Posted on 05/31/2018 10:34:35 AM PDT by mandaladon
The largest union representing federal workers on Thursday took the Trump administration to court to block a new executive order that severely restricts the time employees may spend on union activity, claiming the president’s action violates the First Amendment and oversteps the president’s constitutional authority.
“This president seems to think he is above the law, and we are not going to stand by while he tries to shred workers’ rights,” said the American Federation of Government Employees national president J. David Cox Sr., in a statement that announced the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the District.
“This is a democracy, not a dictatorship,” Cox said. “No president should be able to undo a law he doesn’t like through administrative fiat.”
The White House did not immediately comment on the lawsuit.
The restriction on what is known as “official time” — which will ultimately have to be bargained through collective bargaining contracts at federal agencies — was one of three orders the president signed late Friday before the Memorial Day weekend to roll back long-held civil service protections for federal employees.
The others instruct agencies to crack down on unions in contract negotiations and move more aggressively to fire employees with records of misconduct or poor performance.
The lawsuit challenges the official time guarantee that Congress gave federal employee unions four decades ago.
AFGE, which represents about 700,000 federal workers, argues that the executive order violates the union’s right to freedom of association, guaranteed by the First Amendment. The lawsuit claims the Trump administration has singled out labor organizations for disparate treatment.
AFGE also says that mandating the number of hours agencies may authorize for employees’ use of official time to 25 percent illegally changes a provision of the law Congress passed in 1978
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
That so? How much complaining did you do when Obama was throwing around his phone and pen?
Remember that one teacher that was giving his man juice to kids during class? A Walmart photo employee or a Walgreens, forget who saw the photos and turned him in.
He still gets his full pension.
[This president seems to think he is above the law]
That was Barack Hussein Obama. Just so you know. (not directed at OP)
[Q: How does a federal employee wink?
A: He opens one eye.]
Why don’t you take your 3-hour break? Calm down, everyone. No one’s canceling any mail!
Representative Democracy.
I personally believe they are closer to being Maoist than Marxist.
Government employment should be union free period.
Once again the complainers do not know that we are a Republic, not a Democracy.
Yet nobody complained when _bama did something similar, like, oh, DACA.
So let me get this straight ... the taxpayers pay each gubmint teat-sucker to be in his/her chair for 40 hours each week doing gubmint related things. But the union sez that the gubmint teat-sucker cannot be required to do only the gubmint related things for which they were hired?
Sounds to me like if the teat-sucker has time to do non-gubmint things, he/she is most likely expendable and should be encouraged to seek employment elsewhere.
Government unions are not in the Constitution. They are obscene as are most federal bureaucrats stealing a tax payer funded paycheck and benefits that the average citizen will never see. Besides the fact there is zero 1st. Amendment with Unions among other Un-Constituional aspects of unions.
That's why we heard from Cox so loudly when Obama overturned Federal Immigration Law with his "Dreamer" act!
.....what's that you say....?
We DIDN'T hear from Cox.....?
UNPOSSIBLE!
These worthless government “worker” unions were started with an executive order. They can be eliminated in the same way. DO IT!
Collective bargaining has no place in the public sector. The taxpayers are NOT represented.
Remember the good old days when Public Employees were referred to as “Public Servants”?
Checkmate: Trump!
The fools didn’t even know they were in a chess game!
Discovery is gonna be soooo sweet!
These public servants are now public masters. The biggest conflict of interest in the history of the United States.
“This is a democracy, not a dictatorship,” Cox said. “No president should be able to undo a law he doesn’t like through administrative fiat.”
I know that the speech that FDR gave about civil service employees not being allowed to form a union is normally attributed to that, but if I’m not mistaken it was Kennedy that gave them their union protections, by administrative fiat? Obviously, Cox had not problem with that. And, as usual, someone that plays a significant role in how this country functions, isn’t aware that our form of government is a, Constitutional Republic, not a, Democracy. What a moron.
An article on FR yesterday indicated those who are union officials/stewards/reps are spending 100% of their time on union business instead of doing the jobs they were hired to do.
I believe it stated that ~470 VA employees are in that category. ....Think about all of the other agencies involved and then the billions of $$$$ wasted by unions.
The EO requires that government employees who are union reps must spend at least 75% of their working hours doing their jobs, instead of 100% doing union work.
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