{"id":1325756,"date":"2022-02-22T05:20:00","date_gmt":"2022-02-22T10:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1325756"},"modified":"2022-02-22T08:09:57","modified_gmt":"2022-02-22T13:09:57","slug":"why-the-biden-admins-plan-to-unionize-the-national-guard-is-a-horrible-idea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/why-the-biden-admins-plan-to-unionize-the-national-guard-is-a-horrible-idea\/","title":{"rendered":"Why The Biden Admin\u2019s Plan To Unionize The National Guard Is A Horrible Idea"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">28<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fwhy-the-biden-admins-plan-to-unionize-the-national-guard-is-a-horrible-idea%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1325756&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Idaho_National_Guard_37627908910.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p>America determined decades ago that unionizing the military was a terrible idea. Yet last month, the Biden administration\u2019s Justice Department signaled in a court filing that National Guard troops on state active duty can organize as if they\u2019re civilian first responders or civil servants, and members of the National Guard in Texas are now using the DOJ\u2019s position as justification to start unionizing.<\/p>\n<p>The filing arose from a case in Connecticut where the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), one of the largest unions in the United States with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.afscme.org\/about\/AFSCME-WMAH-QA-Booklet.pdf\">1.6 million<\/a> members, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.armytimes.com\/news\/your-army\/2022\/01\/25\/guard-troops-can-unionize-on-state-active-duty-doj-says\/\">sued<\/a> to demand that Connecticut National Guard members on state active duty had the right to unionize during the Covid-19 lockdowns. Without the governor deploying the National Guard as a public health stopgap, AFSCME might have had more leverage to demand higher pay and more positions. The National Guard undercut their negotiating power.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"heading-1\">Texas Guard Organizes in Response to Operation Lone Star<\/h2>\n<p>Following the Biden DOJ filing in the Connecticut case, some disgruntled members of the Texas National Guard are now <a href=\"https:\/\/www.armytimes.com\/news\/your-army\/2022\/02\/16\/texas-guardsmen-on-border-start-unionizing-to-combat-difficult-conditions\/\">starting<\/a> to unionize as well. They cite poor conditions and unreliable paychecks while serving in Republican Gov. Greg Abbott\u2019s large-scale response to the Biden border crisis known as Operation Lone Star. Even if, as some critics charge, Operation Lone Star is merely political theater, it\u2019s mobilized 10,000 of Texas\u2019s almost 19,000 Army and Air National Guard members to the border to augment the U.S. Border Patrol and Texas\u2019s Department of Public Safety state police.<\/p>\n<p>Texas law bans strikes and collective bargaining for state employees. But unions, or \u201cassociations\u201d as they\u2019re often called in Texas, still have clout. The effort in Texas is being led by the AFL-CIO.<\/p>\n<p>In both instances, union leadership is likely motivated by membership and dues which, in turn, generate more political power to push pay and benefits for government employees higher still \u2014 a virtuous circle from the union\u2019s standpoint.<\/p>\n<p>As for the Texas border mission, Abbott and the state\u2019s Republican leadership (with some Democrat support) describe Operation Lone Star as a necessary response to a complete breakdown in border security since Biden took office in Jan. 2021. Abbott\u2019s opponents, including former Rep. Beto O\u2019Rourke, who is seeking to replace Abbott as Texas\u2019s governor, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BetoMedia\/status\/1485674589938139139\">call<\/a> it \u201ca political game.\u201d They also cite poor conditions and difficulty in getting paychecks out.<\/p>\n<p>My last post before retiring from the Army National Guard was as Deputy J1 (Personnel) for the California National Guard. Hearing of poor conditions and delayed pay isn\u2019t unusual. Unfortunately, the National Guard uses a separate pay system from the federal government for state missions and it always has issues. Poor conditions? That\u2019s just part of the military mission.<\/p>\n<p>But as the nationwide director of the Army National Guard, Lt. Gen. Jon Jensen, observed, \u201cWhat may be described as a political decision can also be described as a security decision, depending on where you sit on the issue. \u2026 We can\u2019t get caught up on whether border security is a political issue or not.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"why-congress-banned-military-unionizing-in-1978\">Why Congress Banned Military Unionizing in 1978<\/h2>\n<p>Although the reasons may be different, the negative effects of unionizing our armed forces on military service would be the same now as they were four decades ago. In 1975, only two years after the United States eliminated the draft and went to an all-volunteer military, there was an attempt to unionize.<\/p>\n<p>That <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/41307192\">effort<\/a> was led by the American Federation of Government Employees, an AFL-CIO affiliate. As the military dealt with deep challenges ranging from poor morale to drug abuse, racial strife, and funding cuts in the wake of the dismal end of the Vietnam War, up to half of service members were said to be open to unionizing \u2014 and six NATO nations featured unionized troops.<\/p>\n<p>But the thought of unionizing the U.S. military quickly died as public opinion and Congress considered military service a unique calling. Unlike unionized jobs where work was viewed as merely occupational, military service was a higher calling \u2014 it was distinctly honorable.<\/p>\n<p>Congress was also concerned about radical leftists, like those belonging to the Students for a Democratic Society and the Trotskyite Socialist Workers Party, who <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heritage.org\/defense\/report\/unionization-the-military-s274-s997#:~:text=As%20the%20law%20now%20stands,associated%20with%20militant%20trade%20union\">organized<\/a> the American Servicemen\u2019s Union. But this union wasn\u2019t a device for traditional workplace organizing; rather, it was a tool to organize opposition to national defense policy within the military itself.<\/p>\n<p>As Congress <a href=\"https:\/\/www.congress.gov\/bill\/95th-congress\/senate-bill\/274\/text?r=58&#038;s=7\">found<\/a> at the time:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\">\n<p>Members of the armed forces of the United States must be prepared to fight and, if necessary, to die to protect the welfare, security, and liberty of the United States and of their fellow citizens. (2) Discipline and prompt obedience to lawful orders of superior officers are essential \u2026 (3) \u2026 collective bargaining \u2026 cannot and should not be applied to the relationships between members of the armed forces and their military and civilian superiors.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The unionization effort formally <a href=\"https:\/\/www.congress.gov\/bill\/95th-congress\/senate-bill\/274\/text?r=58&#038;s=7\">ended<\/a> with President Jimmy Carter\u2019s signature on S. 274, a bill introduced by Republican Sen. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, in 1978. Then-Senator Joe Biden was 34 years old when he signed on as a co-sponsor of the bill to ban unionizing the military. <\/p>\n<p>The law outlawed organizing any \u201cmember of the armed forces\u201d and defined members as people on active duty or reserve component members \u201cwhile performing inactive-duty training.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But that definition doesn\u2019t cover all forms of military service. For instance, the National Guard employs \u201ctechnicians,\u201d and many of them are unionized. These specialists, often mechanics, logisticians, or human resources staff, are paid like federal civil servants, but they work in armories while wearing their military uniform and, on the weekends or during training, they join their citizen-soldier colleagues as military members of the National Guard.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"allowing-the-guard-to-unionize-undermines-states-and-federalism\">Allowing the Guard to Unionize Undermines States and Federalism<\/h2>\n<p>There are fundamental principles surrounding federalism and state powers in play as well. Governors are their states\u2019 commanders in chief. Their authority over the militia \u2014 both the organized militia (the National Guard) and unorganized militia (those <a href=\"https:\/\/leginfo.legislature.ca.gov\/faces\/codes_displayText.xhtml?lawCode=MVC&#038;division=2.&#038;title=&#038;part=1.&#038;chapter=2.&#038;article=1.\">owing allegiance<\/a> to the nation) \u2014 mirrors, and even predates, that of the president\u2019s as commander in chief of the armed services <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ilga.gov\/commission\/lrb\/Article2.htm\">and<\/a> \u201cthe Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As such, allowing any union interference in the civilian and military chain of command would be injurious to the good order and discipline of the military \u2014 in this case, the organized militia of a state.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, the Texas National Guard, when asked about the potential for union representation for its soldiers on the Operation Lone Star mission, issued a noncommittal response. Col. Rita Holton, the public affairs director for the Texas Military Department, <a href=\"https:\/\/gazette.com\/news\/texas-national-guard-members-on-border-looking-to-unionize\/article_725ab2df-8e6c-56f4-bdad-cc325b5c5bae.html\">said<\/a> the Texas Guard \u201chas no policy prohibiting employee membership in external support organizations.\u201d This appears to give an official green light to unionizing the Guard in Texas.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, if a governor\u2019s actions in deploying the National Guard are viewed negatively by the public, there\u2019s a good chance that governor will suffer political consequences, as well as recruiting and retention challenges within the National Guard in a state. The timing of Biden\u2019s Justice Department filing, while ostensibly connected to a case in Connecticut, seems aimed at Texas, where Abbott is <a href=\"https:\/\/spectrumlocalnews.com\/tx\/south-texas-el-paso\/news\/2022\/02\/09\/gov--abbott-again-challenges-military-vaccine-mandate-\">challenging<\/a> Biden\u2019s military vaccination mandate and Biden\u2019s methodical abandonment of border security.<\/p>\n<p>In the meantime, the resurrection of an idea killed by Congress 44 years ago will curtail the executive power of all 50 governors, add to the ranks of union membership, increase government union bargaining power, and degrade the ability of the National Guard to be \u201cprepared to fight and, if necessary, to die to protect the welfare, security, and liberty of the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<p>\n  Chuck DeVore is vice president of national initiatives at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a former California legislator, special assistant for foreign affairs in the Reagan-era Pentagon, and a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army (retired) Reserve. He&#8217;s the author of two books, &#8220;The Texas Model: Prosperity in the Lone Star State and Lessons for America,&#8221; and &#8220;China Attacks,&#8221; a novel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>America determined decades ago that unionizing the military was a terrible idea. Yet last month, the Biden administration\u2019s Justice Department signaled in a court filing that National Guard troops on &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1325756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1325756","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1325756"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1325756\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1325756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1325756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1325756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}