Posts tagged government workers
Group of Springfield city workers unionize
February 24, 2026 // A group of Springfield city workers have unionized due to a “need for a collective voice in shaping policies affecting City Hall employees.” Workers in the finance department, code enforcement department and law department came together to be represented by AFSCME Local 739,
Illinois at near record-low union membership in 2025
February 23, 2026 // Just 13.1% of workers in Illinois were union members in 2025. Thousands of government workers have rejected union membership. Union membership in Illinois was at a near-record low in 2025, according to a release from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Feb. 18.
Va. leaders sound alarm on collective bargaining bill: ‘It will bankrupt local government’
February 13, 2026 // “This new bill wants to mandate collective bargaining and mandate what's called binding arbitration, which forces districts to pay a salary based on some unelected person who's an arbitrator who tells us what we have to do,” said School Board Chairman Babur Lateef. “And we don't agree with that. We don't believe that should be done for any school division in the state or any locality. We believe local governments should have the right to choose whether they want to collectively bargain or not, and it shouldn't be mandated. The current bill, as it stands, doesn't fund the mandate, so the state wants to mandate it, but they don't want to pay for it. If this bill passes, it will be the single largest tax increase in Virginia history, because all of the responsibility for these payments and salaries will be on the localities, local taxpayers, property taxes, and everyone in communities, and it will bankrupt local governments and bankrupt school divisions.”
OPM Issues Final Rule Which Allows Agencies to Remove Workers Who Refuse to Implement the will of the American People
February 6, 2026 // I4AW’s commentary was referenced or quoted seven times in the final rule! The rule, called “Improving Performance, Accountability and Responsiveness in the Civil Service,” authorizes agencies to move policy-influencing positions into Schedule Policy/Career, which will “allow agencies to quickly remove employees from critical positions who engage in misconduct, perform poorly, or obstruct the democratic process by intentionally subverting Presidential directives.” Institute for the American Worker submitted a formal comment when the proposed rule was first announced, providing arguments on the need for accountability regarding obstructive government workers.
Union Membership Stagnated in 2025 (report from Center for Economic and Policy Research)
January 28, 2026 // The share of US employees who are union members and the share who are covered by a union contract have both declined substantially over the past four decades (Figure 1). In 1983, 20.1 percent of workers were union members, and 23.3 percent were covered by a union contract. By 2010, union membership and coverage had fallen to 11.9 percent and 13.1 percent, respectively. In recent years, both measures reached historic lows. Membership declined to 9.9 percent in 2024 before ticking up to 10.0 percent in 2025, while coverage fell to 11.1 percent in 2024 and edged up to 11.2 percent in 2025. Throughout the entire period, the persistent gap between coverage and membership reflects the share of workers who benefit from union contracts without being union members.
UAW member wants federal monitor to investigate local president
December 20, 2025 // A member of UAW Local 6000, based in Lansing, Mich., has asked a federal court-appointed monitor to investigate the local's president, Rachael Dickinson, for alleged corruption and retaliation. An internal UAW investigation found Dickinson engaged in a pattern of discrimination toward minority women, including stripping elected leaders of their duties. The request compares Dickinson's alleged actions to those of UAW International President Shawn Fain, who is also under investigation by the monitor for retaliation.
Union Bosses Admit They Spent $1.8 Billion on Politics in the 2024 Election Cycle — The Real Number is Likely Over $28 Billion
December 19, 2025 // It is nearly impossible to produce perfectly accurate figures from the LM-2 because subsidiary unions file separate forms from the larger national unions they fall under, and transactions between these unions could be listed multiple times in the data. This only worsens the problems of inconsistent and potentially inaccurate reporting mentioned above. The LM-2 does not lend itself to a precise analysis of union boss spending, but it does give a sense of its scale. When sympathetic media outlets report unions’ political influence in the tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars that is a dramatic underrepresentation.
House strips its own provision protecting Defense civilians’ union rights from NDAA
December 11, 2025 // A source familiar with congressional negotiations said that the bipartisan language effectively nullifying President Trump’s anti-union executive orders as they pertain to the Pentagon was dropped due to lack of support in the Senate.
Furloughed federal workers face delays getting unemployment pay during shutdown
November 4, 2025 // The specifics vary. Massachusetts has a high-end weekly benefit of $1,105 per week for up to 30 weeks. In Mississippi, it’s no more than $235 weekly for up to 26 weeks. Roughly half the states pay less than $600 a week maximum, according to U.S. Department of Labor numbers. Not everyone gets the maximum weekly rate. Some states offer fewer than 20 weeks. And the limits can grow in some states when unemployment rates are particularly high. Around the nation’s capital, the maximum weekly payment is $444 in Washington, D.C., $430 in Maryland and $378 in Virginia. In Texas, where Avila-Thomas lives, the weekly maximum is $605, for up to 26 weeks.
Federal Judge Denies Anonymity To Fired Civil Servants Suing Over Mass Firings
October 9, 2025 // A federal judge in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia has denied a request from five former federal employees, who claim they were improperly terminated during a "mass firing" in February 2025, to proceed with their lawsuit anonymously. The plaintiffs, identified only as Civil Servants 1 through 5, are suing the Office of Special Counsel (OSC), alleging the agency unlawfully closed thousands of prohibited personnel practice (PPP) complaints filed by probationary employees without considering the individual merits of each case. They contend this action undermines workplace protections and violates the Administrative Procedure Act.