Posts tagged federal government
Commentary Rachel Greszler: What Trump Memo on Taxpayer-Funded Union Time Means for Federal Employee Unions
March 18, 2025 // In addition to tracking the number of employees and their time, agencies also have to report on other taxpayer-provided subsidies to unions. That would include, for example, “a single Veterans Affairs facility allocate[ing] half of a hospital wing—over 5,000 square feet—largely for the use of the union president and officials” as exposed in a report from the Institute for the American Worker. The irony of federal employees’ excessive use of official time is that they can’t even bargain for the biggest things most unions bargain over—pay and benefits. And working predominantly in offices (or, prior to Trump’s executive order requiring federal employees to return to the office, in their homes) hardly poses a need for lengthy worker safety negotiations. That leaves official time to be predominantly spent defending poor performers and bad actors that agencies have disciplined or dismissed, and negotiating over tedious things like the height of cubicle panels; designated smoking areas on otherwise smoke-free campuses; and the right to wear spandex at work.
Trump Targets Spending on Labor Union Talks in Latest DOGE Move
March 18, 2025 // President Donald Trump’s administration is mandating federal agencies report how much they spent negotiating labor union contracts for the past year, a sign that collective bargaining agreements could be the next target in a government cost-cutting push. An Office of Personnel Management memo sent Monday directs federal agency heads to report the amount spent on the collective bargaining agreement process, including how much they paid their employees involved in the negotiations, fees for engaging in mediation or arbitration and the fair-market-value of the office space used for the talks.
Freedom Foundation Applauds OPM Directive to Report on Government Union Work
March 5, 2025 // In Nov. 2023, the Freedom Foundation reported that OPM had not only stopped reporting on the amount of official time used by federal employees — as it had done under presidents of both parties since the late 1990s — but had taken down the page on its website housing years of reports on the use and cost of official time to taxpayers, all while promoting expanded use of taxpayer-funded union time. The following month, citing the Freedom Foundation’s investigation, Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and nine other Republican U.S. Senators sent an oversight letter to OPM demanding to know why the webpage was removed and whether OPM would publish any further updates on taxpayer-funded union time. After Biden’s OPM director responded that her agency had no intention of restoring the official time webpage, much less conducting another study on the costs of taxpayer-funded union time, Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) and Rep. Scott Franklin (R-FL) introduced the Taxpayer-Funded Union Time Transparency Act, which would require each federal agency to track and annually report the amount of time its employees spend on union business and the cost of such official time to taxpayers.
CDC Leaders Told to Rank Thousands of Workers Amid Layoff Fears
February 9, 2025 // The Trump administration has been working swiftly to shrink the federal workforce, offering buyouts to millions of employees across government agencies. The offer has already been accepted by more than 50,000 people, Bloomberg reported, though a judge has since temporarily delayed the Feb. 6 deadline. On Thursday, the Office of Personnel Management asked federal agencies to draw up lists of their poorest-performing employees by March 7.
Republicans Should Support Workers — Not the Failed Union Model
February 6, 2025 // Senator Hawley’s proposal would prevent workers from hearing both sides before a unionization election, which they would need to make an informed decision. Employers would be prohibited from holding meetings with workers. Unions would also be able to force ambush elections, depriving workers of time to do their own research and make up their minds. And, like the PRO Act, the proposal would even give unelected federal bureaucrats the power to force union contracts on workers, employers, and even unions.
Foreign aid freeze results in mass layoffs that could ‘crash’ the industry
February 5, 2025 // The U.S. is the largest provider of humanitarian assistance globally, deploying billions of dollars through multiple agencies, including the U.S. Agency for International Development. The majority of USAID’s funds are awarded competitively through contracts, grants or cooperative agreements with international development groups and private federal contractors.
Commentary: Who Is Big Labor, Anyway?
February 5, 2025 // If the Current American Plurality wants to hold together, it will need to find ways to support workers as a whole, not cheaply chase the union members that BLS and other data reveal to be unripe for recruitment by throwing more traditional members of the coalition under the bus. The Taft-Hartley Consensus approach to labor relations, which Republicans have advanced for 80 years, offers the opportunity for those workers who freely choose to organize unions to continue to do so while protecting the rights of workers who choose not to form unions or choose to work independently. It should not be cheaply abandoned in service to myths about whom the conservative movement is seeking to court.
Costco, Teamsters, reach ‘tentative agreement’ likely averting strike as company’s DEI controversy rages on
February 3, 2025 // The Teamsters are accusing the grocery club of not sharing its record 2024 profits – which doubled since 2019 - with its workers and have claimed Costco has engaged in "illegal and reckless behavior," including kicking union reps out of stores, preventing employees from wearing Teamster buttons and changing the locks on union bulletin boards. Talks broke down in January when Costco refused to reach a card check agreement. Card checks would make it easier for workers to join unions by eliminating secret ballots. About 85% of Costco's unionized employees voted to authorize a strike.
Trump offers all federal workers an 8-month buyout to resign
January 29, 2025 // Of the 3 million federal workers, roughly 374,000 or 12%, work in the Washington metropolitan area, which includes the District of Columbia, Maryland, Virginia and parts of West Virginia, according to data from the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank. The largest percentage of federal workers are employed outside the nation’s capital. Federal workers account for the 15th largest workforce in the nation, and their average tenure is 11.8 years, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of Office of Personnel Management data.
‘I am terrified’: Workers describe the dark mood inside federal agencies
January 27, 2025 // At the State Department, the shutdown of those programs was something many saw coming. But some were startled by the directive that they report individual cases of people’s job descriptions being changed to “disguise” the DEI element to a special Office of Personnel Management email address. Some saw it as an order to snitch on colleagues. Others, who prepared for Trump’s return to office, had begun working months ago with outside nonprofits to archive websites they feared would be taken down by the Trump administration — including information on ending gender-based violence around the world.