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

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

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 Rep. Julia Letlow, endorsed by Trump, wins the GOP primary for Senate in Louisiana

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow won the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in Louisiana on Saturday, giving President Donald Trump a win after he backed her to replace GOP Sen. Bill Cassidy. Letlow, who was endorsed by Trump, defeated state Treasurer John Fleming in the two-candidate runoff after they finished ahead of Cassidy in the GOP primary May 16. Letlow pledged her loyalty to Trump in a race where Cassidy, who voted to convict the president on impeachment charges in 2021, spent a year working to keep Trump from going after him. She has promised to work in lockstep with Trump to advance his agenda. “I am so filled with gratitude for the greatest president this country has every had, Donald J. Trump,” Letlow told supporters at her election night watch party in Baton Rouge. “I am also so incredibly grateful for your endorsement.”
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