BOP Cancels Union Rights for Prison Guards
More than 30,000 federal prison guards lost collective bargaining rights when, on September 25, 2025, the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) announced it was canceling its union contract with the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), the umbrella union that represents the agency’s employees.
As PLN previously reported, the cancellation came as a result of an executive order signed by President Donald Trump (R) that directed dozens of executive branch agencies—with the BOP explicitly included—to nullify their union agreements [See: PLN, May 2025, p. 17]. “The whole purpose of ending this contract,” BOP Director William K. Marshall III wrote in a blog post defending the decision, “is to make your lives better.”
In addition to gutting protections against unsafe working conditions, pro-union advocates say that de-recognizing the union will make it harder to retain or attract new employees at an agency that has, for years, been plagued by severe understaffing. The BOP operates 122 prisons, locks up 155,000 prisoners, and has an annual budget of over $8.5 billion; it also has, according to the Associated Press, a $3 billion maintenance and repair backlog, thousands of vacant positions, and more than 4,000 beds that are unusable due to hazards like mold and asbestos.
The fewer employees working at the BOP, union proponents claim, the worse these issues will become, making conditions more unsafe for both prisoners and guards alike. On the other hand, prison-guard unions are often criticized for shielding abusive guards. In 2022, for example, an Illinois warden was thwarted from firing violent guards due, in part, to union resistance.
While a legal challenge mounted by the AFGE could eventually reverse the decision, many guards are—as of this writing—working both without a contract and, due to the government shutdown, without pay. “The vast majority of our members are Republicans and voted for [Trump],” Brandy Moore White, president of the AFGE Council of Prison Locals, told the Federal News Network. “I literally cannot explain to you how many messages I’ve gotten from them saying this is such a slap in the face.”
Additional sources: The Marshal Project, Government Executive
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