By: Team Sherrod

On Friday, President Trump quietly signed a series of executive orders making it easier to fire federal workers and weakening unions’ influence in the workplace.

These orders are a mistake. As Sherrod has repeatedly said, workers drive our economy. Without a strong middle class to consume goods and services, our economy simply can’t grow. And unions are a key piece of that middle class, giving hardworking employees the opportunity to bargain for better wages and benefits.

Friday’s actions are just the latest example of this administration’s attempts to undermine employees’ rights in the workplace. That’s why it’s so important that Sherrod consistently speaks out in support of the middle class and unions. If you’re with him and agree that our workers deserve better, show your support now.

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New York Times: Trump Moves to Ease the Firing of Federal Workers

Noam Scheiber – May 25, 2018

Key points:

• On Friday, President Trump overhauled rules affecting at least two million federal workers, making it easier to fire them and rolling back the workplace role of their unions.

• Mr. Trump signed three executive orders, one making it easier to fire and discipline federal employees, and giving poor performers only 30 days to demonstrate improvement, rather than the current limit of up to 120 days, depending on the agency.

• The second executive order directs federal agencies to renegotiate contracts with unions representing government employees.

• The third order aims to cut down on “official time,” in which government workers who have roles in the union, like helping colleagues file grievances, are allowed to perform those roles during normal working hours for which they draw their usual salary. The order limits official time to 25% of their hours during the year.

• The executive orders come after a series of prominent Republican steps against public employee unions in recent years at the state level and a rollback of Obama-era policies favorable to labor at the federal level.

Read more here.