Government Union Boss: We'll Open a 'Can of Whoop Ass' on our Opponents

Yes, yes. Civility, etc. In any case, it's official: Firing a federal worker often proves preposterously difficult. A new Fox Business

exclusive report details the degree to which slackers and incompetents in the federal workforce are insulated from accountability by bureaucratic inertia and powerful government unions. These taxpayer-funded rackets go to bat for federal employees whose performance has been deemed worthy or suspension or termination, frequently staving off consequences for violations and lapses that would never, ever fly in the private sector:

One big government insider is calling foul on government union abuses of taxpayers and federal agencies. Patrick Pizzella, one of the three referees at the FLRA adjudicating these fights, is blowing the whistle on federal union abuses in case after case. “One cannot make this stuff up,” Pizzella said. For example, federal labor unions are winning fights against federal agencies who try to fire their union workers for letting mentally ill military veterans walk out the door of psychiatric units in Veterans Affairs hospitals, or for not catching things like a major rat infestation in a food factory. Instead, union lawyers are getting their members’ jobs, back-pay, and benefits reinstated, all at taxpayer expense. Federal unions have also battled Defense Dept. agencies that, for example, try to suspend a daycare worker for letting a toddler wander off a military base down the sidewalk toward traffic. At the same time, federal worker unions have been fighting to unionize federal inspector generals’ offices...

Ah, good. They're pushing to unionize the watchdogs, too. Click through for details about additional cases this whistleblower is raising. And please enjoy this gem of a quote from the head of the American Federation of Government Employees crystalizes government unions' arrogance. How does this "public servant" view members of Congress who've been duly elected by constituents who wish to reduce the size, scope and influence of government? As the enemy, pure and simple:

He charmingly added, "every time the 'fools' in Congress try to hurt the federal workforce we get bigger. We get stronger and we fight harder.” Many Americans have been frustrated in recent weeks to learn that the VA had misrepresented the number of employees that were fired over the wait-list fraud scandal (backlogs remain a persistent, entrenched problem in that government-run healthcare entity, despite an injection of new cash from Congress), as well as the revelation that a majority of IRS workers caught cheating on their taxes retained their jobs, or were promoted. A previous report showed that the agency had hired back hundreds of employees who'd been fired for cause, including deliberate tax evasion. FBN's Elizabeth MacDonald filed this report on

Varney & Co, followed by reaction from yours truly:

The FDR quote I referenced is here. Pushing back on this narrative, the agency that reviews appeals from fired federal employees notes that roughly 77,000 federal workers have been "discharged as a result of performance and/or conduct issues" over the past 15 years -- or roughly 5,000 per year. Context: "According to an Office of Personnel Management database, the executive branch had 1,847,000 full-time, permanent employees as of September 2014, excluding the U.S. Postal Service, intelligence agencies and certain other categories."