The big fight on the new "Homeland" Department was to exempt them from the normal civil service rules.
The civil service rules and the unions are not the same issue. There has been an enormous amount of reform in the civil service rules over the last ten years or so. If we had no unions, IMO, the rules would take care of themselves. I think that target is a waste of energy, not at all the real problem. You can fire people, for example, under the rules without unreasonable process as long as the union doesn't get into the act.
I don't think they have to directly "break" the unions. All they have to do is establish some right-to-work-type conditions. Give employees choice about whether or not to be in the bargaining unit. Most Feds aren't union members and don't want to be. The problem is that the unions represent the employees whether they want that or not and employees are not free to negotiate for themselves. All Congress would have to do is to let folks remove themselves from the bargaining units and the unions would topple like the Soviet Union.
Let me give you an example. When there's a reorganization and people get moved around, most will set up a committee to figure out who gets which office space, who gets the windows, who gets the walls, etc. Management is happy to support this natural process. But unions have legal rights to negotiate with management on office space and they may insist on exercising those rights to the detriment of the employees. The union comes in, disallows the committee that management sanctioned, and makes enemies of both, all to protect the rights of the union.
It wouldn't take much action from Congress and the WH to solve this problem, IMO. Just a small push in the right direction. |
