Posts tagged Carter administration
You paid $181 million for union bosses to negotiate against you in 2024, but the Trump administration is doing something about it
February 19, 2026 // Even the “usual” topics of labor-relations negotiations are not part of federal bargaining. As Molly Conway, who served as Chief of Staff to the Department of Labor in the first Trump administration, wrote in a primer for the Institute for the American Worker: Management rights and any matters “specifically provided for by Federal statute” are not bargainable. This includes pay, health insurance, retirement, and certain workplace insurance (e.g., workers’ compensation, unemployment insurance), among others. [citations omitted]
A ‘War’ on the Civil Service or Controlling a Powerful Union Political Machine?
May 17, 2025 // Fed unions remain unable to strike — enforced by President Reagan’s firing striking air-traffic controllers — so unions became powerful in more subtle ways. A study by the Institute for the American Worker documents how Federal government unionization works today. “Generally, federal employees are not permitted to strike, and their unions are limited in what conditions of employment they may bargain over.” Management rights and other matters “specifically provided” for by federal statute are still not bargainable. “This includes pay, health insurance, retirement, and certain workplace insurance (e.g., workers’ compensation, unemployment insurance), among other benefits.” The study continues,
Biden Labor Department offers new rule on “prevailing wages” that is less accurate
August 8, 2023 // “The Biden administration’s decision to turn back the clock on Davis-Bacon Act regulations to a Carter administration-era version will benefit a few well-connected unions while raising costs on taxpayers. The administration’s new rule will allow a survey of just a third of workers to calculate the ‘prevailing wages’ to be used when awarding federal contracts. It only takes a basic understanding of math to know that that 30 percent is not a majority and therefore cannot be said to be ‘prevailing’ in any common understanding of the term. Rather this new rule will allow for cherry-picked statistics that result in wage inflation, driving up the costs of those contracts.”