Posts tagged Executive Order
(I4AW) Report Shows Extent of Tax Dollars Spent on Public-Sector Unionism
January 17, 2025 // After the last official report was compiled in 2019, the OPM stopped reporting the hours and costs involved in union-related “official time” despite repeated calls from House Education and Workforce Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx for President Trump’s 2018 Executive Order to be honored. Pushback continued in 2023 when Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) directed a letter to the OPM querying why the website reporting page went missing in July of that year, only to be told the site was undergoing “maintenance”. In March of last year, Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) introduced legislation entitled the Taxpayer-Funded Union Time Transparency Act which called on a return to reporting on the part of the OPM regarding time spent on collective bargaining. In August, Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) introduced a bill entitled the No Union Time on the Taxpayer’s Dime Act to curtail union activities by federal employees during work hours. All these attempts to increase transparency for taxpayers were roadblocked by Democrats in Congress and even now, the site still has not re-emerged – making I4AW’s report even more critical.
Federal Employees Face Telework Limits, Hiring Freeze on Trump’s First Day
January 14, 2025 // The inauguration of Donald Trump is fast approaching. Reports of Executive Orders on his first day on telework and a federal hiring freeze are now surfacing.
Commentary: Labor unions prepare for battle against Trump’s federal workforce plans
November 25, 2024 // Federal unions will be a favorite target, as they were previously. In 2018, Trump issued three executive orders that nearly blew away the ability of federal employees — notably, not just union members — to be fully represented by labor organizations, particularly in grievance procedures. President Joe Biden revoked those orders shortly after taking office. Beyond what Trump did before, what he might do next has union leaders ready for a fight
What Trump’s win means for the federal workforce
November 6, 2024 // That’s because Trump has vowed to revive Schedule F, a controversial abortive effort at the end of his first term to strip the civil service protections of potentially tens of thousands of career federal workers in “policy-related” positions, effectively making them at-will employees. Trump and many of his former staffers have frequently bemoaned that “rogue bureaucrats” inhibited his policymaking power during his first stint in the White House. Though President Biden quickly rescinded Schedule F when he took office in 2021—before any positions could be converted out of the federal government’s competitive service—that hasn’t stopped Trump and his allies from working on the initiative in absentia. Both the Heritage Foundation and America First Policy Institute, which have organized dueling unofficial transition projects have endorsed reviving Schedule F, going so far as to creating lists of upwards of 50,000 current career civil servants to strip of their removal protections and threaten with termination.
Commentary: What would a second Trump term mean for federal workers in D.C.?
November 5, 2024 // Trump’s campaign has pledged to relocate 100,000 federal jobs out of the D.C. region. Max Stier, president and CEO of the Partnership for Public Service – a nonprofit organization that assesses federal government efficiency – says it’s hard to put a percentage on how likely that plan is, but there’s a “real risk.” Federal worker Marcus Glasgow says he feels a little anxiety every presidential election. And Trump isn’t the first presidential candidate to threaten to cut federal jobs. But this year, Glasgow’s “more anxious than normal.”
Labor Department Publishes AI Best Practices
October 18, 2024 // “These Best Practices provide a roadmap for responsible AI in the workplace, helping businesses harness these technologies while proactively supporting and valuing their workers,” commented Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su. “As we embrace the opportunities that AI can offer, we must ensure workers are lifted up, not left behind.” The document follows the AI and Inclusive Hiring Framework developed by the Office of Disability Employment Policy and the Partnership on Employment & Accessible Technology to prevent employment discrimination in the hiring process.
Employment Law Landscape Could Change After Election
September 16, 2024 // During the Trump administration the NLRB majority narrowed the scope of the National Labor Relations Act in several key respects and established a more neutral approach to union organizing. The Biden/Harris administration, which styled itself as the “most union-friendly in history,” reversed virtually all of the Trump-era policies, significantly expanded the scope of the law, and tilted the organizing landscape in favor of organized labor, Hayes said.
New Biden Executive Order Gives Unions Leg Up on Federally Funded Projects, Imposes New Disclosure Requirements
September 14, 2024 // On September 6, 2024, President Biden announced his new Executive Order on Investing in America and Investing in Americans (“EO” or “Order”), which requires certain federal agencies to consider criteria related to labor standards when prioritizing which projects will receive federal financial assistance. The criteria includes not only traditional labor standards, such as wages, paid leave, and workplace safety, but controversial provisions as well that clearly favor unions, such as project labor agreements and neutrality and card check agreements. The EO will also effectively require agencies to collect information related to labor practices from companies that work on or bid on federally funded projects. The administration claims the Order “supports the creation of well-paying jobs, especially union jobs.” Business groups and Republicans, however, claim the EO is less about setting standards and more about using federal funds to favor unions at the expense of nonunion companies and employees.
Trump and Harris, with starkly different records on labor issues, are both courting union voters
September 5, 2024 // By comparison, two days after taking office in 2021, Biden issued an executive order that established masking guidelines, and his administration made health and safety protocols on the job during the rest of the COVID-19 pandemic a high priority. Compared with the inaction by the Trump administration during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Biden administration has been more active in proposing health and safety measures. For example, in July 2024 it proposed rules designed to protect some 36 million workers from health risks associated with extreme heat. After a period for written comments, public hearings will be held on the bill. When Trump tried cutting OSHA funding for 2018 by approximately US$10 million, Congress blocked his efforts. The Biden administration is seeking a 3.7% increase in OSHA’s budget for the 2025 fiscal year.
DOJ Civil Rights Lawyers Try to Unionize Amid Uncertain Future
August 5, 2024 // The employee organizing committee is aiming to hold a representation election by October 2024—a secret ballot process requiring majority approval for certification. Although that’s a compressed schedule compared to typical union drives, the committee said that in their first week after launching, they’ve already collected signatures of support from more than 30% of the 365 lawyers they estimate are eligible for the bargaining unit. That would meet the minimum legal threshold to apply for a representation election, but organizers are waiting to do so until they reach 50% support.