FTC Workers Frustrated With Lina Khan After Union Deal Fizzles

Employees hoped for a long-term contract as Trump prepares a crackdown on federal unions and remote work. They got a temporary one instead.
LOADINGERROR LOADING

Hundreds of Federal Trade Commission workers who unionized last year failed to reach a long-term contract with the agency’s outgoing Democratic chair, the aggressive antitrust enforcer Lina Khan, setting up a likely battle with its new GOP leadership under President Donald Trump.

In an email to a labor official obtained by HuffPost, an FTC employee involved in the union effort expressed frustration at not securing a multiyear deal before Khan, who’s considered a union ally, stepped aside as chair after Trump’s inauguration last week. Instead, the workers, who are represented by the National Treasury Employees Union, agreed to an “interim” contract with no set duration.

The temporary agreement means they will probably end up bargaining with Trump’s new pick for chair, the Republican commissioner Andrew Ferguson. Trump’s agency heads are expected to follow his lead on federal workplace matters, including trimming staff, loosening job protections and cracking down on remote work.

Long-term protections for remote work were one of the main sticking points in the FTC talks.

Khan’s office had offered a long-term contract as the Biden administration came to a close, but the union’s negotiators wouldn’t recommend it to members for approval, according to the email.

“We would never have ratified it; our [union] lawyers correctly called it ‘garbage’ to an emergency members meeting,” the employee wrote. “Not gonna lie — it was a profoundly frustrating experience.”

Khan, the FTC and the NTEU all declined to comment on the contract talks.

“Trump’s agency heads are expected to follow his lead on federal workplace matters, including trimming staff, loosening job protections and cracking down on remote work.”

The union fight inside the commission reflects broader tensions across the federal workforce, with the new administration signaling job cuts and a purge of civil servants viewed as disloyal to the Trump agenda. Among Trump’s first moves in the White House was signing executive orders aimed at ending telework and reclassifying tens of thousands of federal employees to make it easier to fire them.

Federal unions anticipated such hostility and hustled to bargain three- and four-year contracts last year, hoping they could insulate employees deep into Trump’s term. Some federal workers also tried to organize their offices for the first time in order to secure basic union protections.

That was the case at the FTC, where a group that included attorneys, economists and statisticians voted 415 to 25 in favor of joining the NTEU in late September. (Many FTC workers in other job categories were already unionized.) The NTEU said at the time that workers had raised concerns about “access to telework” and “potential politicization of the civil service,” a clear reference to a possible Trump presidency.

The timeline left a little under four months for a first contract to be negotiated and ratified before Inauguration Day.

The FTC employee said management was slow to bargain. The union sent a full contract proposal for review in mid-December; management submitted a full counter proposal on Jan. 17, the Friday before inauguration, according to the FTC employee’s email.

Khan stepped down as chair of the FTC after Trump's inauguration, handing the reins to Republican Andrew Ferguson.
Khan stepped down as chair of the FTC after Trump's inauguration, handing the reins to Republican Andrew Ferguson.
Tom Williams via Getty Images

A source familiar with Khan’s thinking said she was reluctant to offer a long-term contract with broad telework protections, fearing it would put a bull’s-eye on the agency’s back with the White House and Capitol Hill Republicans. Former Social Security Administration Commissioner Martin O’Malley, a Democrat, agreed to a four-year union contract late last year extending telework at the agency. Trump publicly rebuked him and GOP members of Congress questioned him in a House Oversight Committee hearing.

The source said Khan had offered to extend the FTC’s current telework policy — requiring two days in the office per two-week pay period — for another six months, but the union pressed for a longer-term guarantee.

With limited time to finalize a contract, labor allies of the NTEU reached out to Khan to urge a deal, according to a source with knowledge of the situation. The outreach effort included the office of Liz Shuler, the president of the AFL-CIO labor federation. A spokesperson for Shuler declined to comment.

Are you a federal employee with something to share? You can email our reporter here, or contact him over Signal at davejamieson.99.

Khan won many fans within the labor movement during her term as chair. She implemented a landmark ban on noncompete agreements and helped sink the merger of Kroger and Albertsons, which she said would drive down wages for unionized grocery store workers. Her ambitious agenda and willingness to challenge corporate power made her one of the stars of the Biden era.

It also earned her a following among a subset of Republicans who say they favor strong antitrust enforcement, including Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Vice President JD Vance. The endorsement by such “Khanservatives” has prompted debate within the anti-monopoly movement over whether these Republicans are worth working alongside or not to be trusted.

“A source familiar with Khan’s thinking said she was reluctant to offer a long-term contract with strong telework protections for fear it would put a bullseye on the agency’s back.”

Whatever GOP support there may be for Khan’s vision, the FTC appears headed in a different direction under Ferguson.

After he took over as chairman, Ferguson said Trump would “end the previous administration’s assault on the American way of life.” He also moved quickly to unwind the FTC’s diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, calling DEI “a scourge” and praising Trump for his orders undermining it.

While the FTC is an independent agency, Ferguson’s statements so far suggest he’ll try to fulfill Trump’s vision for the federal workforce. “I take seriously my obligation as an officer of the United States to follow the lawful orders of the president of the United States,” Ferguson said Thursday.

The interim deal includes core union safeguards, including a grievance procedure that can protect against discipline and firings. It also states that fully remote workers — that is, those who live far from an FTC office — will be entitled to that arrangement for a period of three years, unless management determines they have “performance deficiencies.”

But that provision could be wiped out in a full-term deal bargained under Ferguson. And if the two sides can’t agree on a contract in bargaining, the dispute could end up before a federal impasse panel led by Trump appointees. During Trump’s first presidency, that panel enabled the administration to essentially rewrite collective bargaining agreements to be less worker-friendly.

So, without a long-term deal, FTC employees could find themselves more vulnerable to Trump’s attacks on the federal workforce. Brian Callaci, chief economist at the Open Markets Institute, an anti-monopoly think tank, registered his apparent concerns on X, formerly called Twitter, on Saturday, though he didn’t reference the FTC by name.

Go Ad-Free — And Protect The Free Press

The next four years will change America forever. But HuffPost won't back down when it comes to providing free and impartial journalism.

For the first time, we're offering an ad-free experience to qualifying contributors who support our fearless newsroom. We hope you'll join us.

You've supported HuffPost before, and we'll be honest — we could use your help again. We won't back down from our mission of providing free, fair news during this critical moment. But we can't do it without you.

For the first time, we're offering an ad-free experience. to qualifying contributors who support our fearless journalism. We hope you'll join us.

You've supported HuffPost before, and we'll be honest — we could use your help again. We won't back down from our mission of providing free, fair news during this critical moment. But we can't do it without you.

For the first time, we're offering an ad-free experience. to qualifying contributors who support our fearless journalism. We hope you'll join us.

Support HuffPost

“If I were leading an independent government agency,” Callaci said, “I would have made sure to sign a [collective bargaining agreement] protecting my agency from arbitrary executive power designed to cause brain drain.”

Close

What's Hot