President Trump Takes on Federal Union Bosses 

Right to Work Pushes to Liberate Civil Servants Permanently

For nearly five decades, a radically pro-union monopoly law signed by Democrat President Jimmy Carter has been subverting American representative government at the federal level. 

The cynically mislabeled “Civil Service Reform Act” (CSRA) of 1978 statutorily grants federal union bosses “exclusive representation” power to block Executive Branch officials who are appointed by and accountable to the President from deciding on their own how federal civil servants are managed and disciplined.

Lasting Solution to Monopoly-Bargaining Scourge Requires Congress to Act

But in late March, President Donald Trump took two significant steps to restore for himself and for future chief executives their proper authority, as officers of the U.S. elected by voters in all 50 states, to oversee the direction of federal Executive Branch employees who work for the taxpayer. 

On March 27, Mr. Trump, citing a CSRA provision that empowers him to prohibit union monopoly bargaining over federal employees charged with defending national security, issued an executive order reducing the number of federal civil servants who are subject to “exclusive representation” by an estimated 75%. Partly because it expands the definition of “national security” so that even employees of the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Health and Human Services are included, E.O.14251 is getting a robust court challenge from union lawyers. 

On the same day E.O.14251 was issued, the Trump Administration also filed a federal lawsuit contending that, notwithstanding any and all CSRA provisions to the contrary, the President and his appointees have authority under Article II of the Constitution to terminate all federal union monopoly bargaining.

National Right to Work Committee President Mark Mix commented: 

“The Trump Administration is to be commended for identifying monopolistic public-sector unionism as a deadly threat to governance of, by and for the people, and for taking serious actions to meet the threat. 

“But a lasting solution to the monopoly-bargaining scourge will require congressional action. 

“That’s why the Committee is strongly in favor of pending legislation that would permanently prohibit union monopoly bargaining over all types of federal employees, as well as other legislation that would significantly curtail the damage wrought by the CSRA.”

Elected Executives Now Lack ‘Effective Authority’ Over Governmental Operations

The fact is, since Democrat President John F. Kennedy started the downhill trend in 1962 with an executive order “temporarily” permitting Big Labor “exclusivity” in federal workplaces, monopolistic unionism has undermined American representative democracy at all levels of government. 

The crisis in governance at the federal, state and local levels was summed up well by attorney, author, and civic leader Philip Howard in his 2023 book NOT Accountable: Rethinking the Constitutionality of Public Employee Unions:

“Elected officials — the president, governors, and mayors — no longer have effective authority over the operations of government. Nor do their appointees. Nor do public supervisors, such as school principals, police captains, and crew chiefs on highway repair teams.”

Joe Biden’s Vow to Get Federal Employees Back in The Office Came to Nothing

The cumulative impact of decades of the CSRA in action on presidential power is illustrated well by government union bosses’ humiliation of then-President Joe Biden when he tried to direct the activities of Executive Branch federal employees post-COVID-19. 

In his March 1, 2022 State of the Union address, Mr. Biden declared that, with the ebbing of the pandemic, the “vast majority of federal workers” would “once again work in person.” 

More than two-and-a-half years later, when Mr. Biden was already a lame duck, Bloomberg columnist Matthew Yglesias pointed out that this “never happened”: 

“The White House issued various directives, and every political appointee I know was routinely in the office. But despite widespread discontent among his own appointees, Biden never got the workers back.” 

“Sadly, the Biden Administration regarded its CSRA-induced inability to manage more than 800,000 unionized federal employees as an unavoidable fact of life,” said Mr. Mix.

Federal Union Bosses: To ‘Save Democracy,’ Let Us Finish Destroying It! 

Mr. Mix continued: 

“In contrast, Donald Trump is to be commended for making restoration of his own and future Presidents’ executive authority over the federal workforce a major objective of his second term in office. 

“As former union attorney Kurt Hanslowe foresaw even before the CSRA was adopted, it empowers ‘entrenched and mutually supportive government officials and collective bargaining representatives’ over whom the public has ‘diminishing control’ to make joint decisions about critical public policies.

“Putting a halt at the federal level to what effectively amounts to government by collusion is imperative. 

“But the President’s attempt to do this on his own, without Congress’s support, will be an uphill battle.

“On April 4, a pack of government union bosses led by American Federation of Government Employees [AFGE] President Everett Kelley sued the Trump Administration in a U.S. District Court in California. They contend the CSRA authorizes them to retain monopoly control over virtually all front-line federal civil servants. 

“Evidently lacking any sense of irony, Mr. Kelley claims the Trump Administration’s actions to roll back monopolistic unionism ‘represent a clear threat’ to every American who ‘values democracy.’”

Committee Supports Requiring Big Labor to Reimburse Taxpayers For ‘Union Time’

In addition to being less than comprehensive and vulnerable to Big Labor court challenges, President Trump’s E.O.14251 could, even assuming it eventually survives all such court challenges, quickly be reversed by a future Big Labor President. 

That’s why the Committee is now working with allies on Capitol Hill to build support for the Federal Workforce Freedom Act (S.1006), introduced on March 13 by pro-Right to Work Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), with fellow compulsory-unionism foe Mike Lee (R-Utah) joining her as the bill’s original cosponsor. 

As Ms. Blackburn has explained, S.1006 would “immediately terminate” all federal union monopoly-bargaining schemes “to ensure the federal government is working on behalf of the American people,” not labor union bosses.

Mr. Mix acknowledged that, without a 60-40 pro-Right to Work Senate majority to shut down an inevitable Big Labor filibuster, enactment of S.1006 is unlikely to happen in the current Congress.

Fortunately, Right to Work supporters in Congress have an opportunity to use budget reconciliation — under which legislation cannot be filibustered — to crack down on many of federal union bosses’ egregious abuses.

Mr. Mix explained: “The CSRA authorizes and promotes so-called ‘official time’ deals, more aptly labeled as ‘union time,’ under which taxpayers are forced to pay the salaries of union bosses who are also federal employees while they conduct union business.

“But two bills now pending in Congress, H.R.1210 and S.511, would require Big Labor bosses to reimburse taxpayers for every hour of ‘official time’ they receive, and also for the government-provided office space, parking spaces, and other special perks accorded to them under ‘union time’ schemes.

“Enactment of H.R.1210 or S.511, respectively sponsored by Rep. Scott Perry [R-Pa.] and Sen. Joni Ernst [R-Iowa] and also known as the Protecting Taxpayers’ Wallets Act, would be an important step in the right direction,” said Mr. Mix. 

“And on March 25, the House Oversight Committee gave H.R.1210 the go-ahead in a 23-20 vote.”

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