In a 40-page order issued October 13, U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria of the Northern District of California ordered defendants USDA and Secretary Brooke Rollins and their officers and agents to stay from closing or consolidating the resources of any Agricultural Research Service (ARS) laboratory or facility including the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center (BARC). The defendants are further prohibited from relocating or reassigning the employees or their positions or functions for any such ARS laboratory or facility to different or new locations outside the local commuting area.
The order states that, as proposed, “USDA’s office closures and employee relocations are likely to cause the union plaintiffs imminent and irreparable harm … These plaintiffs represent thousands of USDA employees who now ‘face the impending loss of their jobs, wages, and health benefits, because they cannot relocate far from their home.’”
The order applies also to the Food and Nutrition Administration; the Research, Education and Economics mission area; Foreign Agricultural Service; Rural Development; the Farm Production and Conservation mission area; the Office of the General Counsel and the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights.
The defendants were to notify all affected USDA employees by email and by posting the order on the USDA Reorganization website within two days.