A federal judge last week ordered the Bureau of Prisons to immediately reinstate the union contract covering about 30,000 correctional officers and staff AFGE represents nationwide, ruling that the agency broke the law by unilaterally terminating the contract a year ago.
BOP Director William Marshall III terminated the contract on Sept. 25, 2025, stripping protections from employees at the agency’s 122 facilities across the United States. The same day, Marshall posted a public “Message from the Director” on BOP’s website indicating that his decision to terminate the contract was based on his view of the union council.
On Nov. 13, 2025, AFGE’s National Council of Prison Locals (AFGE Council 33) filed a federal lawsuit challenging the termination along with AFGE Local 1661, which represents employees at the Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury, Conn. The lawsuit asserts that the contract termination violated the Administrative Procedure Act because it was arbitrary and capricious and violated the First Amendment because it was unlawful retaliation for the union’s protected activity.
U.S. District Judge Vernon Oliver of the District of Connecticut granted the union’s motion for a preliminary injunction on Sept. 29. Judge Oliver found that the unions are likely to succeed on their claim that the termination was arbitrary and capricious.
“We look forward to BOP promptly complying with Judge Oliver’s decision and reinstating our contract,” AFGE Council 33 National President Brandy Moore White said. “Our members believe in the mission of this agency and in the protections the contract provides to advance that mission. We are hopeful that management will work with us in a productive, good-faith partnership going forward to make our institutions safer for staff and the public alike.”
In particular, the court found that BOP’s stated justification for terminating the contract was pretextual. BOP “published two incongruent explanations for the termination” on the same day, the court wrote, and while “an agency may have multiple reasons for its action, it cannot offer an entirely pretextual explanation that is undermined by its own contradictory assertions made the same day.”
Judge Oliver also found that the unions and their members are suffering irreparable harm. He cited evidence that since the termination, BOP has disciplined and fired employees without due process protections, forced employees to work overtime in dangerous conditions, blocked union representatives from traveling to Capitol Hill to meet with members of Congress, and barred them from speaking with the media.
The court ordered BOP to immediately reinstate the contract for the remainder of its term and rejected the government’s demand that the unions post an $8.75 million bond, requiring a nominal $1,000 bond instead.
“I am proud of our brothers and sisters in the Council of Prison Locals for fighting for their members’ rights and safety,” AFGE National President Everett Kelley said. “The court’s decision rightly restores a contract that protects our correctional officers and the public. The government’s termination of this contract was nothing more than an arbitrary attack on hardworking Americans, and the court saw it for exactly what it was.”
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