Posts tagged Rachel Greszler
Workers at Defense Health Agency spent $3.3 million and 87,000 hours working on their own union benefits
April 7, 2025 // Federal unions are restricted from negotiating benefits and pay by the Federal Service Labor Management Relations Statute. Instead, benefits and pay are determined by law set by Congress and federal regulations. But federal unions can negotiate over more minor aspects of working conditions. “This includes things like the height of cubicle panels, securing designated smoking areas on otherwise smoke-free campuses, and the right to wear Spandex at work,” Rachel Greszler, a senior research fellow on workforce and public finance at the Heritage Foundation, previously told The Post.
House Oversight Republicans open Congress with rants against telework, unions
January 17, 2025 // Rachel Greszler, a visiting fellow at the conservative Economic Policy Innovation Center and a former Heritage Foundation and Project 2025 contributor, described actions like the Social Security-AFGE telework contract update as an effort to “Trump-proof” agency workforces and suggested Congress should pass legislation allowing presidents to reopen collective bargaining agreements upon assuming office. And they should ban official time, the practice by which agencies agree to pay union officials their normal salary for time spent on representational duties, like in collective bargaining negotiations or representing employees during grievances or disciplinary hearings.
Federal bailout gives $635 million to carpenters union pension plan
November 24, 2024 // The federal government is spending $635 million in taxpayer funds to bail out a multiemployer pension fund for a Detroit carpenters union. Pension experts warn that the bailout comes with little or no accountability and no indication that it won’t happen again. Julie Su, acting secretary of labor, announced the bailout in a video posted to her X account Oct. 18. Su credited the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act, which appropriated $86 billion for union pensions.
As Hollywood strike drags on, Biden’s relationship with unions becomes complicated
September 6, 2023 // For example, in the 2020 election, labor unions contributed $27.5 million to Biden’s campaign while his opponent, former President Donald Trump, received less than $360,000, according to Open Secrets. The states with the largest concentration of union workers are hardline Democratic states, like Hawaii, New York, Washington, Oregon, New Jersey and California. In 2022, 10.1% of American wage and salary workers belonged to unions compared to 20.1%, in 1983, signifying a large drop in membership. But this hasn’t translated to a drop in popularity for unions, at least according to recent polls.
‘A huge opportunity for the labor movement’: Unions jump on newly won Democratic trifectas
December 1, 2022 // And if Democrats succeed in repealing certain laws in Michigan — and in pushing through other union-backed measures — union officials and campaign operatives hope to rekindle the labor movement’s influence in other states. Democrats are putting their energy toward raising the minimum wage, banning so-called captive audience meetings where employers can warn against unionization, and more. “We’re busy preparing our legislative agenda, because we put everything we had into the ground game for this election,” AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler said in an interview. “How can we go on offense to pass legislation to protect people’s voice and ability to exercise their rights?”
Commentary: One proposal to modernize labor laws would benefit women; another could set them back decades
May 5, 2022 // The PRO Act seeks to regress to the 1950s workplace that denied workers the flexibility needed to balance work/life demands. The ERA would preserve the gains women have made and provide important rights of autonomy, privacy, and opportunity for women and men alike.
An Easy Fix to IRS Tax Filing Delays: Don’t Pay IRS Employees to Abandon Their Posts in Lieu of Union Work
January 24, 2022 // Ensuring that IRS employees spend tax-filing season doing their jobs rather than working for their union is a commonsense step in the right direction.
How This Labor Department Nominee Threatens 59 Million Workers
January 13, 2022 // Weil’s efforts to attack independent workers, would not only dampen their bright outlooks, but could put their entire livelihoods and ways of living on the line. One of the Biden administration’s and Weil’s primary goals it to implement the PRO Act—a Big Labor wish list that includes upending independent contracting.
What Is Happening in This Unprecedented U.S. Labor Market?
December 8, 2021 // SUMMARYNever before has the United States experienced a labor shortage of today’s magnitude. Particularly extraordinary is that the current labor shortage exists alongside still-high unemployment and rising compensation packages, which should spur more workers into jobs. The employment gap equals about 5.8 million workers—3.7 percent of the workforce. Government policies enacted in the name of COVID-19 relief seem to have consistently held employment back, and the looming multitrillion-dollar tax-and-spend, central-planning package threatens to cement the weak employment market.