FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Sept. 8, 2026
Contacts: AFGE: Tim Kauffman, tim.kauffman@afge.org
AFSCME: Zach Hudson, zhudson@afscme.org
NFFE: Matt Dorsey, mdorsey@nffe.org
NTEU: Jack Delaney, jack.delaney@nteu.org
Democracy Forward: press@democracyforward.org
Unions Lead Filing of New Lawsuit to Stop USDA Reorganization
New complaint and renewed preliminary injunction motion filed after the court ruled the challenge to USDA’s reorganization belongs in its own case
SAN FRANCISCO – Four unions representing U.S. Department of Agriculture employees, joined by nonprofit organizations and cities and counties from across the country, filed a new lawsuit today in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California to stop the Trump administration from implementing an unlawful reorganization of the department.
The complaint names USDA and Secretary Brooke Rollins as defendants, and an accompanying renewed motion for a preliminary injunction asks the court to halt imminent forced relocations of employees that are part of a reorganization, a reorganization the agency has proceeded with despite Congress expressly prohibiting such action absent congressional approval. USDA has already begun forcing employees to choose between forced relocation or the loss of their jobs.
The union plaintiffs are the American Federation of Government Employees, AFL-CIO (AFGE); the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, AFL-CIO (AFSCME); the National Federation of Federal Employees, IAM, AFL-CIO (NFFE); and the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU). Together, the four unions speak for USDA employees in nearly every corner of the department this reorganization touches.
The full coalition also includes the County of Santa Clara, California; the City and County of San Francisco, California; Prince George’s County, Maryland; the Alliance of Crop, Soil and Environmental Science Societies; the American Geophysical Union; the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks; NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council); and Western Watersheds Project.
The coalition filed this separate lawsuit pursuant to an order Judge Susan Illston issued last week in AFGE v. Trump, the coalition’s broader challenge to the administration’s unlawful reshaping of the federal government. The coalition prepared and filed this lawsuit and renewed request for preliminary relief just days after Judge Illston held in AFGE v. Trump that these claims merited their own case.
USDA’s unlawful plan would close or sharply cut capacity at offices and facilities across the department. It would gut the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, the nation’s premier agricultural research facility. It moves the Forest Service headquarters from Washington, D.C., to Salt Lake City, closes all nine Forest Service regional offices, and shuts 23 research locations across 15 states. The plan would close five of seven regional offices of the Food and Nutrition Administration (FNA) and require employees to relocate across the country, undermining the efficient administration of critical nutrition programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children. It also ships Foreign Agricultural Service employees – whose work focuses on international trade – to Kansas City and relocates Rural Development and Farm Production and Conservation national functions away from the national capital region.
“On behalf of the tens of thousands of USDA employees AFGE represents, I am urging the court to put an immediate halt to this illegal and disruptive reorganization,” said AFGE National President Everett Kelley. “USDA employees keep our food safe, stand behind our farmers, make sure our children are fed, and keep thousands of American businesses running. Instead of investing in these public servants, this administration wants to dismantle the USDA and gut the workforce that our country depends on.”
“This illegal reorganization will jeopardize families’ access to food and eliminate the jobs of qualified public service workers,” said AFSCME President Patrick Moran. “Instead of addressing the cost-of-living crisis that is making life unaffordable, the administration is attempting to gut the agency that supports rural communities and strengthens our food supply. We are filing this lawsuit to protect these workers who provide essential services to communities across the country.”
“This reorganization is not merely misguided; we believe it is unlawful,” said NFFE National President Randy Erwin. “Congress expressly prohibited USDA from carrying out a reorganization without congressional approval, yet the administration is proceeding anyway, in defiance of the law and the constitutional separation of powers. The consequences will extend far beyond Washington: forcing experienced USDA employees to choose between uprooting their families and losing their jobs will drive out expertise, devastate USDA and its agencies, and disrupt critical services that support farmers and rural communities, feed families, advance agricultural research, and protect our forests and public lands. Congress said no to this reorganization for a reason. The administration must follow the law.”
“It is a sad day when federal employees have to fight back just to do their jobs and serve the American people. This reorganization is not about efficiency. It is about eliminating jobs, gutting federal agencies, and cutting the services that millions of Americans depend on,” said NTEU National President Doreen Greenwald.
“The Trump administration’s meddling in the structure and function of the U.S. Forest Service, and closure of Regional Offices and research facilities, will impair the management of our National Forests and National Grasslands, and undermine the legal safeguards that protect public lands and wildlife,” said Western Watersheds Project Executive Director Erik Molvar. “This effort to eliminate land management professionals and reshuffle entire agencies without congressional authorization presents a clear violation of the separation of powers that is at the heart of American democracy.”
These cuts will make the food on American tables less safe, wildfires harder to fight, and rural communities wait longer for help, all while leaving farmers with less support. The lawsuit alleges that USDA knew forced relocation would drive out its experienced people and never once studied what losing that expertise would do to the department’s ability to meet its statutory obligations.
Altshuler Berzon LLP and Democracy Forward are lead counsel and represent the unions and most other plaintiffs.
“The Trump-Vance administration’s attempts to undermine the important work of public employees at USDA will do real harm to families everywhere who rely on the USDA to ensure the food they eat is safe and nutritious, to keep them safe from wildfires, to support farming families throughout the nation, and so much more,” said Skye Perryman, President and CEO of Democracy Forward. “We are honored to work with this extraordinary coalition to protect civil servants from unlawful attacks that will leave the USDA unable to provide crucial services to the American people.”
“USDA’s unlawful reorganization threatens essential programs like food assistance, fire prevention, and critical research,” said San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu. “By closing offices and forcing staff relocations, USDA is creating disruptions that local governments will be forced to address. We’re asking the Court to halt this plan before it undermines services our residents depend on.”
“The administration cannot dismantle USDA when Congress has prohibited it. This latest attempt to harm federal employees and the critical services they deliver is unlawful and should be enjoined,” said Corinne Johnson of Altshuler Berzon LLP.
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