Union alleges Bureau of Prisons in contempt for failing to reinstate collective bargaining agreement

Reported by CBS News. The paragraphs below are the opening of that article, reproduced word for word — not a summary, and not the whole piece.

The union representing 30,000 Bureau of Prisons employees is asking a federal judge to hold the agency in contempt, alleging that prison leadership has refused to follow the court's order to immediately restore its collective bargaining agreement.

The contempt request, filed Oct. 6, comes just one week after U.S. District Judge Vernon Oliver in Connecticut granted a motion for a preliminary injunction against the Bureau of Prisons that was sought by the National Council of Prison Locals.

Bureau of Prisons Director William Marshall terminated the collective bargaining agreement on Sept. 25, 2025. He alleged the union posed an "obstacle to progress" and said it was not the "kind of union" he could support.

The judge ruled that the union was likely to succeed on the merits of its argument that the BOP had violated the Administrative Procedure Act by terminating the collective bargaining agreement and ordered the bureau to reinstate it immediately.

In its motion for contempt, the union alleged that bureau leadership is stonewalling and refusing to allow the union to resume its usual operations, including by allowing people to have "official" union time.

In one such example, the motion and an accompanying sworn statement said that a BOP employee who was facing termination asked to be represented by a shop steward at the meeting.