Trump attacks public employees, but unions are fighting back
Score one for the working man!
Last week in Philadelphia, municipal workers got a new contract and higher pay after making good on their promise to strike. Mayor Cherelle Parker agreed to pay a little extra to hardworking people who wake up early to keep the city working, including those picking up the garbage. In solidarity with the workers, rapper LL Cool J had canceled a planned Independence Day performance.
The successful strike stands out at a moment when government workers at the city, state and national levels are under attack from President Trump. He portrays them as a lazy group whose sleepy heartbeats are evidence that government is too big, too bureaucratic and wasting tax dollars.
The Supreme Court gave the president’s distorted view of government workers more power last week when the justices ruled the president is within his legal rights to execute mass job cuts without consulting Congress. The high court said Trump’s unilateral plan to fire workers doesn’t break the law. Only after he acts, the ruling said, can judges determine if Trump violated Congress’s power under the Constitution to set spending for federal agencies.
But Trump’s ugly view of people-powering government was exposed last week. A flood in Texas drowned hundreds, including children at a summer camp, prompting questions about Trump’s cuts to federal workers who could have given early warnings and possibly saved lives. The former head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration told CNN that there was a “lack of a warning coordination........
© The Hill
