May 25, 2018, Fairfax, Va.–Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement praising President Donald Trump for issuing executive orders including one that limits union official time:
“Taxpayers have for too long been subsidizing federal employee unions through the salaries, offices and travel expenses of their employees. President Trump’s executive orders at least partially rectify the situation by limiting how many hours can be spent on union business saving taxpayers $100 million. There is nothing more galling to limited government advocates than public employee unions being largely subsidized by taxpayer dollars while using their dues payments to support politicians in favor of expanding government. If unions want to continue the level of services that they have been presumably been providing their federal public employee union members, they should raise the dues to accommodate those needs. Currently about 27 percent of the federal civilian workforce are members of public employee unions.
“These executive orders should be followed up by a change in federal employee union dues collection whereby federal employees should request dues payments deductions from their paychecks rather than having their dues payments assumed unless they complain.”
Note: Manning was a member of the Trump Labor transition team.
Correction: Currently, about 27 percent of federal workers are unionized. 6.5 percent of private sector workers are unionized. About 10 percent of all workers are unionized.
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