Federal Worker Confusion, European Leaders In DC, German Election, Greenpeace Lawsuit
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What email caused confusion among federal workers?
An email to every federal employee asked, what did you do last week? And Elon Musk threatened they would lose their jobs if they didn't answer. You can't interpret silence to be a resignation.
Do labor laws protect these workers?
I'm Laila Faldin, that's A. Martinez, and this is Up First from NPR News. The leaders of France and Britain are visiting Washington this week on their agenda convincing President Trump not to abandon Ukraine. Can they sway him? Plus, conservatives won the German election and the country's far-right party made its strongest showing in decades.
And Greenpeace goes on trial today. They're being sued by a Texas energy company for disrupting the construction of an oil pipeline.
Everybody's afraid of these environmental groups and the fear that it may look wrong if you fight back with these people.
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What did you accomplish last week? Well, that's the question that hundreds of thousands of government employees have until tonight at 11.59 p.m. to be exact to answer, or they could lose their jobs.
The deadline was laid out in a three-line email sent Saturday from the Office of Personnel Management. Elon Musk, President Trump's cost-cutting chief, and an unelected billionaire threatened on X that failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.
Suzanne Summerlin is a federal sector labor attorney in Washington, D.C. She says ignoring the email likely would not be grounds for firing and... You can't interpret silence to be a resignation.
Resignations in the federal service must be made voluntarily by the employee, and the employee has until the date of their resignation to rescind it.
Summerlin and others also question the legality of the demand. She says the Office of Personnel Management must respect the chain of command within government agencies.
How are European leaders responding to Trump's stance on Ukraine?
OPM seems to be running an in-route around that chain of command and directly dealing with employees. This is a violation of collective bargaining laws, unfair labor practice laws.
On Sunday, OPM said the emails were part of the Trump administration's commitment to an efficient and accountable federal workforce.
To add to the confusion, some agency leaders appointed by Trump at the FBI, the State Department, and the Department of Defense are instructing employees to disregard the emails. Still, the directive has prompted a new sense of uncertainty and confusion among federal workers. So far, in a little over a month into the Trump administration, thousands of government employees were dismissed, including some by mistake. French President Emmanuel Macron is in Washington today where he will meet with President Trump in the Oval Office.
Yeah, European leaders were stunned by President Trump's abrupt reversal of alliances last week. He accused Ukraine of starting the war with Russia. Ukraine did not start the war. And Trump called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky a dictator while letting Russian President Vladimir Putin off the hook for its full-scale invasion of its neighbor.
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Chapters
4 chaptersSpeakers
18 identified
A. Martinez 3 min
Eleanor Beardsley 2 min
Jeff Brady 2 min
Rob Schmitz 2 min
Leila Fadel 2 min
Consider This Podcast Host
Here and Now
Sponsor Voice
Suzanne Summerlin
NPR Politics Podcast
Gesina Weber
David Folkenflik
NPR Book of the Day Host
Greenpeace Commentary
Shortwave Host
Author from NPR Book of the Day
Sushma Raman
Emmanuel Macron
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