Reconsider whether public-sector unions should exist
What the document says“Congress should also consider whether public-sector unions are appropriate in the first place.”
Framed as a question for Congress to consider rather than a specific proposal: the chapter says a bipartisan consensus until the middle of the 20th century held that public-sector unions were incompatible with constitutional government, and that after half a century it is hard to avoid the same conclusion.
What the document actually says“Congress should also consider whether public-sector unions are appropriate in the first place.”
Congress should also ask a bigger question. Should workers in the government have unions at all?
The book asks Congress a much bigger question. It asks whether federal workers should have unions at all. It does not lay out a plan for this. It says leaders long ago thought unions were a bad fit for government.
Exclusions From Federal Labor-Management Relations Programs
2025-03-27 · 90 FR 14553
Whether this order answers the chapter's question is a reading, not a fact. The chapter put the question to Congress and proposed no executive action on it; this is executive action, and it removes coverage from named agencies rather than deciding the general question. Recorded here because readers reasonably connect the two, and left unresolved.