WASHINGTON — The leaders of a union representing about 90,000 professional and technical workers said the Nov. 3 midterm results amount to a rebuke of President Donald Trump’s policies and pledged to press the incoming Congress to restore federal workers’ bargaining rights.
In a joint statement released Nov. 6, International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers President Matt Biggs and Secretary-Treasurer Gay Henson said the outcome was “a clear and outright rejection by working families from across the political spectrum” of the administration’s policies.
The union, based in Washington, represents workers in the United States and Canada, including federal employees. Its leaders said the election would bring “much needed oversight and a check on this rogue administration,” and that the era of what they called a “rubber-stamp Congress” under House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune was ending.
Biggs and Henson said the union would work with new congressional leaders and lawmakers of both parties to restore collective bargaining rights that they said were illegally stripped from members by Trump’s executive orders.
The Trump administration issued executive orders in 2025 ending collective bargaining for large parts of the federal workforce, citing national security. Unions have challenged the orders in court.
The union leaders also said they would push to restore funding for Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which they said was cut by well over $1 trillion by the current Congress and the president to pay for tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.
In addition, the statement said IFPTE will urge lawmakers to use Congress’ spending power to defund and repeal what it called punitive tariffs on Canada.
“As a non-partisan Union, we are pleased that most of our endorsed candidates, from both sides of the aisle, were successful,” Biggs and Henson said. The statement did not name the candidates.
This report is based on information from the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers.
Source: International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers
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