Good Enough for Government Work?
Bovard, James
rith)t) FOR FAT TM? Growing in numbers and political influence, public employees' unions look out for their members at taxpayer expense—helping government A A fter a bomb destroyed the...
...Thanks to these organizations, labor costs take up 8o percent of the Postal Service's budget...
...Former Postal Rate Commissioner John Crutcher called postal workers "the highest-paid semi-skilled workers in the world...
...The "reform" bill is thus costing taxpayers an additional $18 million a year, according to the Treasury IG...
...It 0doesn't matter if you beat up on a taxpayer or if you were coming late to work...
...36 September 19 9 8 The American Spectator When the Rochester, New York school system proposed a plan in 1997 to allow parents to participate in teacher evaluations, the local unions denounced the plan as "fraught with dangers" and "predicated on the assumption that teachers are not to be trusted and that anyone walking off the street can influence the work of these professionals," as the New York Times reported...
...George Nesterczuk, staff chairman of the House Civil Service subcommittee, observed, "We have pointedly asked the Defense Department, for instance, how much time is spent on 'official time.' They say as a matter of policy that the central personnel shop does not want to know...
...Teacher unions make it practically impossible to fire incompetent or abusive teachers...
...fl \I uriou 34 September 1998 • The American Spectator of it," declared Delores Jones, chief steward of Local 626, making the need to sweep a few extra dustballs sound like the invasion of Normandy...
...After four years of negotiation and federal arbitration, this past April the union declared victory: a bonus day off for those who missed the original holiday...
...The staffer also observed that unions have a "big problem" with modernization: "Just think of them as Luddites...
...They don't want to antagonize the unions by tracking their activities...
...Edwin Hardesty, an SSA district manager in Tulsa, Oklahoma, complained: "A union official can simply designate a person to be a full-time union official, and the person can abandon their workload the following day...
...The two largest postal unions, the American Postal Workers Unions (APWU) and the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC), have imposed unreasonable work rules—one clause in a contract prohibits supervisors from pitching in to help customers when long lines develop at the windows—and endless grievances (ioo,000 grievances are now outstanding...
...After Reusing decided to run for union office in 1996, a senior union official offered to allow him to go on "official time for the rest of my career as long as I did not run for office and embarrass union officials...
...Despite all the time allowed for labor organizing, a 1988 survey by the SSA's Inspector General (with which the AFGE urged its members not to cooperate) found that roughly half of the agency's managers were not even aware of which employees represented a union...
...Sturdivant later bragged to the Washington Times: "The Democrats wouldn't have survived the war without us...
...The NTEU greatly benefits from this...
...When public employee unions make demands, it is taxpayers and citizens who suffer and pay...
...Many chose the July 4th weekend...
...Jim Bunning (R-Ky...
...Our people are tired and our injuries and illnesses are higher because do less at higher cost, and lowering the accountability of officials who infringe on citizens' rights...
...Abrahams was convicted of murder and sentenced to prison...
...A good example is the "night differential" bonus pay that Customs Service inspectors receive even while on vacation...
...Earlier this year the AFGE harangued its members: "Congress is the bargaining table for federal employees, which means AFGE's legislative and political program must be ongoing and aggressive...
...Political power is obviously the goal of federal employee unions...
...Naturally, the day-to-day workings of the union put much more stress on the first part of that slogan—the "employee-centered workplace"—than on the second...
...The PBA has repeatedly gutted efforts to achieve effective inde38 September 1998 • The American Spectator pendent oversight of police conduct...
...After punching her in the face, he chased her into their front lawn and killed her with an ax...
...The American Spectator • September 19 9 8 83 passed by Congress in June requires that an official from the union be appointed to the new IRS oversight board...
...Since union members are twice as likely to vote as the general public, there can be a fearsome political price to pay for not toeing the line...
...For them, partnership means a lot more work...
...they don't want to make things efficient and replace ten workers with one and having a better computer system...
...With their clout on Capitol Hill, the unions have killed proposals to end the federal monopoly over first-class mail delivery, and have successfully campaigned to keep the Postal Service from saving billions of dollars by outsourcing more of its work...
...While Americans can sometimes directly see the adverse effects of unionization on teachers, mailmen, and police, it is much more difficult to perceive the dire influence of organized labor on the federal bureaucracy...
...As Investor's Business Daily noted: "All but two of those employees had their responsibilities cut, were reassigned, or left the agency...
...The administration has obliged the AFGE by accepting "hit lists" of senior executives (high-paid federal bureaucrats with little or no tenure protection) that the union wants kicked out...
...Last April 28, AFSCME held a rally in Washington, calling it "Workers' Memorial Day," to highlight a reduction in the number of maintenance workers at the U.S...
...At the federal level, the unions hold the leash on the congressmen, and the congressmen hold the leash on the agencies...
...In its formula for comparing federal and private pay, this act completely ignores fringe benefits and generous federal pensions, producing one bogus statistic after another which federal unions invoke to prove that their members are being crucified on a cross of political greed...
...Both Republicans and Democrats pander to the NTEU...
...Unions are training teachers to act like hooligans...
...New York City police unions have won the right for police officers accused of misconduct—such as killing innocent civilians—to avoid answering any questions on the matter until 48 hours after an incident...
...John Reusing, a 25-year SSA employee and 15-year union officer and steward, told the committee: "There is virtually no supervision of officers and stewards by management or union officials...
...Advertiser Page # America Remembers p. 21 American Spectator Online p. 59 American Spectator/Washington Club p. 61 Blackstone Audio Books p. 65 Bose Corporation P. 3 Classifieds p. 87 Conservative Book Club/Regnery Publishing p. 5 Early Advantage p. 11 Ed Hamilton Books p. 81 F.L.A.M.E...
...The union rep was not obliged to sign in and out on a daily basis, but needed only to turn in bi-weekly attendance sheets...
...When the Postal Service became a pseudo-independent corporation in 1971, congressmen gave unions the keys to the coffers with provisions such as third-party binding arbitration to set postal wages—thereby completely negating labor markets...
...Throughout the 1980's, the AFGE vilified the Reagan administration...
...qualifies for night differential premium pay—and that if the majority of any shift falls within those hours, the entire shift qualifies for night pay...
...When President Clinton declared April z3 an official Day of Mourning, union members in Cincinnati demanded an additional day off because the Mourning Day happened to fall on a Sunday, and their contract specified that they were entitled to such compensation...
...has become more integrated into the world economy, unions have lost much of their power to confiscate corporate treasuries...
...This has led to rampant abuse of official time...
...Federal unions continually seek to persuade government workers that they are an underpaid, generally oppressed class...
...The New York State School Boards Association estimates that it costs up to $317,000 to fire a teacher...
...With all due respect, let me offer some corrections, clarifications, and opinions of a computer professional...
...NATIONAL TREASURES The National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) is the second largest federal employee union, representing 15o,00o government workers, primarily in the IRS and Customs Service...
...Public employees are now the tail that wags organized labor, leading the AFL-CIO to take pro-government, pro-tax positions staunchly opposed by the majority of working Americans...
...The Office of Personnel Management used to keep records on how many hours government employees devoted to union "official time" activities, but ceased to keep such records in 1993...
...Of course Zia's ethnic origin is important, even more so because he was dealing with China...
...In 1992, after an administrative lawsuit brought by the union, IRS collection agents received the right to use false names in their dealings with taxpayers...
...Every single issue concerned either gaining more pay for federal workers, perpetuating current high levels of public spending, or ensuring that government employees continue to receive far more lavish health and pension benefits than do most private employees...
...The IRS reform bill Advertiser Index bu can make a difference for The American Spectator by patronizing its advertisers...
...Unions have even launched strikes to prevent and restrict "parental interference" in public education...
...and "what is his relationship with his employer or employees...
...On June 18 the AFGE's President Bobby Harnage demanded: "To those who would stand in the way of a fair and just wage for government employees, AFGE asks this question: 'Why is our nation's government workforce paid so much less than their private sector counterparts while doing so much more than ever before?'" In 1990, union lobbying helped railroad the Federal Employees Pay Comparability Act through Congress...
...If five guys from the union see me doing it, I have touched a piece of equipment I am not supposed to touch, and there are five grievances filed...
...Yet compensation expert Wendell Cox, publisher of the Public Purpose, recently concluded that federal employees receive roughly 5o percent more total compensation than do private employees performing similar jobs...
...After Jeff Leer, a physical education teacher, sued the WEA to stop it from withdrawing union dues from his paycheck, union lawyers threatened to sue him, denouncing him and other unsubmissive teachers as "disgruntled dinosaurs...
...When the strike began, the AFGE hired a public relations firm to push stories of suffering out-of-work feds with the news media...
...These unions have reaped windfalls for their members because politicians often find it easier to throw away more tax dollars than resist the demands of well-organized interest groups...
...Government workers now account for almost half of all union members...
...each worker costs almost $5o,000 per year in pay and perks...
...The teacher refused to say a word in his own defense, and the school board dismissed him...
...In 1993, Congress enacted the Customs Overtime and Pay Reform Amendments to save money by ceasing to pay Customs officials overtime on vacation days...
...As a result, internal affairs corruption investigations may be sidelined or undermined...
...This was a long-term legislative goal of the PBA...
...When private unions strike, it is management and shareholders who can take a beating...
...Anything the postal unions want, I want," said Rep...
...Law professor Peter Davis observes: "The union contract is so strong in Bridgeport, Connecticut, that an officer who pleaded guilty to police brutality not only remained on the force, but was promoted...
...Other cities and states have also enacted legislation that minimizes politicians' ability to control or punish police brutality...
...Two years ago the union defeated a bill sponsored by the congressman that would have linked workers' performance evaluations to reductions in force—in other words, eliminating the most incompetent, lazy, and useless employees first...
...Yet before AFSCME used this pretext to defend their reputation, certain union members had seized the same occasion to make their reputation worse...
...That official will also receive veto power over some IRS personnel changes...
...There is no evidence that the rising power of government employee unions has improved government in any way...
...As George Nesterczuk has observed, "The 82 September 199 8 • The American Spectator unions actually helped to plan and coordinate the shutdown...
...Their officemates in 'overhead jobs' get to take up the slack...
...But, as Seattle Times columnist Michelle Malkin wrote, "No longer able to collect dues for political purposes without consent, but still able to compel general dues collection, the state teachers' union simply redefined its 'political' program as a 'Community Outreach Program' and — voila1— $924,000 in political contributions began pouring into its coffers as of April 1993...
...p. 73 Folio Society p. 13 Forbes p. 91 Greatsite Marketing p. 33 Haverhills p. 37 Lear Financial p. 2 Light Quarterly p. 79 Quotesmith Corporation p. 57 Sarkes Tarzian Inc...
...Federal employees at other agencies report that unions seem concerned almost solely with protecting their most incompetent members, rather than safeguarding the interests of federal employees as a class...
...It would allow him to legitimately claim the pride he asserts of serving his country with loyalty...
...In New York state, police unions effectively dictate the rules on how cops are investigated and disciplined for beating citizens...
...Bill Clay (D-Missouri), chairman of the House Post Office Committee until 1995...
...I (and I think many of us in this field) admire Bill Gates in the same way I 84 September 19 9 8 • The American Spectator...
...In fact, according to the Washington Monthly, "thequality of the civil service...has been plummeting for years...
...Thanks to "reinventing government," the Post's Causey notes, "many local union officials have gotten to spend a lot of time hobnobbing with top management or going to meetings, rather than working at their desks...
...Despite spending over $io billion for automation since 1974, the Postal Service has made scant gains in productivity—and postal unions share much of the blame...
...Zia earned that trust, but he is not entitled to assume that he did...
...As the largest union of federal workers, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) has 200,000 members, yet claims to represent 650,000 federal civilian employees...
...As the Mackinac Center for Public Policy recently reported, "while the case was still pending, Abrahams got into an argument with his wife...
...Davis notes that, in other localities, "even when a police brutality victim wins a civil suit against the officer or the department, it is rare for the officer to lose as much as one day of work, much less his job...
...And he certainly cannot hide behind his ethnic origin to argue that he was entitled to special treatment or special dispensation from counter-intelligence scrutiny...
...demonized and even dehumanized by ambitious politicians...
...However, the same bill increased the pay differential for "night" work, and greatly expanded the hours for which employees could collect such bonuses...
...A bill to end this absurdity is pending before Congress, but the NTEU is fighting it toothand-nail — and has browbeaten the Clinton administration into opposing the bill...
...That often translates into an order from city hall to the chief not to antagonize the union...
...Kennedy assumed that the Democratic Party's pro-government ethos ensured that the new unions would send their members' dollars to the right address...
...The result is a multitude of organizations devoted to further reducing the workload of civil servants—and to preventing the firing of deadbeats, goldbricks, and incompetents...
...In 1990 the Labor Department found that Postal Service employees in the Binghamton, New York area received more than twice the pay and perks earned by local private-sector mail handlers...
...According to Leo Troy, author of The New Unionism, "government policy is largely immune to market forces in the public labor market!' The "new unionism" is the explosion in growth and power of govemment workers' unions since 196o...
...A 1992 voters' referendum in Washington state prohibited unions from using members' dues for political contributions without the annual, written consent of the members themselves...
...At Senate Finance Committee hearings last September, an IRS veteran testifying anonymously revealed: "Allegations against Internal Revenue Service managers and National Treasury Employees Union officials have not been investigated...
...611ING PHILIC Private-sector unions have been in a gradual decline since the early 1950's and now account for barely to percent of the workforce...
...However, the MEA continued fighting for Abrahams's rights, and in 1993 he was awarded $2,00,000 in back pay...
...Such officials have a sacred trust with the American people to safeguard those secrets...
...The IRS is aware of the administration's favorable view of the unions...
...Capitol building...
...Recently, another AFGE local filed an unfair labor practice charge against a medical center under VA control when the center halted its practice of giving employees four hours of administrative leave on their birthdays...
...The Michigan Education Association put out an audio training tape urging union negotiators to investigate the backgrounds of school board members who might be involved in negotiating, seeking to find out each member's marital status, religious affiliation, "what do his peers think of him...
...One Republican congressional staffer observed that "the NTEU has gotten stronger and stronger....The union spends so much time defending the most egregious employees —folks who have done horrible things—that it comes back to haunt the agency...
...Such strong-arm tactics can also be used against dissident union members...
...Hour for hour, Customs inspectors are among the highest paid civil servants in the world," a Journal of Commerce editorial recently noted...
...There is a reign of terror," in which "people are afraid to testify in Congress or publicly about what is going on" for fear of political retribution...
...On July 16, with the aid of sympathetic members of Congress, notably including Connie Morella (R-Md...
...The National Education Association has had a major role in anointing Democratic Party presidential candidates since Jimmy Carter...
...Yet government employee unions have made sure that these councils don't overserve the people...
...In 1993, AFGE President John Sturdivant sent HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros a list of 13 senior executives supposedly guilty of "patently anti-union management...
...Last year the state senate passed a bill that, according to the New York Times, "would eliminate the New York City Police Commissioner's ability to fire corrupt or brutal officers...
...Gene Del Polito, president of the Advertising Mail Marketing Association, observes: "Let's say I'm a supervisor walking across the floor of a post office and I see a gurney in a hazardous location, so I move it...
...According to a Labor Department official, one reason that government employee unions thrive is that it is inherently difficult to detect whether government employees are doing anything useful: "If you don't pick up the garbage, somebody is going to know...
...One Veterans Administration official said that a new AFGE contract with the VA "really [adversely] impacts their ability to get their job done, but [officials] can't say that for fear of losing their job...
...Harvard researcher Caroline Hoxby found that "a reduction in the power of teachers' unions lowered per-pupil spending while raising indicators of student performance!' Since 1960, spending per child in public schools has almost tripled in constant dollars and class size has fallen...
...Because of how the Customs Service calculates work shifts, inspectors can now receive "night pay" bonuses for work done any hour of the day...
...And on the first anniversary of the bombing, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) issued the following proclamation: "The Oklahoma City bombing was a tragedy of immense proportions, but it was also the symptom of a growing sickness in our country: the belief that government—and the people who work in it—are in some way responsible for most of what's wrong in America today...
...It portrayed the man exactly as the media almost always do: the smartest man in the world, the man behind the evolution of the computer from an intimidating wonder of technology to a tool we all can use, a folk hero whose only enemies are his competitors, the Justice Department, and a few Marxist programmers and systems administrators who are probably just jealous of his success...
...High-level internal security employees do not want to take on a case involving...union officials...
...According to Joe McNamara, formerly police chief of San Jose and now a fellow at the Hoover Institution, "The worst part is that in this time of great public fear of crime, mayors and other politicians want those police union endorsements...
...nor was he obliged toinform his supervisors when he traveled out of town on union business...
...When former President Nixon died in 1994, President Clinton christened April 27 a Day of Mourning for government employees...
...According to the Public Service Research Council, 37 percent of government workers (i.e., roughly seven million) now belong to unions...
...Hardesty said that the proliferation of full-time, official-time union officers in his district had a "devastating effect on the morale" of other workers...
...The National Labor Relations Act of 1935, which sought to maximize collective bargaining throughout the country, did not apply to public employees, since even the New Dealers did not consider them oppressed...
...The number of full-time, official-time SSA employees (i.e., non-workers) has almost doubled since 1993, and according to Bunning, "ten out of 12 supervisors interviewed at SSA's headquarters said they did not know or attempt to know whether a request to work on union activities was appropriate" before they granted the request...
...p. 67 Thompson Cigar P. 9 Verbal Advantage p. 19 World Affairs Television p. 6 To learn more about the benefits of advertising in The American Spectator, contact: John Funk, Associate Publisher—Advertising...
...One highly-respected Washington tax attorney observed, "Any time an employee gets in trouble who is a union member, the union goes to the hilt to protect them—that is what the union sees as its role...
...Employees have observed union activists selling real estate, working at Camden Yards stadium [selling hot dogs], and doing home maintenance while on official time...
...The same lawyer had previously filed a grievance because her performance evaluation had been reduced from "outstanding" to "fully successful," allegedly in "retaliation for her participation in union activities...
...But when Bill Clinton took office, the The American Spectator • September 1998 union reached an unprecedented level of influence on the federal government...
...At the Labor Department, partnership councils blocked any department-wide reorganization until union activists received promotions...
...The AFGE repaid such favors from the Clinton administration when it came to the government shutdown in late 1995...
...The union bewailed that public employees "have all too often been scapegoated, JAMES BOVARD is the author of Shakedown: How Government Screws You From A to Z (Viking) and Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty (St...
...For federal employees, for AFGE members, winning at politics isn't just anything, it is everything...
...In the late 1970's, it loudly lamented President Carter's proposal to end free parking for federal employees...
...MAKING II OFFICIAL FLRA rulings show how "official time" edicts can tie up agencies in Byzantine complications...
...Ken Weinstein of the Heritage Foundation estimates that the proliferation of non-workers on official time means that taxpayers are providing a subsidy of over $3oo million to federal unions...
...In 1962 President John F. Kennedy, elected with the support of the AFL-CIO, issued an Executive Order urging federal employees to organize...
...American Jews who work for the intelligence community are routinely excluded from dealing with Israel, precisely to avoid the "dual-loyalty" dilemma...
...But that does not work out so badly for unions: The more incompetent government employees become, the more they will need unions to prevent management from denying anyone an "outstanding" job performance rating...
...Postal unions will seemingly stop at nothing to spare their members exertion...
...A FUNDAMENTAL CONFLICT OF INTEREST According to the NTEU's mission statement, the union's "every action is geared toward creating an employee-centered workplace that produces high quality public services...
...According to the Treasury Department's Assistant Inspector General Dennis Schindel: "A Customs officer can eam a 15-percent night differential for the entire eight hours of a shift that starts at 12 noon and ends at 8 p.m...
...Since then, the power of government-worker unions has vastly expanded at state, local, and federal levels...
...On many occasions I have seen my colleagues using official time to go shopping, conduct personal business, or pursue hobbies such as fishing, golf and record collecting...
...A union brief argued that the leave "accommodates those employees who, for philosophical or other reasons, avoid shopping during evenings and on Sundays...
...Phone: 703-243-3733, ext...
...They are not required to give the agency any explanation as to why the person will no longer be doing agency work, nor are they required to explain in detail what the person will be doing...
...I would like to believe that Mr...
...In some cities, these organizations do not only advocate better wages and working conditions for their members —they also cover up their abuses...
...AFL-CIO Vice President and UMW President Richard Trumka, addressing a 1997 AFGE organizing conference, declared: "I can't think of any union that depends on political power more than AFGE and its members...
...and 8 a.m...
...In 1992 the Washington Monthly declared that public employees, along with the teachers' unions and the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), were the "gang of three—the real Democratic Party bosses...
...They probably didn't know what hit them: Sturdivant's memo didn't come to light until two years later...
...The NTEU's clout on Capitol Hill generates laws custom-made to fleece taxpayers...
...As Shindel testified, inspectors now receive "night differential even when they are on leave, if those leave days would normally qualify for nightdifferential had the officers been at work...
...The clout of government unions could further soar after 2000, since as columnist Causey reports, "privately, many union leaders prefer Gore to Clinton...
...At the same time, test scores have plummeted, discipline has collapsed, inner-city dropout rates have soared, and public school graduates have become renowned for their illiteracy...
...No one is subject to discipline because of the union rules....Congress failed utterly to do anything serious in addressing the union's power and influence in the reform legislation...
...Harnage claimed: "Over the last 18 years, federal employees have sacrificed over $18o billion to balance the budget....It's safe to say that no other group of Americans has done more to reduce the nation's indebtedness than federal employees, retirees and their families...
...0LI1 TEA( NEW THIRS Teachers' unions are probably the single most powerful bloc of government employees...
...One of the nation's leading trainers of federal management and union representatives observes: "Most of the people we talk to are not going to give us information for attribution —they are afraid of the impact it will have on them career-wise...
...Why have there not been more complaints about the disruptions caused by "official time...
...Four years ago the Mollen Commission, appointed to investigate the corruption in the New York City Police Department, concluded that the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association (PBA), the union representing 29,000 New York City cops, "often acts as a shelter for and protector of the corrupt cop...
...The Cincinnati Enquirer reported that the bombing would probably end up costing Cincinnati more than it had Oklahoma City, whose losses were covered by Uncle Sam...
...A HUD Assistant General Counsel ordered her to vacate her private office and use the office the agency provided the union in the same building...
...The APWU complained that workers who were out sick or on vacation did not benefit from the day off...
...The policy was originally justified by Massachusetts's "blue laws," but continued long after stores began opening on weekends...
...Thus, city workers were able to take an extra vacation day anytime during the following year...
...Teachers' unions have worked to destroy local control of education, subvert standards, prevent teacher accountability, and deny parents a significant voice in their children's education...
...There is a fundamental conflict of interest between government employees and citizens-taxpayers...
...In late July Rep...
...On March 31, the FLRA ruled that the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) had violated the rights of a trial attorney, president of her AFGE local, who informed her bosses that she would be spending loo percent of her time on union "representational" business...
...According to Washington Post columnist Mike Causey, federal unions are "the ultimate friends of the Clinton administration...
...The AFGE raised eyebrows in 1976 with a proposal to organize the Army, Navy, and Air Force...
...And the Democratic Party has become more dependent than ever on such money...
...One of its members, asked last year by a union newsletter why she had come to Washington, responded: 'We came to lobby about official time, privatization, the general pay scale, the blue collar pay scale, federal retirement, the Balanced Budget Amendment and federal employee health benefits...
...The NTEU's clout helps put citizens at the mercy of deceptive IRS agents...
...chaired three days of hearings on the abuse of official time at the SSA...
...The union worked hand-in-glove with the White House beginning in the summer of 1995 to structure any shutdown to minimize adverse effect on government workers...
...For AFGE members, union membership suffers without accompanying political power...
...This political power has not served to improve the quality of education...
...It was not the AFGE's first victory over Mica...
...Government workers have long enjoyed civil service procedural protections that make it very difficult to fire them, but until recently it has not been easy for them to organize into unions...
...ON THE BEAT Among the most powerful local unions are those representing law enforcement officers...
...Sturdivant also sent a memo urging his staff to compile lists of federal executives who were considered "adverse to agency's mission and labor relations program...
...In 1996 Vice President Gore declared these "Partnership Councils" a big success, claiming: "We have seen a new era of cooperation and cost-cutting throughout our government...
...Agency management sought to end the practice in 1998 but the AFGE resisted...
...In 1995 the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) ruled that the unions could restrict membership of the councils to their own members—even though less than 30 percent of federal civilian employees are unionized...
...John Mica, chairman of the House civil service subcommittee, that would have reined in some of the worst abuses of official time...
...The public sector is different, however...
...Too many politicians would sooner shortchange taxpayers than endure public criticism from government unions...
...but since the trial lawyer had a prized window-view office, she filed an unfair labor practice complaint...
...The MEA fought the firing, claiming that it violated the state teacher-tenure law...
...Last year the NTEU announced it was targeting thirty-nine "anti-federal employee lawmakers" for defeat...
...Because postal unions made over $3 million in contributions during the last congressional election cycle—and because they have cadres of potential activists in every congressional district—they have far more influence over the Postal Service than do the millions of citizens who merely use the mail...
...The unions participated in a lock-out of their own members for political advantage...
...The final version of the bill "solved" this problem by empowering the President to exempt the NTEU member on the oversight board from federal conflict-of-interest rules...
...The IG found that 145 SSA employees were working full-time for unions and that over 1,600 others were devoting up to 75 percent of their work time to "official-time" union activities...
...Congress decreed that any work done between 3 p.m...
...But if the person is just shuffling paper and giving out grants—it is very difficult to know if he is actually working...
...This time is also used to file grievances against agency management policies.' The Social Security Administration's Boston region has for decades given employees four hours of paid leave each year for Christmas shopping...
...The anticipated budget surplus is a credit to the federal workforce...
...Box 549, Arlington, VA 22216-0540...
...In 1995, AFGE Local 1592 successfully complained that the Air Force should have negotiated with the union before removing a leaky soda machine from a fire station at Hill Air Force Base...
...Growing in numbers and political influence, public employees' unions look out for their members at taxpayer expense—helping government A A fter a bomb destroyed the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995, killing 168 men, women, and children, the nation properly responded with solemn shows of grief...
...Perhaps, to avoid the appearance of dual loyalty, Zia will exclude himself in the future from dealing with China...
...The AFGE has increased its clout and patronage thanks in part to Clinton administration rulings permitting government workers to lobby Congress on "official time...
...the AFGE succeeded in killing a reform bill by Rep...
...As the U.S...
...In 1993 President Clinton issued an Executive Order requiring federal agencies to "create labor-management councils to help involve employees and their unions as full partners...
...Whether it urchasing their products or simply extending your good will, your positive response rewards then rganizations for advertising in one of America's finest magazines, The American Spectator...
...The absurdity of the "night pay" bonuses was compounded by a federal arbitration ruling on an NTEU grievance in late 1995 that decreed that Customs inspectors could also collect "night pay" bonuses for time spent on vacation...
...But the arbitrator ruled in management's (Continued on page 82) 1 Union stewards have shown remarkable creativity in discovering new rights of government employees, as the Heritage Foundation recently noted...
...04 Correspondence (Continued from page 12) sphere of individuals having access to our national security secrets...
...Organizations like AFSCME are a rising power in American politics that almost always champions government over private citizens...
...The NEA and the American Federation of Teachers together have more than 3 million members — and donated over $4 million during the last congressional election cycle...
...Organized labor helped drive many industries over the cliff with excessive wages and feather-bedding work rules...
...Address: The American Spectator, P.O...
...Hard Going for Microsoft I was rather disappointed with William Tucker's recent feature on Bill Gates ("Open Season on Bill Gates," TAS, July 1998...
...Why have unions become so prevalent and powerful in the government sector...
...Gore grew up in Washington, has spent most of his career in the federal government, and is in the same retirement system as most federal employees, Causey notes...
...Of more than $20 million spent earlier this year to sink California's Proposition 226—which would have required unions to get workers' permission before spending their dues for political purposes—more than half came from government employee unions...
...Martin's...
...Zia's routine handling of highly classified information, and his regular contacts with top Chinese Communist officials, put him in a sensitive position...
...The Michigan Education Association spent thirteen years fighting for Morris Abrahams, an Ann Arbor gym teacher, who was accused by six female students of unwanted touching and making sexual advances towards them...
...As the Mackinac Center recently reported, the association also urged its members to "Do your best to split the [school] board on crucial issues through...misrepresentation of the issues to the public through press releases...
...The Times editorialized on July 16, "The rule gives officers who are involved in crimes two days to coordinate their stories—or try to influence witnesses...
...On February 19, the FLRA ruled that a union official working at HUD "did not work under or have an Agency supervisor `in the normal sense' and was responsible to management only for time/attendance/pay purposes...
...POSTAL LINES The Postal Service is the nation's largest civilian employer, and roughly 530p00 of its 86o,000 employees are members of the four major postal unions...
...39 Bovard/Unions (Continued from page 39) favor, so this will be the last year that taxpayers pay the Boston region feds to go to the mall...
...According to Tax Notes, both the federal Office of Government Ethics and the Justice Department loudly protested that putting a union representative on the board would violate federal conflict-of-interest laws...
...House Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton told the rally that "she was embarrassed by Congress' callousness" toward the workers...
...A Detroit Free Press investigation in 1992, concluded that it took a Michigan school district seven years and an average of $ioo,000 to fire a single public school teacher...
...Federal unions gained additional rights and prerogatives under the 1978 Civil Service Reform Act, which created the Federal Labor Relations Authority—an entity now largely controlled by unions themselves...
Vol. 31 • September 1998 • No. 9
