Election 2010: Happy Days Or Horror Show?

It\'s the morning after what many say was the most important (and certainly most expensive) mid-term elections ever. The question now, says Senior Correspondent...

By now – barring allegations of wide-spread fraud or intimidation, a catastrophic natural event, or terrorist attack or attacks – we should know most of the winners and losers in yesterday’s elections. Experts say it was definitely the most expensive, maybe important, mid-term election ever.

If, pundits and polls notwithstanding, Democrats keep control of both the House and Senate, federal unions (or at least federal union leaders) will be tickled blue.

If Republicans win control of the House, federal unions will be very unhappy.

If Republicans take both the House and Senate, unions will be really, really, very, very unhappy. Although it might be a valuable recruiting tool if that worst-case-scenario happens.

Unions represent most federal workers, but unless they work for the highly-unionized U.S.Postal Service, most federal employees don’t belong to any union. The majority of white collar feds aren’t union members and therefore don’t pay union dues. Nor to they contribute to the PACs (political action committees) of unions.

Unions guard their actual dues-paying membership numbers the way some of us (you, certainly not me) privatize information about our actual weight, waist size, age or original hair color.

But the fact remains that outside of the USPS and the Tennessee Valley Authority, a sizable majority of federal government workers do not belong to a union or professional organization even though they are technically represented by the union or organization in dealings with management.

Whatever their motives for not joining (too busy, too cheap, think they don’t need or are afraid of unions, whatever,) there has never been a recorded case of a non-member refusing benefits won in whole or part by the muscle and money of organized labor. They may consider themselves (and actually be) independent free-thinkers. But unions and dues-paying members call them free riders.

Despite the dire warnings of partisans, it is probably safe to predict that if the Republicans do get a majority foothold in either the House or Senate, the federal workforce will survive. Maybe even thrive.

The number of government workers actually increased, a lot, during the Reagan years although one major Washington paper predicted his election would “decimate” the federal workforce especially in the Washington area where it, in fact, got bigger.

The biggest downsizing, accomplished via buyouts, early-retirement offers and actual RIFS (layoffs) came during the Clinton administration, when the federal payroll dropped by nearly 300,000 people and many once in-house operations were privatized.

At the start of the Carter years, some feds expected nothing but good things. But when the President proposed eliminating free parking at federal buildings workers picketed the White House reminding him that he was not in Georgia any more.

So what does the makeup of the new Congress mean to federal workers? Earlier this year we talked with representatives of federal and postal unions and managers groups. Today at 10a.m. on our Your Turn with Mike Causey radio show, we’ll discuss the new political alignment with Bill Bransford. He’s general counsel of the Senior Executives Association and he spends a lot of time on Capitol Hill lobbying and taking the political pulse. The show will be archived so you can listen now, or later. We’ll also be asking representatives of other groups to give us their take of the 2010 off-year election.

To reach me: mcausey@federalnewsradio.com


Nearly Useless Factoid
by Suzanne Kubota

According to uhaul.com, “nearly 45 percent of all moves occur between Memorial Day and Labor Day.”


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