Federal union bosses thought they had a stranglehold on the government workforce.
But they never saw this coming.
And Donald Trump utterly destroyed union bosses with one executive order that has them in total panic.
Federal union bosses built a massive political machine on taxpayer dime
For nearly half a century, federal union bosses have operated like kings of their own little kingdoms inside the federal government.
The so-called "Civil Service Reform Act" of 1978 gave union bosses the power to bargain alongside presidents and their appointees over how federal workers are managed.
But the law’s supporters were being dishonest about what it would actually do.
Rather than improving civil service, it built a political machine that directs taxpayer money toward Democrat campaigns.
Mark Mix, president of the National Right to Work Committee, exposed the ugly truth about how this corrupt system really works.
"The real aim of big labor politicians who rammed through the CSRA and dozens of state laws authorizing union monopoly bargaining over public employees during the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s: Establish a massive new political machine. And it worked," Mix wrote in a recent analysis.¹
The numbers show the massive scale of this political operation.
In the 2023-2024 election cycle, according to an analysis by the website Open Secrets, the 20 most political government unions poured more than $75 million into the coffers of union-label Democrat federal politicians and their allied organizations.²
That’s $75 million in taxpayer-funded political activity working against average Americans.
But the problems go beyond just political spending.
Federal union bosses caught red-handed stealing from their own members
The misconduct inside these federal unions would shock most Americans.
According to a 2023 analysis drawing on data from the U.S. Labor Department, the 320,000-member American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) – the largest federal union – accounted for more than 10% of all "union corruption convictions" between 2012 and 2022, despite representing "just 2% of all unionized workers." Over the decade covered, that’s the "highest conviction rate" of any U.S. union.³
The financial misconduct continues to get worse.
A May 28 investigative report for USA Today by Erin Mansfield furnished compelling evidence of outrageous abuse of federal employees’ dues money by local officials of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), the second-largest federal union, in San Francisco.
The report showed that in 2023 Food and Drug Administration (FDA) employee and NTEU Chapter 212 Vice President Brandon Bruce wrote to NTEU headquarters about highly questionable unreported expenditures by then-Chapter 212 President Michael Roberts. Bruce ultimately obtained financial documents allegedly showing that Roberts and his cronies had misappropriated more than $116,000 in Chapter 212 funds.⁴
But when top officials at NTEU headquarters were informed about the apparent financial wrongdoing, they retaliated against Bruce by urging the FDA to fire him instead of punishing the miscreants.
The misconduct flows from leadership levels.
A federal lawsuit alleges that current AFGE General President Everett Kelley and other AFGE bosses knew for years that former General President J. David Cox was sexually harassing union employees and vendors and misusing union dues-funded limousines for his personal affairs, but did nothing to stop it. Instead, they repeatedly conspired to get Cox off the hook for his criminal misconduct.⁵
Trump’s executive order strips away union bosses’ stranglehold on government
President Donald Trump decided enough was enough.
In late March, Trump issued executive order 14251 that’s going to reduce the number of federal civil servants subject to union monopoly control by an estimated 75%.
The order cites a provision in the Civil Service Reform Act that empowers the president to prohibit union monopoly bargaining over federal employees charged with defending national security.
Union bosses are now scrambling to fight Trump’s order in court, but they’re fighting a losing battle.
"Under the CSRA, elected presidents who are accountable to the American people no longer have effective authority over the operations of the federal government. Much of the power of chief executives and their appointees is delegated over to government union officials who are in no way accountable to voters," Mix explained.⁶
Trump’s executive order changes all that.
For the first time in decades, the president will actually have authority over the federal workforce instead of having to beg union bosses for permission to manage his own employees.
Union bosses like Everett Kelley and NTEU General President Doreen Greenwald are now being forced to defend their corrupt little kingdoms in court.
But their lawyers know they’re fighting an uphill battle that’s almost certain to go all the way to the Supreme Court.
Union bosses pretend to care about workers while lining their own pockets
Federal union bosses are trying to spin this as an attack on workers’ rights.
But the record shows these union bosses care more about maintaining their political power and protecting their ability to enrich themselves than they do about defending civil servants’ legitimate interests.
"AFGE and NTEU bosses are far more concerned about maintaining and expanding their political power and protecting the ability of union bigwigs to enrich themselves at rank-and-file civil servants’ expense than they are about defending civil servants’ legitimate interests," Mix stated.⁷
The truth is, federal union bosses have been running a protection racket for decades.
They force federal employees to pay dues, then use that money to elect Democrats who give them more power, which they use to squeeze even more money out of federal workers.
It’s a vicious cycle that’s been bleeding taxpayers dry for nearly 50 years.
Trump’s executive order finally breaks that cycle.
Federal employees will no longer be forced to subsidize the political activities of union bosses who don’t represent their interests.
And the American people will finally have a president who can actually manage the federal workforce without having to get permission from corrupt union bosses first.
This is exactly the kind of swamp-draining action that Trump promised during his campaign.
Federal union bosses thought they were untouchable.
But they’re about to learn that nobody is above the law – not even the corrupt union bosses who’ve been stealing from taxpayers for decades.
¹ Mark Mix, "Time to end federal union bosses’ monopoly over the government workforce," The Washington Times, July 10, 2025. ² Ibid. ³ Ibid. ⁴ Ibid. ⁵ Ibid. ⁶ Ibid. ⁷ Ibid.
