Report: Taxpayers Potentially Paid Thousands of Union Officials

New bill would prevent full-time union workers from getting taxpayer-funded bonuses, pensions

An analysis by a pro-free-market think tank estimates that at least 1,000 federal workers paid with taxpayer dollars exclusively worked for labor organizations rather than performing duties at their government jobs.

Taxpayers spent $162.5 million on federal employees performing union activities in 2014, according to the Office of Personnel Management's most recent data. The Competitive Enterprise Institute used official budget documents and Freedom of Information Act requests to validate how many federal employees worked under such conditions.

"It is likely that thousands of federal employees spend 100 percent of their time performing union activity instead of the public service they were hired to do," the CEI report published Tuesday says (emphasis in the original).

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