6mo ago

Trump plans to throw out federal workers’ union contracts

www.huffpost.com

Trump Plans To Throw Out Federal Workers' Union Contracts

Summary

Trump is nullifying federal employee union contracts negotiated in Biden’s final days.

Affected contracts include one with the Education Department ratified just before his inauguration. Trump cited a 2010 Supreme Court decision to justify his stance but did not provide a clear legal basis.

Federal employee unions, representing 800,000 workers, vowed legal action, calling Trump’s move unlawful intimidation.

This continues Trump’s prior efforts to weaken job protections, with additional plans to reclassify and lay off civil servants.

109 comments

Unions have a long and violent history of not wanting to be fucked with, we'll see how well this plays out for the orange Cunt
- For those that would like to read up on the subject
  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_violence_in_the_United_States
- These are a bunch of civil servants, not tradespeople. Trade unions are the ones you don't fuck with.
  
  Piss enough people off and it don't matter the flavor of union
  
  I suspect trades unions might join with them in solidarity. The civil servants would have to put themselves on the line, but I think they would have support.
  
  Just a friendly reminder that multiple Roman emperors were killed by bureaucrats.
  
  Yeah, that's my concern I've worked with the civil servants. They're angry all the time but never do anything.
  
  Don't rule out civil servants. One thing that's great about civil service is plenty of PTO available to hit the range.
  I've been out shooting, and working on my shooting drills a lot over the past month. Also been introducing more people to firearms, and hosting some first aid classes (Stop the Bleed and CPR). What have you been doing over the past month?
First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
- Get up and get to it folks. Get sabotage manuals etc while you can, and try to do so using Tor.
Throw out the Union contact? Then union members need to... go on strike. That's the power they have, and the only reason we've been able to get some worker protections.
- That's also pretty damn close to what Trump genuinely wants - for everyone currently doing the work to quit. That way he can install lackeys across the board.
  Strikes normally work because the other side wants something - usually the business owner wants labor to create a product. That isn't the case here.
  I'm not saying it's pointless, but the classic strategies will need to be rethought.
  
  unions around the country need to join in sympathy strikes
  
  Are there enough lackeys? If quality falls through the floor as well, won't it just further cement how dumb this whole strategy is? We may be taking lessons that it'll take a few years to learn but...
  
  Trump, and the Republicans in general, seriously underestimate just how much stuff the US government actually does, and how much institutional knowledge is required to do it. A widespread federal worker strike would be disastrous for them, and trying to replace all of those people with lackeys would be even more disastrous, because none of them would have the slightest clue what they are doing. And yes, I'm well aware that the Republicans are trying to sabotage the government, but going about it this way would have the opposite effect; everything coming crashing to a halt overnight would drive home to voters, in a really big way, just how much it is that the government actually does for people.
  
  That’s also pretty damn close to what Trump genuinely wants - for everyone currently doing the work to quit. That way he can install lackeys across the board.
  This plan only works if employees are indeed replaceable cogs. The thought is, "If employees quit, then we can simply replace them all". "Unskilled labor" as it were. This assumption is common in management circles.
- They want to destroy the administrative state. A strike only helps them further that goal. They just won't even bother negotiating.
- According to US history and labor unrest, the police will side with politicians and wealthy. I wonder how many workers will continue to wave around the thin blue line flags after they get asses kicked.
  
  If 800,000 government workers go on strike just for starters, with who knows how many more in other fields striking in solidarity, there won't be enough cops in the world to make them all to back to work.
- The reason they have contracts is so they can take this to court instead of striking.
  However, after this goes through a bunch of courts and ends up in the "supreme" one....
- Federal workers are usually barred from striking by law, see Reagan and the ATC union of any police union.
  
  Pretty sure Trump is barred from firing them by law... So I guess one side will follow the law and complain about it ...
  
  Do laws still matter at this point?
  
  So... it's illegal because of how impactful it can be. Kind of my point! I realize it's infinitely easier for me to advocate striking as a negotiating tactic since I'm personally not risking anything (yet). But at the end of the day, they need workers and it really is that powerful.
All I have to say, and I said it on that day of the RNC, but fuck that union guy for actually thinking the GOP gave 2 shots about unions after generations of fighting like Hell to gut them. Also fuck him for not endorsing the candidate who, while not necessarily a friend of unions, certainly wouldn’t have been actively working against them.
- I mean I can understand him not wanting to endorse Kamala when she directly told him we can win with or without you. That doesn't exactly sound like the kind of person you would want to endorse if they don't even seem to really care about you or the people you represent. But yeah endorsing Trump was a stupid move, he really should have just not endorsed either of them.
  
  At least in hindsight, it proves her wrong and that they can’t win without the unions?
  So like, maybe the DNC will be self-aware enough to reflect upon this and pivot back towards more progressive, worker-friendly policies rather than the neo-liberal garbage they’ve been espousing for the better part of the 2000s?
  I almost burst out laughing at the absurdity of the above, but in the words of Jim Carey’s character from Dumb and Dumber: “So you’re saying there’s a chance?”
  
  I thought Harris’ tone-deaf moment was in response to him deciding not to endorse a candidate rather than the other way around. Maybe I’m confusing union bosses, but I didn’t think the guy who spoke at the RNC endorsed either ticket in the end.
- Also fuck him for not endorsing the candidate who, while not necessarily a friend of unions, certainly wouldn’t have been actively working against them.
  Biden, however, was actively working against the union workers... And Harris said she would have done the same thing.
  It goes back to while Trump was lying about intent to solve the problems, he at least stated publicly the problems were real.
  And it goes back to Dems thinking people owe them their votes, rather than working hard to earn the votes.
  
  Yes and to further compound the DNC fucking up messaging the vote is suppressed in the US and population center votes count for less than rural ones.
  https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7wC42HgLA4k
  https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/14/politics/restrictive-voting-laws-brennan-report/index.html
  https://www.aclu.org/news/civil-liberties/block-the-vote-voter-suppression-in-2020
Ignore contracts you don't like, 100% on brand
Hah! The presidency sure does provide a lot of power but he's about to find out just where that ends. If 800,000 workers go on strike he and his cronies won't be able to exist in their rich person bubbles.
The runways will be closed. The borders won't let them in or out. Public transport everywhere will stop functioning. The banks will be forced to stop letting them send money due to laws regarding transaction reporting that go through Federal union employees (I mean, I guess they could try to live their rich person lives with nothing but transactions under $10,000 🤷).
Just about everything going on in the US from a logistics and economic perspective relies on the work of Federal union employees. They don't even need to go on strike (which would technically be illegal but if Trump doesn't need to follow the law why should federal employees‽). They could just reduce everything to a crawl and it would have the same effect.
- I'm so tired of people proclaiming that NOW finally, Trump will see the consequences of his chaotic stupidity and petulant egocentrism!
  No, he's not going to "find out" anything, because he does not give a fuck who suffers and his supporters will gargle his balls no matter what he does.
  You're absolutely right about the consequences of this latest crime, except for the part where Trump in any way feels anything negative about the experience.
  
  No, he does care who suffers. It's his entire goal.
  
  Trump is immune to consequences and loves to make it our problem.
- Hes trying to get them to quit. Going on strike would actually help him achieve his goals by repalcing them with more loyalist
  
  I don't think there are enough loyalists. These are technical jobs amongst other things.
  
  You can be fired for striking in the USA? Thats wank if so.
  
  That's why it's essential to do the kind of strike that involves blocking access to the work sites and kneecapping any scabs that try to break through.
I don’t think that is how contacts work.
- It is if you own the courts.
- It is for Trump. He routinely ignores contractually responsibilities on his part.
It’s time for a general strike
- yes, yes it is. now how do we organize 15-30% of the country for meaningful direct action?
  
  Federal union workers will be a good start. The rest will and must follow. Let's fucking go!
contracts involving federal law enforcement would be exempted
So Biden’s contracts are still legitimate if saying otherwise would upset the thug class
After he finishes off the federal employee unions, he will pursue the destruction of the private unions creating 4th World working conditions for the US labor force. For those union members who guzzle down the Orange Kool-Aid, go piss in the wind and you fucked yourselves.
- I've read pieces on how many union members (not leaders) are drinking GOP kool aid and support Trump and trumpy stuff.
  In other words, everything is propaganda, and everything is screwed :(
  
  Indeed, there are plenty of chauvinists, racist and 2A freaks in the unions that fail to realize they are placing their careers in jeopardy.
Seriously...how long before someone finds a way to put one in his brain pan? Every day he pisses a new group off...it's gotta happen sooner or later.
I wonder whether this is his play book:
Be shitbag to workers
Force general strike
Demonize victims who've resorted to only leverage to get fair working conditions (back)
I further bet it's the one translated from Russian.
Of course he does. He's a bastard.
I plan to throw trumps face on the ground
Go Teamsters!
There you go orange man, mess with the unions.
Oh nooooo. The contract AFGE couldn't be bothered to enforce while I was a federal employee. Its getting thrown out? Good thing you didn't invest anything into fighting for your workers under the current contract so you have all this stockpiled capital to defend your do nothing jobs.
Fuckem. Good riddance to a useless organization. I brought them every receipt they needed to nail the coast guard to the wall and they refused to stand for me. "Wasn't in the budget" they told me. "Arbitration is expensive." If rights only exist for the rich then they aren't rights at all.

109 comments