Posts tagged government workers
Wisconsin saw steepest decline in union membership over 40-year period, report finds
March 30, 2026 // . “The only thing they could bargain on was their pay, and that was limited by law to never exceed the rate of inflation.” All of that, paired with a new requirement for every union to hold a recertification vote every year, means “many, many public-sector unions simply vanished,” Heywood said.
Florida Leads Again on Public Unions
March 25, 2026 // That’s hardly a vote of confidence from Ms. Weingarten of the value her union provides to its members. Under the proposed regime, a union could be recertified by winning a simple majority of half of the voting union members, or a bit over 25% of the bargaining unit. Do labor leaders really think they can’t rustle up a quarter of their members to ensure the union preserves its role in representing workers? The latest bill follows 2023 legislation that triggered a decertification vote when less than 60% of the employees eligible for representation in a bargaining unit are paying membership dues. That legislation also ended the state’s power to deduct dues from public-employee paychecks.
US court will not block Trump from ending union bargaining for federal workers
February 28, 2026 // A U.S. appeals court on Thursday rejected a bid by unions to block President Donald Trump's administration from stripping hundreds of thousands of federal employees of the ability to engage in union bargaining with U.S. agencies, reversing a lower court's ruling.
Op-ed: Why is Government Empowering Public Sector Unions?
February 26, 2026 // Government empowers unions, and unions use that power to protect themselves. Forget any potential harm to taxpayers. The irony here is that union members are also taxpayers. So, in effect, unions are hurting their own members. But union leadership doesn’t think about that. Leadership is more interested in keeping their power and clout.
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.