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the purpose of the video today is to
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discuss a bill that's been introduced in
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Congress called the federal Workforce
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Freedom Act when you first hear the term
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depending upon your personal interest
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and where you sit in the government you
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might think that this is a way to
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increase your personal freedom by for
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example reestablishing teller work and
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wide use throughout the government the
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reality is that's not it by work for
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Freedom what the author of the bill is
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referring to is that freedom from paying
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union dues and related expenses that you
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might have in effect it's about a bill
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that would ban unions from operating in
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government in effect what it would do is
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to return the Labor Relations program in
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the federal government back to pretty
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much what it was under
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the administration of President Franklin
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and President Roosevelt had commented uh
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that Federal unions shouldn't exist
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because bargaining was not in the public
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interest and that remained uh the policy
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1960 in in 1960 what happened was
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President Kennedy was elected John
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Kennedy ran for president against
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Richard Nixon very close election less
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than two10 of 1% of the popular vote uh
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resulted in John Kennedy becoming
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President part of the reason he won
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supposedly was because of actions by
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labor unions such as the or labor
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organizations like the AFL C that helped
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turn out the vote in cities such as
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Chicago shortly after he was elected
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shortly after he was inaugurated he
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issued an executive order number 10988
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that established a labor relations
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program in the government government
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that was modified a little bit by
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President Nixon in uh
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1970 and what President Nixon did was
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basically clarify what could be
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bargained what couldn't be bargained
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unions still didn't have the right to
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strike to engage in picketing Etc the
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big change came in 1978 and in 1978 the
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civil service reform Act was passed due
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to the work of President Jimmy Carter
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who was aided uh in a large part by the
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AF National president who was Ken Block
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at the time one of the main purposes of
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the Cs was to make it easier to Fire and
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to disciplinary action against federal
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employees that was what the training
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that was being taught in the government
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LED people to believe and in fact that's
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pretty much how the CSRA read and unions
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didn't like it uh in fact uh Ken Block
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the national president of afge ran into
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some political problems Within in his
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unit as a result of that but some 47
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years later we can look back at the Cs
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what it did and how easy or how
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difficult it is to fire federal
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employees and people who work in the
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field would probably say it didn't work
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because of Court decisions mspb
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decisions Collective marketing
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agreements a variety of reasons a lot of
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restrictions impediments have been put
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into place that still make it difficult
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to fire a federal employee in fact uh in
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many cases it can take several years by
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the time the various appeals uh are
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processed to actually fire or take
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Serious disciplinary action against a
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federal employee now what this Federal
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Workforce Freedom Act would do is to
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ban unions in the federal government it
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was introduced by uh Senator Marsha
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Blackburn a republican from Tennessee it
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doesn't specifically say it would ban
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unions but that's the result of
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it uh and part of the reason obviously
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is Politics as most people would
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probably say Democrats are generally
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supported by federal employee unions
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they endorse candidates usually
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Democrats they give money to candidates
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usually Democrats uh when the president
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is elected if he's a Democrat such as
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Joe Biden was then they get favors from
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the government and President Clinton
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tended to favor of employee unions uh
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President Obama Obama President Biden
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president Trump of course is not a
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Democrat he's a Republican and he is
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taking actions that generally are not
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favorable toward federal employee unions
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or some would say federal employees in
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general so politics plays a big role
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Republicans often view unions as a
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political opponent and for the reasons I
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just mentioned so that is part of it
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what is behind the purpose of this
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legislation the workfor for Freedom Act
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would do several things first it would
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repeal 5 USC chapter 71 often called the
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labor relation statute it's that part of
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the civil service reform act that
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created the legislative basis for
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to organize and to bargain contracts in
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the government second it would prohibit
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employees from joining a union uh or
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being allowed to organize or participate
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in a labor union so third it would be
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agencies from the engaging in collective
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bargaining with unions and finally it
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would terminate all bargaining
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agreements dismiss any arbitration or
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grievance proceeding related to
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collective bargaining group agreements
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so when I said it would ban unions this
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is how it would do it now what are the
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stated reasons for this she cites as an
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example federal employees union
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Representatives conduct Union business
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during work time in other words instead
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of doing the work they were hired to do
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as a federal employ employee they're
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engaging in Union business it's called
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official time under President Biden a
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recording official time may have been
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done in agencies but it wasn't reported
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publicly OPM stopped collecting it under
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President Trump OPM is again collecting
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the information so it hadn't been done
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for several years in physical year 2019
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federal employees spent roughly 2.6
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million hours on Union
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activities doing various things
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uh representing employees filing unfair
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labor practices that kind of thing and
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during work hours when they use this
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time it cost the government about 135
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million uh Senator Ernst from Iowa has
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reported that since then as the
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information she has gathered this figure
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is going up went up fairly dramatically
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under President Biden because there were
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fewer restrictions another reason is
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lack of political neutrality we think of
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the government as being a Workforce that
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is politically neutral not Democrat not
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Republican the unions on the other hand
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are seen as in effect a very strong
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political opponent or political opponent
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of the Republicans a political uh
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alliance with Democrats federal employee
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unions overwhelmingly support Democrats
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their favors or their work has returned
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the federal government in effect acts as
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a bill collector by collecting dues from
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federal employees and forwarding the
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money to unions taxpayers are paying
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administrative costs and public sector
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unions imped government efficiency
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responsibility and accountability that's
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what she wrote in her press release on
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the other hand is there a good chance of
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passing I would say it's personal
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opinion probably not but on the other
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hand if you looked a year or two ago if
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somebody had said president Trump will
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win and he's going to take the various
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actions in the federal workplace such as
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Banning uh telea workk firing
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probationary employees eliminating Dei
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offices most people probably would have
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said that's not going to happen it did
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so you don't know what's going to happen
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in elections you don't know what's going
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to happen in politics this bill is
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sitting in Congress now it has been
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proposed we'll see if it has any
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significant chance of getting passed uh
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over the next term of this Congress