Gillibrand, Schumer Push Secretary Hegseth To Restore Collective Bargaining Rights To 300,000 Department Of Defense Employees

Washington, D.C. – Yesterday, U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), member of the Senate Committee on Armed Services, along with Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Congressmen Paul Tonko (D-NY) and John Mannion (D-NY), criticized Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s unilateral termination of collective bargaining rights for 300,000 Department of Defense (DoD) employees. These include more than 1,400 civilian defense workers at Fort Drum and the Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS) in Rome, New York in addition to nearly 800 civilian employees at Watervliet Arsenal in New York’s Capital Region.

The termination, which took place on April 9, impacted employees who have “dedicated decades of service to the American people, including by previously serving in the military—support the readiness of our armed forces, manage essential financial operations, and sustain mission critical Department of Defense infrastructure and support elements.”

In the letter, the members emphasized, “Stripping these employees of their collective bargaining rights undermines not only their workplace protections, but also the stability, morale, and effectiveness of the civilian workforce that our military depends on so our servicemembers—especially those who are forward deployed—can focus on their warfighting missions.”

The civilian-led operations at Fort Drum, DFAS Rome, and Watervliet Arsenal are vital pillars of national security. Their work is essential to ensuring the military remains combat-ready and capable of responding to global threats at a moment’s notice. Fort Drum has the largest in-house Directorate of Public Works (DPW) in the U.S. Army, consisting of more than 300 civilian employees, and Watervliet Arsenal is the oldest continuously active arsenal in the United States, run almost entirely by its civilian workforce for the last 212 years.

The members continued the letter by underscoring the urgency of collective bargaining rights restoration, writing, “When workplace protections are stripped away, it creates uncertainty, lowers morale, and increases the risk of workforce attrition in highly specialized roles that cannot be easily or quickly replaced.” For example, they wrote, “Breakdowns in reimbursement systems could hinder troop mobility, slowing deployments and reassignments at a time when agility and precision are essential.” Weakening the Department of Defense’s civilian workforce doesn’t just impact personnel; it actively erodes the combat readiness of the entire military.

The members continued their letter by writing that eliminating collective bargaining rights amid existing staffing shortages creates a dangerous cycle of instability. In today’s hyper-competitive labor market, these actions will inevitably drive away seasoned professionals and cripple recruitment efforts. This is a national security risk that threatens to hollow out the readiness of the 10th Mountain Division at Fort Drum and the entire U.S. military.

The members closed the letter by underscoring, “National security and labor rights are not mutually exclusive. A strong and secure nation depends on a federal workforce that has robust job protections and is treated with the respect it has earned.”

The full text of the letter can be found here.

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