A massive union that represents some of President Donald Trump's immigration agents called on two of the administration's top officials to resign following the killing of an ICU nurse in Minneapolis over the weekend. The American Federation of Government Employees, which represents more than 820,000...
It’s something (words – maybe not ‘something’ in these times). But will the union demand their members to strike? I mean, that’s the most (only) meaningful action a Union can do; it’s sort of what they’re for, right? Right?
It’s a felony for federal workers to strike. Kinda makes you wonder why federal employees even have unions, but that’s the capitalist hellscape we live in…
I am outside the US so I didn’t know this. So… Unions, whose biggest and perhaps only effective weapon against exploitation, the strike, cannot, by law, call for a strike. And it’s a federal offense for federal workers to do so?
Wow. Just Wow. Why even have a union?
The last time federal workers went on strike, Reagan fired every air traffic controller. We’re still trying to recover from THAT, 40 years on.
We’re also about to have a mass retirement because of it
The only purpose of police unions is to come out in solidarity when one of their own fucks up. Like if a teacher’s union rallied around the teacher every time they were accused of inappropriate contact with a student. The union would back the teacher and besmirch the student. That’s how law enforcement unions work in the U.S.
Unions can strike. Unions of critical services workers, like air traffic control and police, can not legally. This is the first time I read that federal employees can not.
Unions can still be useful, even if their most powerful tool is taken away.
I don’t know if this ever happened and I only have experience as a government contractor. I think ICE and CBP might have different rules, but…
The “loophole” to strike is if and only if the union can’t reach an agreement on terms to extend their CBA then there is no legal requirement to not strike. Meaning if the negotiations go sideways and the other side isn’t negotiating in good faith as far as raises, healthcare, PTO, etc then the union members can vote to not accept the CBA. if the CBA ends so does the obligation to not strike.
I know people involved in some of these unions. They still fight for federal workers and are successful at times in assisting them with so many other things. They negotiate contracts (like collective bargaining agreements) and seek more fair workplace practices, they represent workers in disputes, they scrutinize HR and administrative practices, and they bring lawsuits in federal courts.
Yes, they don’t have the teeth of large strikes, but it’s still helping them in the sense of banding together and pooling resources. Of course, this fucking piece of shit administration has just unilaterally taken away a lot of things and exposed a lot of the flaws in the system. From what I know, morale is in the shitter for most normal, everyday, civilian federal workers who simply wanted to provide a good public service and pay their bills.
Note that I think it being illegal to strike is fundamentally un-constitutional and un-American. But hey, not much of the U.S. is how we feel it should be.
“Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition …There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.”
Felony, in a lawless land? Break your chains.
They can still do a work slowdown. Have just enough folk call in sick. Also this gives voice to what could become a national general strike. They’re also directly calling out Steven Miller so hopefully that embarrasses the administration enough to oust him from his military base accommodations.
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Massive American unions usually have anti-strike clauses (in this case it’s actually a law), so they will never be able to go that far. Outside organizations would need to organize wildcat strikes of those workers instead. I would say a good strong union even with a clause could still prep their members to respond to a strike call though, they just can’t legally do it themselves