President Donald Trump’s administration is mandating federal agencies report how much they spent negotiating labor union contracts for the past year, a sign that collective bargaining agreements could be the next target in a government cost-cutting push.
An Office of Personnel Management memo sent Monday directs federal agency heads to report the amount spent on the collective bargaining agreement process, including how much they paid their employees involved in the negotiations, fees for engaging in mediation or arbitration and the fair-market-value of the office space used for the talks.
“Federal agencies spent millions bargaining sweetheart collective-bargaining agreements that imposed significant costs on the American taxpayer while impeding effective and efficient agency operations,” Monday’s memo said.
“To date the Federal government has not attempted to systematically track the cost to Federal collective bargaining negotiations. Existing evidence suggests these costs may be substantial,” the memo said, claiming that the Social Security Administration spent $1.8 million finalizing agreements with two bargaining units.
The efforts to collect data on these costs are the latest move amid Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency push to curb government spending. DOGE, an office within the White House, has burrowed into federal agencies where it has led staff cut efforts and canceled contracts.
Trump has a checkered past with unions, a key difference from his predecessor Joe Biden, who pledged to be the most pro-labor president in history. In his first term, Trump filled key labor jobs with anti-union officials. This time around, his pick to lead the Department of Labor, Lori Chavez-DeRemer, is a rare unabashedly pro-labor Republican.
This isn’t the first battle that Trump and DOGE have picked with the unions representing federal workers. Trump has called federal workers back to the office full time, despite longstanding agreements that allow for remote work. Labor groups have also pushed back against mandates that federal workers send weekly emails to OPM outlining their work and have led a slew of legal challenges as DOGE and Trump slash government jobs.
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