Government affairs

On Feb. 4, House Budget Committee Chairman Tom Price (R-GA) unleashed a major attack on all federal employees and their fundamental labor rights.

H.R. 4461, the so-called “Federal Employees Rights Act,” calls for prohibiting federal agencies—including executive, legislative, and judicial agencies; the U.S. Postal Service; the Postal Regulatory Commission; and the government of the District of Columbia—from automatically deducting union dues from employees’ salaries, as well as other union-busting proposals.

If enacted, H.R. 4661 would essentially eliminate federal employees’ convenient method of having their union dues deducted automatically—something on which they have been able to rely for years—and would force these federal employees to take additional steps just to take part in their unions.

“The National Association of Letter Carriers enjoys 93 percent voluntary membership,” NALC President Fredric Rolando said. “This attempt to strip away our hard-working members’ right to join a collective-bargaining unit is a clear assault on workers and their families.”

Forcing members to opt-in to use their dues (on the deceitful and incorrect assumption that union dues are used for political activity), to placing obstacles against the rights of others to form unions, to how elections are conducted—this legislation is nothing more than divisive attack, the president said.

“We call on Congress to oppose this bill and to stop the attacks on working families,” he said.