Education Department Downsizing a ‘Good Step’
“While the DoED downsizing is a good step, the principal battlegrounds for genuine school reform have been and will continue to be in the state capitals."
Two GOP Senators Sabotage Trump Agenda
Scheme Would Empower Bureaucrats Whom President Wants to Fire
Current federal law wrongly forces employers of unionized companies in non-Right to Work states to put the freedom of their employees to keep their jobs without being forced to fork over dues or fees to Big Labor on the bargaining table.
Effectively, employers are forced to name their price for selling out that freedom.
Scheme Would Deepen Federal Law’s Anti-Right to Work Bias
Nevertheless, many employers respect the Right to Work of their employees so much they manage somehow to avoid signing a forced-dues contract even as they operate in a state where firing workers for refusing to bankroll a union is permissible.
Unfortunately, two Republican U.S. senators who style themselves as allies of President Donald Trump are now pushing forward legislation (S.844) that would wipe out such employers’ ability to stand up for their employees’ Right to Work.
S.844, currently sponsored by Republicans Josh Hawley (Mo.) and Bernie Moreno (Ohio) and four Big Labor Democrat senators, would empower “arbitrators” selected by Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) bureaucrats to dictate workplace contract provisions.
The FMCS’s bureaucrats would be authorized by law to override the wishes of employers and employees alike.
Meanwhile, even as Mr. Hawley and Mr. Moreno seek to promote forced unionism by using the FMCS to foist mandatory binding arbitration on America’s private-sector employees and businesses for the first time in history, Donald Trump is fighting to eliminate the FMCS.
On March 14, the President issued an executive order stating that the “nonstatutory components and functions” of the FMCS and six other federal agencies “shall be eliminated to the maximum extent consistent with federal law.”
Clearly, one reason the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) established by Mr. Trump at the beginning of his second term and the President himself have targeted the FMCS is that it does so little.
Sens. Hawley and Moreno Side With Randi Weingarten, Oppose the President
Up to now, its primary stated mission has been to serve as a “voluntary mediator” between union officials and business owners. But very few business people are so foolish and/or so desperate as to consent voluntarily to arbitration by a bureaucracy that is widely known to be biased in favor of Big Labor bosses.
Unlike the President whom they claim to support, Mr. Hawley and Mr. Moreno think the answer to the paltry demand for FMCS “services” is to hand FMCS bureaucrats the power to cram unwanted union contracts down employees’ and employers’ throats without ever granting employees a chance to vote on the “contract’ first!
National Right to Work Committee President Mark Mix commented:
“By seeking to expand the mission of the FMCS and force firms to submit to the dictates of its hand-picked arbitrators, Josh Hawley and Bernie Moreno are siding with far-left American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten and other union bosses who are suing to reverse the FMCS downsizing.”
Government Credit Cards Used to Lease BMW, Spend $18,000 at a Jewelry Shop
In addition to being biased in favor of union monopolists and often idle, the FMCS has a long record of corruption and contempt for taxpaying citizens.
Over the years, as investigative reporter Luke Rosiak pointed out in an article published this March 19 in the Washington Examiner, FMCS bureaucrats have abused taxpayer money to hire “friends and relatives,” commission “paintings of themselves,” lease a BMW, and spend “$18,000 at a jewelry store.”
FMCS staffers have even “unblocked” their government credit cards “to turn off abuse protections” as a means of facilitating their spending sprees!
“Published reports showing how FMCS bigwigs spend money ‘like they are reigning kings or something,’ as one former FMCS employee put it, haven’t resulted in any serious investigations, much less prosecutions,” said Mr. Mix.
“President Trump’s March downsizing of the FMCS from more than 200 to roughly 15 taxpayer-funded bureaucrats is the first real accountability that’s been meted out for gross abuses that have been known about for years.
“The appropriate action for Mr. Trump’s fellow Republicans in Congress to take now with regard to the FMCS is to help him shut it down completely. But Josh Hawley and Bernie Moreno are determined to go in the opposite direction.
“They pretend to be the President’s friends, but they obviously aren’t.”
This article was originally published in our monthly newsletter. Go here to access previous newsletter posts.
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