With a one-page memo, the U.S. Department of Defense last week ended union protection for more than 700 workers at a Defense Department office in Oneida County.
The memo, sent to workers at the Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS) facility at the former Griffiss Air Base in Rome, said that President Trump’s executive order of March 2025 that claims that certain defense-related agencies are excluded from having workers be represented by a union.
The workers are – or were – members of the American Federation of Government Employees and are one of several facilities that handle accounting for the Defense Department.
“The union is no longer recognized as an exclusive representative of employees, and bargaining on their behalf will cease,” the memo concluded. Almost immediately, according to Mary Sharp, President of AFGE Local 201 at DFAS Rome, the union was kicked out of its office in the building.
“It’s a sad day,” Sharp said. “We are still here to help people navigate the workplace issues that come about. We might not be able to go in to management [because] they might not acknowledge us. But we're still here to help the hard workers at DFAS. We just don't have an office space now. And they just don't recognize our contract.”
On April 15, the Defense Department ordered nearly all of its component departments to terminate union contracts. President Trump’s executive order cites unspecified national security concerns as the legal basis for eliminating unions.
The union’s national President, Everett Kelley, said in a statement that the union will consider next steps and condemned what he called a cowardly attack on loyal employees, many of whom served in the military.
Central New York Rep. John Mannion (D-Geddes) said in a statement that many of the workers at the facility live in his district, adding, “Donald Trump’s deliberate undermining of the National Labor Relations Board and broader attacks on labor protections have emboldened this administration to keep pushing an anti-worker agenda with little regard for the law or the people and communities affected.”
Mannion said he supported and voted for a bill that would have overruled the Executive Order ending union protections. It passed the House but has not gotten a vote in the Senate.
