Posts tagged private sector
Potas: Trump cut federal employees — and the system didn’t break
April 14, 2026 // The federal workforce is smaller than at any point since the 1960s, the result of a deliberate effort by the Trump administration. Critics have asked how many employees the federal government can lose before it breaks. So far, the answer appears to be more than a 10% reduction. Most of the cuts were in white-collar roles: administrative, accounting and human resources.
NIH Withdraws Recognition from Union Representing Grad Students and Postdocs
March 19, 2026 // The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has withdrawn recognition from the union representing its postdoctoral and graduate student fellows. In the email announcing the decision, the NIH stated it withdrew recognition because the fellows are not “employees.” Unionization at federal agencies like the NIH is regulated by the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA), rather than the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) which oversees labor relations in the private sector.
Commentary: Trump’s labor agencies get to work for independent workers
March 12, 2026 // Calming fears that appointing a pro-union Labor Secretary meant the Trump administration would side with Big Labor rather than American workers and businesses, the Department of Labor and National Labor Relations Board are taking steps to protect independent workers and business relationships outside Big Labor’s orbit.
Pennsylvania EMS/Rescue Workers Unanimously Vote to Remove Teamsters Union After Union Boss Delay Tactics
March 10, 2026 // Emergency workers submitted multiple petitions asking for vote to escape Teamsters union officials’ exclusive “representation” powers and demands for money
Modeling the Impact of Sectoral Bargaining for U.S. Workers
March 5, 2026 // New statistical modeling suggests that sectoral bargaining could more than double collective bargaining coverage in the United States and generate big gains in union density.
National Labor Relations Board Schedules Vote for St. HOPE Charter School Teachers Seeking to Remove SCTA Union
March 4, 2026 // Despite union’s legal attempt to block vote, NLRB schedules election for March 11 in response to majority-backed petition from teachers to decertify union
Editorial: Hochul ‘anti-fraud’ scheme backfires into a taxpayer gift to a monster union
March 3, 2026 // After we and others flagged how loose eligibility rules and other issues had led to a 1,200% spike in CDPAP enrollment, soaring fraud and outlays of $11 billion, the gov used public outrage to pass a reform that she vowed would rein in the program. Yet her “solution” was simply to hire a single company, Public Partnerships, to centralize payments to these aides — which now lets them legally count as PPL employees, and so qualified to unionize.
Opinion Public unions’ stealthy scheme will siphon $100B from NY taxpayers
March 1, 2026 // In fact, many union leaders say their members shouldn’t have to pay anything toward their pensions. And it’s a matter of “equity” and “dignity,” they say, for teachers and office workers at state agencies to be able to retire with full pensions (plus taxpayer-funded retiree health insurance) at age 55. The unions want to “fix” these supposed injustices.
Op-ed: Trump restores America’s control over Washington
February 12, 2026 // President Trump is all too familiar with this injustice. In his first term, senior bureaucrats repeatedly used their power to prevent his priorities from becoming policy. They slow-walked reforms at the Department of Education, refused to prosecute civil rights cases, and circumvented a federal hiring freeze—to name just a few examples. At the start of the second Trump administration, a poll found that 75 percent of federal managers who voted for Kamala Harris planned to disobey instructions they don’t like. But public servants are supposed to serve the public, even if they disagree with the party the public elected. In the private sector, workers could be fired for not doing their job. But until now, presidential administrations couldn’t hold senior bureaucrats accountable because federal rules made them effectively untouchable. While Democrats outnumber Republicans two to one at federal agencies, conservative career officials could also refuse to implement a liberal president’s agenda.
US union elections declined in 2025 after Trump hobbled labor board
February 11, 2026 // The number of workers participating in union elections dropped by 59,000, a 42% decline compared with the year prior, according to the report from the Center for American Progress. The total number of union elections fell from a 10-year high of 2,124 in 2024 to 1,498 in 2025. The success rate in union elections also dropped to 69.8% in 2025, after rising to 72% in 2023.