Posts tagged bureaucracy
Teamsters president notes ‘positive change’ with growing Republican union support in Senate testimony
October 9, 2025 // Rachel Greszler, senior research fellow at The Heritage Foundation, said the complexity of collective bargaining agreements means that both workers forming a union and the employer need ample time to consider their implications for the future of the company and its workforce. "When you have a first contract, especially if you have a company that has never been involved in negotiations or a union, that it's the first time that they're representing workers, they need to understand all the issues," she explained. She also said contracts like the United Auto Workers union's agreements with automakers such as Ford can run thousands of pages when accounting for memorandums of agreement, with several hundred items covered under the bargaining agreement.
Commentary: When fighting Trump, take union claims with a grain of salt
October 7, 2025 // Government unions faced another momentous reform seven years ago when the Supreme Court ruled in Janus v. AFSCME. The court held that public sector workers have a First Amendment right to completely withdraw from union membership and dues. In essence, the court created a nationwide right-to-work law for all public sector workers, including teachers, police officers, firefighters, and all other federal, state, and local government workers. No longer would they have to join or pay a union to keep their job. Government unions hated this ruling, of course. In a desperate attempt to sway the Supreme Court, union-paid prognosticators predicted massive negative economic effects if the court ruled against unions.
Op-ed: Trump Is Right to Take On the Federal-Worker Unions
September 4, 2025 // Today, only 6 percent of private sector workers are union members. Virtually the only unions that are growing are public sector unions — such as the teachers’ unions. Today, more than one in three government workers in the U.S. belongs to a union. But over 85 percent of those work at the state and local level — not in the federal government. That makes it vital for states to follow President Trump’s lead — along with that of states like Wisconsin — and end collective bargaining for their public employees.
VA severs ties with most federal unions, terminating worker contracts
August 7, 2025 // Veterans Affairs leaders on Wednesday announced plans to terminate nearly all of its collective bargaining contracts with federal unions, upending employment agreements for hundreds of thousands of department workers. The move affects members of the American Federation of Government Employees, the AFL-CIO (AFGE), the National Association of Government Employees (NAGE), the National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE), the National Nurses Organizing Committee/National Nurses United (NNOC/NNU) and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).
Comer introduces bill to help small business owners
July 19, 2025 // Kentucky First District Congressman James Comer, R-Tompkinsville, has introduced the Save Local Business Act, which clarifies the joint employer standard to provide certainty for small business owners and workers across the country. Comer notes that in recent years, small businesses have suffered under unelected bureaucrats at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) who have dramatically expanded the definition of “joint employer” and implemented burdensome regulations for small businesses. “Congress must promote policies that empower small businesses and free them from stifling regulations pushed by an unchecked and unelected federal bureaucracy,”
Op-ed: America must lead on the gig economy — or others will set the rules
June 10, 2025 // Look at California’s catastrophic Assembly Bill 5, which tried to reclassify most independent contractors as employees. Instead of improving livelihoods, it triggered chaos. Freelancers across media, transportation, tech, and the arts lost contracts overnight. Self-employment rates cratered. Only after a voter revolt and economic fallout did lawmakers scramble to undo the damage, carving out one exemption after another — a slow-motion admission that they had gone too far. Now, the ILO wants to make AB 5 the global gold standard for the gig economy.
Texas Takes a Crucial Step for Worker Freedom
June 3, 2025 // Although the passage of HB 11 is cause for celebration, the work is far from over. The implementation of this bill will be crucial, requiring licensing agencies to actively engage with their counterparts in other states while reexamining and modernizing their own licensing requirements. The biennial reports mandated by HB 11 will provide valuable insights into the progress being made and highlight where further reforms may be needed. Texas has taken an important step toward unlocking greater economic opportunity and becoming an even more attractive destination for skilled professionals. By embracing the principles of reciprocity, Texas leaders have signaled that their state values talent over regulations and bureaucracy.
Blackburn: By reining in federal labor unions, Congress can cut down on government waste | OPINION
March 27, 2025 // That’s why Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and I recently introduced the Federal Workforce Freedom Act, which would put a stop to all collective bargaining agreements between federal agencies and labor unions. Among its provisions, this legislation would prohibit federal employees from participating in labor unions for the purposes of collective bargaining, ban federal agencies from engaging in collective bargaining negotiations, and immediately terminate all collective bargaining agreements.
OPINION: Federal Workers Shouldn’t Have Collective-Bargaining Rights
March 25, 2025 // To that end, Trump should push the GOP-controlled House and Senate to pass legislation banning federal workers from collectively bargaining. He and other leaders should frame that policy as a way to save taxpayers’ money. As the Institute for the American Worker has shown, the collective-bargaining process costs taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars yearly. Trump wouldn’t be the first president to oppose federal collective bargaining. Even liberal icon Franklin Delano Roosevelt rejected the practice, arguing that it made government less accountable. He was right. When federal unions negotiate with agencies, the taxpayers who fund them have no voice.
Trump gives taxpayers union collective bargaining transparency
March 24, 2025 // Taxpayers are spending money negotiating with unions over a supposed right to wear spandex in federal offices. Unions are also negotiating with the federal government over the height of cubicle desk panels—how far they reach the floor. And negotiations even focus on things like carving out smoking zones on federal properties that are supposed to be smoke-free. While government unions can’t legally bargain over wages and benefits set by federal law, they’re left negotiating over these types of picayune demands, making the bargaining process incredibly costly. Taxpayers are getting hit over and over. The public pays for the salaries of the federal negotiators and, in many cases, even for the union officials on the other side of the bargaining table. Taxpayers also pay for travel and other expenses. Negotiating often requires hiring costly outside experts, factfinders, mediators, and arbitrators. Even the pens and paper negotiators use are on the taxpayer’s dime. The bargaining process can take months, if not years, and taxpayers spend more money daily.