Judge Orders Bureau of Prisons to Restore Union Protections for 30,000 Workers

Q: Why did a judge call the Bureau of Prisons’ reasons for canceling its union contract contrived and pretextual?

Judge Vernon D. Oliver said the Bureau of Prisons’ explanation did not match the evidence and appeared to mask other motives. In his ruling, Oliver found that the bureau kept honoring the collective bargaining agreement for about six months after the March 2025 executive order that it later cited as the basis for canceling the contract. That delay undercut the claim that the agreement had to be ended because of the directive. He also pointed to Bureau Director William K. Marshall III’s own public statements. Marshall said the prison workers’ union was not the “kind of union” he supported and complained that the contract had “too often slowed or prevented changes.” The judge treated those remarks as evidence that the real reason for ending the contract was hostility to the union and frustration with contractual limits on management, rather than the legal justification the agency presented. Based on that record, Oliver said the bureau likely acted arbitrarily under the Administrative Procedure Act. In other words, the court believed the agency had not offered a genuine, reasoned basis for terminating a contract that had been revised in November 2024 and was supposed to remain in effect through May 2029. That is why he described the bureau’s stated reasons as “contrived and pretextual” and ordered the union protections restored while the case continues.

3 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Sep 30

A Connecticut federal judge ordered the Bureau of Prisons to immediately reinstate union protections for more than 30,000 prison workers after the agency scrapped its collective bargaining agreement last year.
In a 32-page ruling, Judge Vernon D. Oliver said Director William K. Marshall III acted arbitrarily and relied on contrived, pretextual reasons when canceling the contract.
Brandy Moore White, who leads the Council of Prison Locals, said the union expects prompt compliance, but reported Wednesday afternoon that the bureau had made "no movement" and the agency did not immediately comment.
The decision undercuts President Trump’s broader push to strip union rights from hundreds of thousands of federal workers under an executive order, a campaign now facing lawsuits across multiple agencies, including a new EPA case.