President-elect Donald Trump promised to fire incompetent and dishonest Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) employees, but he will have to fight the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) — the largest federal worker union — every step of the way.
During the 115th Congress, Trump — along with Republican majorities in both the Senate and House of Representatives — can enact sweeping reforms to improve every department and agency in the federal workplace.
Republicans controlled the 114th Congress, too, but outgoing Democratic President Barack Obama routinely threatened to veto GOP proposals.
Trump and AFGE already share some history. When the GOP presidential candidate proposed expanding a VA program that lets veterans get private medical care, AFGE quickly blasted the idea.
“Donald Trump wants to throw veterans to the wolves. Private health care for veterans would be an expensive disaster, and no one should be fooled into believing otherwise,” said AFGE National President J. David Cox Sr.
As a first order of business, Trump will appoint a new Secretary of Veteran Affairs who will negotiate the “master agreement” between the department and the 360,000 workers there, mainly represented by AFGE. The new VA secretary hasn’t been selected yet, but experience in dealing with unions might be most relevant in selecting somebody capable of changing the department’s abysmal culture.
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4 comments:
Reagan fired all the air traffic controlers didn't he?
Fire them like Reagan fired the Air Traffic Controllers. There... Done. Next?
They know that a lot of them will get fired for incompetence!
The people should vote against Federal Worker Unions even existing. Union reps are the ones who benefit most. Not the American taxpayers who have to foot the bill for all the incompetent government employees. We all know some.
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