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‘This is the revenge’: Unions lash out at Trump administration over collective bargaining clampdown

Donald Trump’s latest executive order has unions up in arms — again.

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Trump signed an executive order on Thursday ending collective bargaining for tens of thousands of federal employees, including those who work in border security, energy, and public safety.

It does not include traditional law enforcement.

At a news conference on Capitol Hill on Friday, the president of the nation’s largest union, supporting 800,000 federal employees, lashed out at Trump.

“They are taking this action because AFGE is standing up for our members,” said Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees. “But I want to assure everybody that AFGE will always stand up for its members.”

Also attending the news conference were Maryland Reps. Steny Hoyer and Jamie Raskin.

“This is the retaliation. This is the revenge. This is the shut ’em up effort,” said Hoyer, adding the actions are “consistent with the Republican Party’s long-standing hostility for the rights of working men and women to organize.”

“Federal law gives federal employees the right to engage in collective bargaining,” said Raskin, adding, “That’s how these unions were formed.”

He said this will be a win for labor when it inevitably moves into the courts.

“An executive order is just an order from the president to his staff,” Raskin said. “And he thinks that it trumps federal law and that it trumps the constitution, and it doesn’t.”

US-Iran conflict enters new phase as Saudi Arabia helps hit proxies and diplomacy stalls again

WASHINGTON (AP) — The stop-start fighting between the United States and Iran appears to have entered a new phase as Saudi Arabia has publicly joined military escalations against Tehran-backed proxies. At the same time, an already untenable diplomatic effort to end the war has faltered once again as mistrust deepens between the longtime adversaries. Despite several days of relative calm, both sides carried out military strikes in the last 24 hours that once again risk a return to all-out war — and further expansion in the region — while little is clear about what strategy, if any, American or Iranian officials have for a path forward. While President Donald Trump and his allies have spent recent days arguing that Iran is begging to return to the negotiating table, Iran’s deputy foreign minister said Tuesday that his country has made no requests to restart the diplomatic track in more than two weeks. Following a thwarted attack on the U.S. base in Jordan, Trump turned back to threats Wednesday even while sustaining the prospect of continued talks.
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