Wordnet 3.0
NOUN (1)
1.
the practice (usually by a labor union) of requiring an employer to hire more workers than are required;
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
featherbedding
n 1: the practice (usually by a labor union) of requiring an
employer to hire more workers than are required
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:
28 Moby Thesaurus words for "featherbedding":
bedizenment, duplication, duplication of effort, embellishment,
expletive, extravagance, fat, filling, frill, frills, frippery,
gingerbread, luxury, needlessness, ornamentation, overadornment,
overlap, padding, payroll padding, pleonasm, prolixity, redundance,
redundancy, superfluity, superfluousness, tautology,
unnecessariness, verbosity