WASHINGTON (TNND) — A federal judge in Washington will allow President Donald Trump to move forward with the mass firings of federal workers after a union requested layoffs be temporarily blocked.

U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper acknowledged the struggles the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) and four other unions are facing but that they fail "to establish that it is likely to succeed on the merits because this Court likely lacks subject matter jurisdiction over the claims it asserts. The Court will therefore deny the unions’ motion for a temporary restraining order and, for the same reasons, deny their request for a preliminary injunction."

The ruling comes as thousands of federal government employees have been laid off due to Trump's Feb. 11 executive order for "large-scale reductions" in the workforce.

Cooper explained that the type of motions the NTEU is seeking should go before the Federal Labor Relations Authority.

The unions, representing hundreds of thousands of federal workers, maintain that Trump’s efforts to slash the federal workforce conflicts with Congress’ power to shape the size and direction of agencies through funding decisions, as well as laws detailing how such layoffs must be carried out.

The president of the National Treasury Employees Union, Doreen Greenwald, said in a statement that the court's decision is a "temporary setback."

"The lawsuit we filed with our labor union partners will be heard and federal employees will get their day in court to challenge the unlawful mass firings and other attacks on their jobs, their agencies, and their service to the country," Greenwald wrote.

The Trump administration began mass layoffs this month, including more than 1,000 people at the Department of Veteran Affairs, 3,000 people at the U.S. Forest Service and around 6,000 people with the IRS.

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Editor's note: The Associated Press contributed to this article.