The union representing more than 8,000 workers at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) filed a lawsuit against the agency and administrator Lee Zeldin on Tuesday alleging the agency illegally terminated the union’s collective bargaining agreement.

The lawsuit, filed by two local unions of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), claims the agency failed to justify the contract’s termination and was motivated by a desire to repress political dissent, a violation of the employees’ first amendment rights.

“While the dedicated civil servants … are working hard every day to advance the Agency’s mission to protect human health and the environment, the Agency has turned its back on them, unlawfully eliminating their workplace protections and stifling their free speech rights,” the lawsuit said.

The EPA terminated the collective bargaining agreement in August 2025, citing Donald Trump’s executive order earlier that year that sought to eliminate collective bargaining agreements for more than 1 million federal workers. The union is asking a court to restore the union contract.

The contract went into effect in June 2024 and was supposed to last through June 2028. It included a scientific integrity provision aimed to protect workers at the agency from retaliation.

Justin Chen, president of AFGE Council 238, said the union’s members work as civil servants because they believe in the agency’s mission and in serving the public.

“They believe in the kind of work that they do,” Chen said. “When they’re gagged and have no rights, they’re unable to serve the American public, they can’t do their jobs and they can’t serve the agency’s mission.”

The EPA declined to comment, citing a longstanding practice on not commenting on pending litigation.

Earlier this month, an arbitrator ruled in favor of EPA workers in a separate local union, AFGE Local 704, over the EPA’s disciplining of 139 workers who signed an open dissent letter, in violation of the union’s collective bargaining agreement. The EPA disciplined the workers despite emails revealing a top EPA attorney warned the agency about its legal risk.

The arbitrator ordered the agency to wipe the workers’ records, provide them with back pay and cover the union’s attorney fees.

Since Trump took office in January 2025, about 4,000 workers have left the EPA through resignations, early retirements and layoffs, reducing the agency’s workforce to about 12,700 employees.

“The protection of my members is incredibly important and paramount, quite frankly, to an effective civil service [and for] protecting the American public,” Chen said.