Trump ends unions for federal employees at NASA and other agencies
Trump’s war with the swamp continues
Fight! Fight! Fight! Trump this week issued a new executive order ending the union contracts for government employees at NASA and other agencies, continuing a March order aimed at reducing or eliminating union action in the federal government.
The president issued a new directive ending collective bargaining agreements at NASA, the International Trade Administration, the Office of the Commissioner for Patents, the National Weather Service, the US Agency for Global Media, hydropower facilities under the Bureau of Reclamation, and the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service.
Trump classified the agencies as having national security interests, exempting them from federal union laws.
Though lawsuits are on-going challenging Trump’s action, the public should know the context. First, the Supreme Court has already ruled that these actions can go forward, despite those court suits, suggesting the court already recognizes the legality of Trump’s decision.
Second, the rules that allowed unions within the federal government were initially established by executive order by President John Kennedy. Though subsequently there have been laws passed codifying some of his order, it has remained the prime legal basis for the existence of these unions. The Supreme Court recognized this when it approved Trump’s actions in connection with national security. What one president can order, another can cancel.
Thus, Trump is legally within his rights to do this.
Thirdly, on a purely rational basis, unions in the federal government never made sense, and were in fact an insane idea. It has always been the case that government workers had far better benefits and working conditions that those in the private sector. There was no need for unions. Once formed, these unions instead became a third power within the government that did not serve the interests of the American public, warping the purpose of our government entirely.
The result has been a far more inefficient and incompetent federal government, unable to accomplish anything on budget, on time, or even as planned. Worse, these union contracts have helps fuel the debt, by increasing costs unnecessarily while preventing any president from instituting efficiencies.
Finally, to deny the duly elected president from reshaping the federal work force is a direct attack on his constitutional authority. The public elects the president, not unions or government workers, to run the federal government. If Trump is denied this power we are literally canceling our Constitutional republic.
The sooner all federal unions can all be eliminated the sooner our federal government will begin to function again, as it is supposed to.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Trump’s war with the swamp continues
Fight! Fight! Fight! Trump this week issued a new executive order ending the union contracts for government employees at NASA and other agencies, continuing a March order aimed at reducing or eliminating union action in the federal government.
The president issued a new directive ending collective bargaining agreements at NASA, the International Trade Administration, the Office of the Commissioner for Patents, the National Weather Service, the US Agency for Global Media, hydropower facilities under the Bureau of Reclamation, and the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service.
Trump classified the agencies as having national security interests, exempting them from federal union laws.
Though lawsuits are on-going challenging Trump’s action, the public should know the context. First, the Supreme Court has already ruled that these actions can go forward, despite those court suits, suggesting the court already recognizes the legality of Trump’s decision.
Second, the rules that allowed unions within the federal government were initially established by executive order by President John Kennedy. Though subsequently there have been laws passed codifying some of his order, it has remained the prime legal basis for the existence of these unions. The Supreme Court recognized this when it approved Trump’s actions in connection with national security. What one president can order, another can cancel.
Thus, Trump is legally within his rights to do this.
Thirdly, on a purely rational basis, unions in the federal government never made sense, and were in fact an insane idea. It has always been the case that government workers had far better benefits and working conditions that those in the private sector. There was no need for unions. Once formed, these unions instead became a third power within the government that did not serve the interests of the American public, warping the purpose of our government entirely.
The result has been a far more inefficient and incompetent federal government, unable to accomplish anything on budget, on time, or even as planned. Worse, these union contracts have helps fuel the debt, by increasing costs unnecessarily while preventing any president from instituting efficiencies.
Finally, to deny the duly elected president from reshaping the federal work force is a direct attack on his constitutional authority. The public elects the president, not unions or government workers, to run the federal government. If Trump is denied this power we are literally canceling our Constitutional republic.
The sooner all federal unions can all be eliminated the sooner our federal government will begin to function again, as it is supposed to.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Related: Unions are Socialist in nature, they can serve a purpose but like all things similar they always tend to go too far over the line and require force by government in order to exist.
SHE / THEY ARE SO MUCH MORE MORAL AND FAIRER THAN YOU
There is a characteristic of the Left, the Liberal, the Socialist, the Communist, the Democrat, the “progressive” and the radical anti-American; Everyone else in existence other than them is absolutely Subjectively corrupt and THEY are the arbiters of Objective fairness and most importantly what your morality must be.
All Communists, and that is exactly what they are despite them hiding behind their massaged prettied up nomenclature. They, the Democrats / Democrat Socialists propose that they can take from others (you) who can do and have and redistribute whatever they determine needs redistributing to others in order that life be fairer and more moral according TO THEM!
American Communists seek to legally and through government force discount your ability, your industry and hard work and strip you of the fruits of your competence and redistribute it to others. All in seeking their absolute political power, wealth and elite positions. Why? Because they are fairer and more moral than you!
They propose absolute force in everything that they determine needs to be run by THEM. You can see that unfolding in the EU and Britain today and that is exactly what was to happen in America as per the Globalist agenda. But that agenda has stalled out due to the existence of the Constitution, which the “progressive” must neuter in order to prevail.
THEY “CARE”.
AOC (Democrat Socialist) proposes absolute force in governance because she and the Democrat party taken over by the radical “progressives” CARES about you more than you care about you and you should surrender your autonomy to them:
https://youtu.be/slLWCcn61Tk?si=RSIIwYBqeswIV6_6
AOC’s and their “Democrat Socialist” problem? The people are beginning to understand that she and they are themselves corrupted and only seek absolute power in governance over everyone else.
She is cute, but she aint that cute.
Are You Paying Attention Yet America? JGL 8/29/25
https://www.sigma3ioc.com/post/she-they-are-so-much-more-moral-and-fairer-than-you
While sound cannot travel through the vacuum of space, even Voyager 1 was able to hear the collective “Yeah, Baby!!!” associated with Trump’s action.
Unions are good when they are actually working for the employee.
But i have never worked in a good union shop.
Robert wrote: “Thirdly, on a purely rational basis, unions in the federal government never made sense, and were in fact an insane idea.”
Unions were intended to help provide “profit sharing” with the employees. It was seen as unfair that the profits went to the owners, who put their fortunes at risk and were often the ones who did the tremendous work of navigating government regulations and red tape, ensured that cashflow assured timely payroll, and negotiated with customers. After all, if the company failed, the workers only had to look for other work, but the owners lost their savings, houses, and often their marriages. It is only fair that the mere workers, who work a whole eight hours a day (or less), enjoy far more of the profit than the work-wearied owners, who occasionally get to talk shop out on the golf course, trying desperately not to beat the customer despite the customer always slicing into the sand traps, the ponds, and the rough.
What a terrible employer the government must be for its workers to want to pay dues to a union so that they can get better pay, fewer hours, more pension, and more control over We the People.
And if government is that bad toward its own employees — the very people who run the government — just how bad is government toward its citizens, — the ones run by these unionized government employees?
My local city had 8 count them 8 different secretarial office workers unions. One for each government building. All their unions had verbiage that they all got paid the highest pay of any of the other unions.
Since they all negotiated their contracts in successive years our city was essentially renegotiating their contracts twice every year.
It took a federal court to come in and force all those unions into one.
I am not opposed to Unions on principle, but the concept does lend itself to abuse. I would disagree with Edward to the extent that the ability for those on the lower rungs of the economic ladder to collectively bargain isn’t so much about ‘sharing’ profit, as ensuring that natural Human tendencies are reasonably restrained. More about sharing power. E pluribus unum. While income disparity is necessary as an economic driver, I don’t want to live in the ‘red in tooth and claw’ world of Alfred, Lord Tennyson.
Capitalism is the most effective method yet devised to harness natural Human desire, and by extension, Nature, for social benefit. Some folks, for whatever reason, are much better than the norm at amassing wealth. Unions are part of the checks and balances designed to reduce the opportunities for plutocracy.
My direct experience with Union workers has been on construction sites. As a tradesman, I did appreciate the wages. When I traded a toolbelt for a briefcase, I was less enamored with Union wages and work rules. I did know, that if I needed some work done, I was going to get at least competent work from a Journeyman, and usually, pretty good work. Everyone has stories, but I was generally happy to see Union tradespersonnel show up.
Blair Ivey as well as everyone else: My criticism here is focused solely on government unions, not unions in the private sector. In the latter, the union’s actions are always restrained because the company must make a profit.
In the former, there is no limit to the deal the union can get, because the government’s income is coerced, by force, as taxes. As such, the government routinely makes bad deals, paying out too much to the union, while raising taxes or going into debt. In the end the government and the union get into bed with each other, serving their own needs and ignoring the needs of the citizens whom they are supposed to serve.
The sooner all government unions can be eliminated, the better for everyone.
My personal experience with working union was more negative than that experienced by Blair. In construction, the jobs I was on in 1982-83, I was constantly getting reported for doing anything that wasn’t in my limited field. Things that were normal for a laborer on non-union jobs caused problems on union jobs. Building scaffold was a carpenters job, driving a pick up truck was a teamsters job and so on. Petty sabotage and theft was fairly common. The wages were fine, but the work environment was not. Becoming non-competitive was a reason for unions largely disappearing from any construction site that didn’t mandate them.
In the 2007 timeframe, my non-union company was pouring concrete on union jobs as there were no union cement finishers available. We had done a had dozen or so pours with no problems. Then the union tradesmen that we had been getting along with found out that my Mexican immigrants were making more money than they were. After that we couldn’t get along and later were replaced.
While there is plenty of incompetence to go around on most jobsites, I didn’t see the union workers as any improvement.
So one could conclude that I am anti-union in general. Government unions I consider worse with no feedback from customer loss. All that being said, executive order elimination of government unions has some dangers that most seem to miss in both directions. The main problem being that executive order by this party can be countered by executive order by the other party when they get back in. This has been building over the last several administrations. This should be a warning sign to any that pay attention to history.
The parties have become somewhat like pro sports in that it is less important to them which team you are rooting for than that you show up and buy the ticket.
Blair Ivey wrote: “I would disagree with Edward to the extent that the ability for those on the lower rungs of the economic ladder to collectively bargain isn’t so much about ‘sharing’ profit, as ensuring that natural Human tendencies are reasonably restrained. More about sharing power.”
Except that the justification for unions was sharing in the profits of the company, not sharing in the power (decision making) or responsibilities that come with the power. Government has no profits to share, and the unionized government workers (once known as public servants) are not allowed the power of government. The power resides with the elected officials, otherwise We the People lose control over the government.
“Capitalism is the most effective method yet devised to harness natural Human desire, and by extension, Nature, for social benefit.”
I think that you mean the free market is the most effective method. Free markets are the original means of exchange of goods and services, and was invented when the first two humans agreed on a transactional exchange of goods or services or a combination. All the rest of the systems are modifications that may enhance the ability for agreeable exchange (e.g. capitalism) or detract from that ability (e.g. marxism or slavery*). Capitalism allows for people to combine their resources in order to do more than one individual could do.
“I did know, that if I needed some work done, I was going to get at least competent work from a Journeyman, and usually, pretty good work. Everyone has stories, but I was generally happy to see Union tradespersonnel show up.”
Yeah. I have a story, but first, no one needs to be unionized to be a journeyman, master, or apprentice. That system has existed for centuries with similar results as Blair experienced.
My story is the unionized worker (Mr. Grievance) who came on shift, sat at a desk with a stack of empty grievance forms on one side, and turned them into filled grievance forms on the other side of the desk by the end of the shift. When it came time for work to be done (our test needed only hourly attendance by the unionized technicians), Mr. Grievance was not among those performing the duties, but our project was paying for him to be present on the workforce.
The others were jovial, very friendly, and eager to make our test work properly, but Mr. Grievance was the opposite and hindered us by claiming a grievance against us, too.**
_____________
* Slavery could be a choice. When you willingly give up liberty for security, you have agreed to a slave relationship with he who provides the security. This is exactly why the Founding Fathers forbade capitation taxes in the Constitution. Now that we have such taxes, we have become slaves not just to the government but to the unionized government workforce.
** He claimed we were operating tools that should have been operated by union workers, but the union agreement exempted specialized tools. We were using a tool of our own making, which the other union workers knew they didn’t know how to operate, but Mr. Grievance wrote us up anyway, and the company sided with the union. No help there, just hinderance.
Oh, wait! That was power put into the hands of the union and the union worker. The same kind of power usurped by the government union workers.
Also, IIRC, the civil service protects the Federal work force (correct if assumption is wrong)
Unions lost all meaning when no skill people were rounded up and dragged into unions and then laws enacted to protect unions at literally any cost. As others have noted, unions became so awful the real workers refused to join and so the unions faded away leaving behind almost nothing but graft and corruption at 3very level in government.
Aside from the fact that any gov’t employee union stands on the slipperiest slope of corruption, even FDR considered the idea absurd.
“All Government employees should realize that the process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service. It has its distinct and insurmountable limitations when applied to public personnel management. The very nature and purposes of Government make it impossible for administrative officials to represent fully or to bind the employer in mutual discussions with Government employee organizations. The employer is the whole people, who speak by means of laws enacted by their representatives in Congress. Accordingly, administrative officials and employees alike are governed and guided, and in many instances restricted, by laws which establish policies, procedures, or rules in personnel matters.”
Your gray background makes your posts much harder to read. I like your posts, but often ignore them, because the most recent one I read was hard on my eyeballs. Then I forget, and go to your page again, to start that cycle over. I generally outline the posts so that reading them is easier.
Eric Ivers: There is a simple solution that myself use on webpages that have backgrounds that my eyes don’t like. Go to preferences, to colors, and set the background to not use the websites’ colors but the computer’s default desktop color. It is a simple toggle.
I have very few complaints about the background, which I find relaxing and less stress to my eyes. In fact, this is MY default desktop color, so most webpages have the same background.
My brother worked at a large very well known union manufacturing plant as a security guard.
In order for the outside sprinkler system to be turned on or off it required three people and over and hour.
You needed a plumber to open the valve and turn on the system.
A foreman to oversee the job.
And a security guard to keep them both protected while outside.
Plus you had to get the key out of the security office because the valve was locked.
It took at least an hour and sometimes 3 to just turn it on and the same to turn it off. Not everyone is available at the same time so they got paid to wait. And they all got paid 30 dollars an hour minimum to start. Not counting over time(double) or even triple time(holiday)
You guess why that company and local union is now out of business.
Edward postulated “I think that you mean the free market is the most effective method.”
I actually did mean Capitalism, as a market without restriction is useless if there is nothing to transact. Money can be made in any type of market, but not if one cannot acquire the means of production, as illustrated by your statement “Capitalism allows for people to combine their resources in order to do more than one individual could do.”
I did mean Capitalism, but then read one of my post archives from 2016 that makes your point, so I will concede :).