The Trump administration continued its attacks on federal workers this week with a new “agreement” that would kneecap the power of unions representing EPA employees.

The development, as watchdog group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) noted Wednesday, is a new “Master Collective Bargaining Agreement” between the federal agency and the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE). Far from an agreement, said PEER, the document is really an “edict.”

It was not the result of negotiations.

“In the Trump world, there is no bargaining, only ultimatums,” said PEER executive director Tim Whitehouse, a former EPA enforcement attorney.

EPA attorney Robert Coomber announced (pdf) the change in an email to employees on Monday, in which he said the new document was handed down because AFGE wanted to limit the number of potential changes to the existing agreement. The new, non-negotiated agreement, said Coomber, will be effective starting July 8, 2019.

The 75-page agreement (pdf) lays out a number of changes that would limit the union’s ability to help employees. As noted by PEER, the new terms would, among other things, require the union to vacate its office space; deprive employees of union grievance and arbitration for terminations, discipline, lay-offs, and a host of other adverse actions; slash the amount and scope of time union officials could spend assisting employees; and deprive union access to websites, agency intranet, and even bulletin boards in communicating with its members.