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Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), who has been the target of scathing criticism from members of his own party after voting for a Republican-drafted stopgap spending bill that cut many nondefense programs, says things are looking good for the Democratic Party, which he says has “a real direction now.” Schumer told The New York Times that President Trump’s agenda of slashing the federal government to pave the way for trillions of dollars in tax cuts has underscored the Democratic Party’s identity as the party of workers, even though some Democrats fear that’s no longer seen as true. “I don’t...

WASHINGTON (AP) — A young economist who had uprooted her life for civil service. A fierce housing advocate terminated just before buying her first home. A semifinalist whose dreams were dashed before they materialized. For decades, the Presidential Management Fellows program was seen as a building block for the civil service with the expectation that the few who earned the position would one day become leaders in the federal workforce. Now the road ahead is uncertain. Hundreds of the fellows have been terminated or placed on administrative leave amid a nationwide slashing of the federal workforce. One of President Donald...

In my previous message, I shared with you about how I grew up working hard on our family farm and starting my own lawn care business on the side; I told you about my first “real” job at the Holiday Inn and how I became the assistant manager of the entire complex at age 16. I also mentioned my work at the radio station, becoming Program Director by age 20 and working for a weekly county newspaper before opening my own photography studio. There’s more to my story than I can tell here, but I’ll share a few more tidbits...

A labor union representing farm workers that for more than a decade begged the Border Patrol to enforce immigration laws is now part of a lawsuit against the Border Patrol for doing just that. The lawsuit, filed by the United Farm Workers (UFW) and five Kern County residents, seeks to stop the Border Patrol from future enforcement actions that stop, arrest, and remove “community members” from the country. The lawsuit was filed in response to a week-long immigration enforcement operation conducted by Border Patrol agents assigned to the El Centro Sector of the United States Border Patrol in January. The...

Federal employees should expect another email on Saturday requiring them to explain their recent accomplishments, a renewed attempt by President Donald Trump and billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk to demand answers from the government workforce. The plan was disclosed by a person with knowledge of the situation who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it publicly. The first email, which was distributed a week ago, asked employees “what did you do last week?” and prompted them to list five tasks that they completed. Musk, who empowered by Trump is aiming to downsize agencies and eliminate thousands of federal...

They're scientists. Veterans. Park rangers. Lawyers. Researchers. Administrative staff. They work on fire safety. Safe drinking water. Veterans' health. Combating bird flu. They're from all over the country, in red states and blue. They're young and old. Thousands of federal workers have been fired in the last month. They're victims of efforts by President Donald Trump and his senior adviser, billionaire tech mogul Elon Musk, to cut the size of the government. And they want people to understand what they did and why they loved being public servants. Anna Conn, 35, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Asheville, N.C.:...

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) said on Monday that he has empathy for the state’s federal workers at risk of losing their jobs as a result of the Trump administration’s efforts to cut down the size of the federal government under the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). “I understand and I actually have extraordinary empathy for the fact that there are many workers in Virginia today from our federal workforce who are experiencing real concerns,” Youngkin said at a press conference in Northern Virginia highlighting new economic opportunities in the state. “Listen, we have a federal government that is inefficient...

A Democratic senator went on a crude online tirade over Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) demand for all federal workers to answer a simple question about their productivity. Tina Smith (D-Minn.) called the world’s richest man a “d–k boss” for orchestrating the email that went out to federal workers on Saturday with the subject line, “What did you do last week?” Smith’s tirade comes as several government departments — including Kash Patel’s FBI — are instructing their employees not to respond to the message. In a similar fashion to the types of sporadic requests Musk blasted out to...

Companies that prefer migrants and H-1B visa workers over Americans will face federal investigations and discrimination lawsuits, says Andrea Lucas, who President Donald Trump picked to serve as acting chair of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). “The EEOC is putting employers and other covered entities on notice: if you are part of the pipeline contributing to our immigration crisis or abusing our legal immigration system via illegal preferences against American workers, you must stop,” Lucas said in a February 20 notice. “The law applies to you, and you are not above the law. The EEOC is here to...

As President Donald Trump directs cuts of tens of thousands of federal government employees, among those laid off at America's health agencies are workers at a National Institutes of Health department focused on dementia research, including its incoming leader, three people familiar with the terminations told ABC News. The firings at the Center for Alzheimer's and Related Dementias (CARD) affected roughly a tenth of the nearly 100 employees at the center, but in interviews with ABC News, workers there described a carefully woven web of collaboration that they say could be threatened by the layoffs of just a handful of...

Among the hundreds of people chanting "Elon Musk has got to go!" and "No one elected Elon!" in front of the U.S. Capitol on Monday were recently fired federal workers left devastated and uncertain by their terminations. "Elon Musk doesn't even know my job exists, right? But like, we do a lot. I mean, I'm a public servant, and I do this job because I love it. So, yeah, I'm devastated, and my whole community lost their jobs. And I don't know what I'm going to do now, but I'm going to keep fighting. And you know, this stuff really...

The Washington, DC, area housing market has seen an increase in homes being listed for sale as more government employees have either been laid off or have accepted buyouts. According to Devon & Dustin Fox Homes website, “big changes” are happening in the Washington, DC, housing market as people are seeing an increase in homes being listed and “homes are sitting longer.” The median sale price of homes in the Washington, DC, housing market is reported to be around $600,000, a four percent increase year-over-year. Homes listed are reportedly staying on the market around 22 days, according to the Fox...

An estimated 1 million people who are in the country without legal status work in the restaurant industry. Some food-service workers are no longer driving and instead are taking Uber to their restaurant jobs. Restaurants, cafes and bars are “super easy targets” for immigration raids, said immigration attorney Kim Luu-Ng. The chilly first two months of the year are usually a peak business period for Teddy’s Red Tacos, where diners indulge in the restaurant’s specialty, birria — spicy, warm and deeply tender meat slowly braised in its own fat and served with a pool of flavorful broth. But this...

Last week, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) sent an ominous offer to millions of federal employees. In an email titled “Fork in the Road,” these workers were given the chance to continue in their roles and work in the office five days a week, or submit their resignation by Feb. 6 and leave their jobs while collecting a paycheck through September. It’s unclear if Trump has the legal authority to require all federal employees to return to the office full time, and if he can even make the resignation offer—labor unions filed a lawsuit this week challenging the...

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass (D) reportedly awarded government workers with major wage increases before making cuts to the city’s fire department budget. “Mayor Karen Bass’s budget cuts to the city’s fire department, enacted just months ago amid warnings about the city’s deteriorating finances, stand out as a striking example of misplaced priorities,” The City Journal reported on Friday: The cuts stemmed from a budget crisis triggered by her administration’s decision to reward city employees with rich contracts and benefits—even as it dismissed worries that the reductions would hurt services. “Predictions that city services will be impossible to deliver,” deputy...

Rudy Giuliani was held in contempt of court Monday and accused of trying to “run out the clock” to avoid paying his $148 million defamation verdict — which may now cost him his $3.5 million Florida condo. Manhattan federal court Judge Lewis Liman found the former Big Apple mayor in contempt twice for blowing through deadlines and not turning over key information ahead of a Jan. 16 trial over whether he has to give up the Florida abode and his prized Yankees World Series rings. Giuliani owes the multi-million dollar tab to Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and her daughter...

Thousands of Amazon workers in over 20 countries are gearing up for demonstrations and work stoppages during the Black Friday shopping weekend, demanding better working conditions, union rights, and environmental responsibility from the e-commerce giant. The Guardian reports that as consumers prepare for the Black Friday shopping frenzy, Amazon workers worldwide are plotting labor action against the e-commerce giant. Coordinated by the Make Amazon Pay campaign, an alliance of more than 80 trade unions and workers’ rights groups, employees and their representatives plan to protest and strike against the Seattle-based company’s practices between Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

American workers’ opinion on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts have soured over the last year, according to a survey. A Pew Research study found that the share of American workers who believe DEI is a “good thing” has dropped from 56 percent in February 2023 to 52 percent in October 2024. Twenty-one percent of U.S. workers believe that DEI is a “bad thing,” a five percent increase from February 2023.

Barking mad or brilliant? New York City lawmakers are proposing a bill to let Big Apple workers take time off to care for their sick furry family members. The proposal, sponsored by city council member Shaun Abreu, would amend and expand the Earned Safe and Sick Time Act — which requires companies to give employees paid sick leave to care for themselves or family members — to include pets and service animals. Abreu touted mental health as a reason to incentivize pet ownership with the amended bill, citing research that owning pets can reduce cortisol, a stress-related hormone, and force...

Democratic Vice Presidential nominee Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) said Monday on ABC’s “The View” that former President Donald Trump pandered and disrespected McDonald’s workers with his appearance at a Pennsylvania McDonald’s franchise. Co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin said, “What do you say to these Americans who feel like they’re struggling?” Walz said, “Vice President Harris has made it clear that’s a top priority, whether it’s focusing on home ownership, which we know these proposals work. If you do things with down payment assistance and create 3 million more homes, we were able to do it on a state level in Minnesota....