orders from the president.”

Attorneys for the Trump administration said there is nothing in U.S. District Judge Vernon Oliver’s preliminary injunction preventing BOP from canceling its collective bargaining agreements a second time.

Former federal workers are set to receive between 2.6% and 3.6% more from their retirement annuity next year, according to new numbers from the Social Security Administration.

Individuals hired as departmental police officers, firefighters and security guards, exempted from Trump’s anti-union orders, remain covered under the expired collective bargaining agreement, albeit only for “mandatory” conditions of employment.

U.S. District Judge Jordan Oliver found that the agency’s re-termination of its collective bargaining agreements last week violated last month’s preliminary injunction but said he would not police individual contract infractions.

The American Federation of Government Employees asked a federal judge to issue an “indicative” ruling that would only take effect if OKed by the First Circuit Court of Appeals.

A federal whistleblower says the agency instituted a forced distribution of employee performance ratings last year, months before the Trump administration lifted a ban on the practice.

One union local president said he is still routinely denied official time, has meeting requests ignored, and that his prison has failed to reinstitute compressed work schedules.

U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman said adopting the Trump administration’s argument that the Civil Service Reform Act usurps presidential power would “unsettle the very equilibrium of this nation’s constitutional system.”

Union officials said that though the final rule is an improvement over the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service’s initial plan, it still improperly usurps arbitrators’ authority.