OpenMarket: Government Unions

Every Medicaid dollar is statutorily required to directly fund care for the elderly or disabled. This requirement is known as the “direct payment requirement.” Congress, in enacting the Social Security Act, which created the Medicaid program, created narrow exceptions to this condition including sending Medicaid payments to governmental agencies or pursuant to an order of a court. 

Our friends at the State Policy Network have produced a compelling new video about the plight of men and women who have been forced to pay union dues as state healthcare workers when they’re simply caring for their own sick relatives and friends.

Public employees are no longer required to pay fees to a union as a condition of employment. This newfound freedom was secured by the United States Supreme Court decision this summer in Janus v. AFSCME. The court ruled that forcing public employees to fund union speech they disagree with violates their First Amendment rights.

Federal employee unions and the Trump administration sparred in court over a set of executive orders that make changes to official time and grievance procedures on Wednesday. U.S. District Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson heard oral argument yesterday at the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. In conjunction with the oral argument, federal employee unions held protests across the country.

If the Trump administration wants to achieve its stated goal to use tax dollars as effectively as possible, ending the practice known as official time, which allows unionized government employees to perform union business while being paid by taxpayers, should be high on its to-do list.

Despite union hysterics, the Supreme Court's Janus decision does not impede or prohibit public employees’ right to unionize or collectively bargain. Instead, government unions will simply have to compete for membership and funding like every other membership-based organization. But Democrats in Congress are seeking to undermine the decision via legislation.

Public sector workers who haven’t affirmatively chosen to support labor unions should see a bump in their paychecks, thanks to the Supreme Court’s decision in Janus v. AFSCME. The decision holds that forcing public sector workers to financially support a union violates their First Amendment speech and associational rights. 

Today the House Subcommittee on Government Operations held a hearing entitled “Union Time on the People’s Dime: A Closer Look at Official Time.” The purpose of the hearing was to review problems with the practice of official time, which grants federal employees paid time off to perform union business at the taxpayers’ expense. In addition, to discuss potential legislative reforms to official time.

Federal employee unions enjoy a government subsidy known as “official time” that enables union members to perform union duties while being paid by the taxpayer. During the Obama administration, the costs of the subsidy were rarely reported. At the end of Obama’s presidency, the latest available official time data was from fiscal year 2014.

An uptick in teacher union strikes has occurred over past few months. Teachers have abandoned students in West Virginia, Kentucky, and Oklahoma with rumblings of a potential strike in Arizona. What is spurring this increase in union walk-outs? Governing magazine puts forth the idea that the labor laws in these Republican dominated states, which limit union collective bargaining privileges, may be a contributing factor.