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Townhall…
Federal Government
Unions Looting American Taxpayers
By Lurita Doan
Lines are being drawn and the fight to reduce overly generous pay and
benefits to government employees at the federal, state, and local level
is underway. Not too surprisingly, public employee unions are gearing
up, rallying government employees, and exerting pressure to maintain
the generous pay and benefits that has loaded government with
unsustainable debt. Public employee unions are, even now, pressing the
Obama Administration for additional benefits and power.
President Obama, either unwilling, or perhaps unable, to bring
long-overdue accountability to powerful public employee unions, has
instead issued guidance requiring greater Union representation and
input into federal agency decision making. Obama's decision will likely
embolden union bosses to think they can escape accountability and an
honest review of benefits, salary, and pensions of government employees.
Perhaps it is time to send a different message. President Obama, like
many Americans, is probably unaware that the federal government
actually subsidizes federal government employee union operations. In
fact, the federal government provides unions with free office space,
pays for union member time and picks up travel and per diem costs.
These “perks” represent a tax that has never been approved by American
taxpayers--perks which operate at a level below the radar of Congress
and well below the radar of the IRS. These hidden “perks” provided to
government employee unions cost American taxpayers millions of dollars
annually.
According to official data, federal employees currently spend some 2.9
million official work hours, at government expense, engaging in
collective bargaining and union activities, representing a taxpayer
cost of approximately $120 million. But the taxpayer costs and
subsidizes to public employee unions is much higher than the official
report because government does not account for all the expenses related
to union activity.
Federal government unions are, in essence, running a business within
the federal government. As we begin the debate over the proper role (if
any) unions should have in government, one step Americans should all be
able to agree upon is that taxpayer money should not be used to
subsidize union activities.
Many Americans may be unaware that unions exist in every federal
agency. In fact, most agencies have several unions competing for
employee participation and funding which means that federal agencies
are subsidizing the costs for several unions at the same time!
These federal agency union representatives have a large presence in
Washington, DC, the seat of the federal government. But, most federal
locations throughout the United States also have a union
representative. So, for example, in a city, such as Kansas City, where
the federal complex houses multiple government agencies, there will be
multiple federal union representatives, from each federal union, within
each federal agency, all at the same building location.
Why is this important?
Federal government union representatives are actually federal
employees. They hold GS ranks and civil service status, and actually
have federal jobs that they were employed to perform. Their union
duties are, supposedly, performed over and above the requirements of
their regular day job. However, because of the pernicious and growing
power of federal unions, oftentimes, union duties often are performed
in lieu of their job. Paid time off from regular government duties is
allowed, in most federal agencies, for the union representative to
solicit federal employees (i.e. market services), to attend union
meetings (i.e. work for an entity other than their government employer)
or travel to have “face time” with their union bosses in DC. All at
taxpayer expense.
In addition, union representatives often request and are provided with
office space that is more expansive than is warranted by their GS rank
or than their federal job duties require. The cost of this additional
square footage is also paid for by the American taxpayer, and is paid
for at each federal agency, for each federal union representative, for
each federal union. Federal government union representatives total
thousands of federal employees, all billing their time, travel and per
diem, for non-government related work, to the American taxpayer.
Perhaps an even bigger problem is that the federal government union
representatives sometimes seem to operate under the mistaken belief
that they were hired by the government to work for the union—and that
union work is more important than the federal job they were hired to
perform.
Unions seem, at best, indifferent to the performance of government and
are exclusively concerned with pay and benefits of union workers.
Therein lies another irony for the American taxpayer. Unions are
organized to negotiate against employers, but, since the federal
government is the employer, and since the American people pay for the
federal government, then, technically, federal government employee
unions might be construed as organizing against the American people.
It is time to bring some accountability to public employee unions. A
good first step would be for Congress to get a grip on the
proliferation of benefits for unions in the federal government, whose
activities are an additional burden on federal taxpayers. Congress
should change federal policies on payment of travel, per diem and
office space for federal government union employees.
Better yet, perhaps President Obama should take the lead.
Townhall.com
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