Tech Employees in U.S. Department of Education Lose Collective Bargaining Protections

According to AFGE Local 252, in January 2026 approximately 120 employees in the Department of Education's Office of the Chief Information Officer and Federal Student Aid's Office of the Chief Technology Officer were told they no longer had union protections. Their positions were identified as having "primary functions" involving intelligence, counterintelligence, investigative or national security work, which are excluded from collective bargaining protections under President Trump's Executive Order 14,251.