For decades, federal union bosses have been paid by U.S. taxpayers to file “unfair labor practice” charges against the government, often on behalf of unmotivated and/or unruly federal employees.
This is, of course, a completely indefensible misuse of taxpayers’ money.
Unfortunately, longstanding federal policies empower government union bosses who are also government employees to conduct a wide array of union business activities while billing taxpayers for their time and expenses.
Doing business on the taxpayer dime is commonly referred to, with a nod to George Orwell, as “official time.”
Official time stems from widespread union monopoly bargaining at federal agencies such as the Department of Veterans Affairs.
According to the White House’s Office of Personnel Management, in 2016 federal employees racked up a total of 3.6 million “official-time” hours during which they were compensated by taxpayers to represent a union rather than do the government job they are paid to do.
Union Bigwigs Insist It’s Their ‘Constitutional Right’ to Bill Taxpayers For Union Work
When Donald Trump first took office as President, National Right to Work leaders urged him to use his executive power to curtail abusive official time.
And Mr. Trump clearly understands there is a problem.
In May 2018, he signed Executive Order 13837, which aims to lessen the anti-taxpayer impact of official time.
E.O.13837 prohibits lobbying on federal time, prohibits government managers from allowing union bosses to use federal property for free, and prohibits the use of federal time to file union grievances against federal employers.
But top officers of federal government unions are determined to prevent even this modest curtailment of their special privileges from ever taking effect.
Just weeks after E.O.13837 was issued, American Federation of Government Employees President J. David Cox and other federal union chiefs filed suit against the Trump Administration.
In August 2018, a district judge largely upheld their complaint in a lawless ruling that simply ignored the plain fact that Mr. Cox and his cohorts were required to bring their arguments before the Federal Labor Relations Authority before going to court.
The district judge’s decision was recently overturned, but her injunction against enforcing E.O.13837 remains in place as this Newsletter edition goes to press.
Meanwhile, top federal union bosses are contending in a separate lawsuit that even modest regulatory curtailments of official time violate the First Amendment!
Pending House Legislation Would Mitigate Harm Inflicted By Monopolistic Unionism
National Right to Work President Mark Mix commented:
“The claim of federal union kingpins and their lawyers that President Trump and his appointees don’t even have the authority to put limits on this monopolistic union scheme is absurd and unlikely to prevail in the end.
“But the Trump Administration’s ability to prevent taxpayer abuses on its own definitely is limited by the fact the Civil Service ‘Reform’ Act [CSRA] of 1978 explicitly authorizes official-time deals between managers and union bosses.
“That’s why H.R.4090, a bill introduced on July 26 by pro-Right to Work Florida Congressman Francis Rooney, represents an important additional step in the right direction.
“Mr. Rooney’s bill, which he aptly calls the ‘Do Your Job Act,’ would repeal the two provisions in the CSRA that authorize official time and bar federal agencies from paying Big Labor operatives to conduct union business.”
Law Herding Federal Workers Into Unions Should Be Voided
Mr. Mix vowed that the Committee and its members would help mobilize grassroots support for H.R.4090 and push for hearings and roll-call votes on this legislation.
But he argued that a more sweeping solution is needed to end the abuses perpetrated against independent-minded civil servants and taxpayers by government union bosses.
To achieve this goal, repeal of the entire CSRA is needed, Mr. Mix argued:
“The CSRA statutorily imposes union monopoly bargaining over federal employee disciplinary procedures and other work rules.
“Effectively, this Jimmy Carter-era law makes power-mad federal union bosses like J. David Cox co-managers over hundreds of thousands of civil servants.
“As a consequence of the CSRA, union bosses have the power to block federal managers from assigning workers to new tasks, changing their shifts, or even disciplining them for shoddy work.
“The sooner the CSRA is gone, the better.”
If you have questions about whether union officials are violating your rights, contact the Foundation for free help. To take action by supporting The National Right to Work Committee and fueling the fight against Forced Unionism, click here to donate now.
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