'Setback': Trump gets green light to gut federal unions’ bargaining power

President Donald Trump got a federal appeals court's blessing Friday night to move forward with ending collective bargaining with many federal unions.

The three-judge San Francisco panel lifted a lower court's order that blocked the Trump administration from stripping hundreds of thousands of federal workers of their ability to engage in union bargaining with agencies, Reuters reported. The panel paused an injunction handed down that had been obtained by six unions.

The liberal appeals court panel, made up of two Trump appointees and an Obama appointee, said Trump's order did not "express any retaliatory animus." The judges also sided with Trump's administration that the president "would have taken the same action even in the absence of the protected conduct."

Everett Kelley, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees union, called the Friday ruling "a setback for First Amendment rights in America." He said the union is "confident in our ability to ultimately prevail."

Agencies could change working conditions and more easily hire and fire workers if the Trump administration eliminated collective bargaining. Unions could also be barred from taking the Trump administration to court over such initiatives.