Epilogue: Amid a barrage of criticism from the public about featherbedding and overmanning, Hong Kong's civil service is being forced to streamline and reform.

CNN: The Whistleblowers

It's hardly surprising, therefore, that we see egregious examples of ineptness, arrogance and corruption, let alone day-to-day featherbedding and laziness in individual UN programs and projects.

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Dismissals aside, the fact is that featherbedding the nuanced art of throwing multiple and improperly resourced bodies at clients in the interest of maximizing revenue is alive and well.

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And the Maritime Union, which has controlled jobs on the docks for nearly a century, knows as much about featherbedding and restrictive practices as about handling cargo.

ECONOMIST: A dockside farewell

Equally, what once seemed like decent treatment for city workers, i.e. generous health care, pensions and pay, particularly for firefighters and police, is now seen as absurd featherbedding.

BBC: Debt and defiance in bankrupt Stockton, California

But where Labour sees restructuring, its opponents see featherbedding.

ECONOMIST: The death and messy rebirth of Labour in Glasgow

Norfolk, like the rest of the railroad industry, spent a half-century in a siege mentality, slouching along by shrinking and slashing costs, tangled in rat's-nest mergers and wrestling with its featherbedding unions.

FORBES: Magazine Article

To deal with unemployment by eliminating monopoly unionism, featherbedding, and inflexibilities in the labor market, and be prepared, where residual unemployment persists, to cope with it locally, placing the political and humanitarian responsibility on the lowest feasible political unit.

FORBES: The Choice In 2012: Will We Be The State's Wards, Or Free Citizens?

But after 15 months, with one worker shot to death, 91 others sent to the hospital, three of Blankenship's armored cars trashed and those 11 bullets fired into his office, the union caved in, agreeing to less featherbedding and less job security.

FORBES: Not King Coal