EASY LISTENING DEP’T.: Inside the paper on page A20, the Times reports on a breakdown in solidarity fighting the shutdown. “Top Federal Workers Union breaks with Democrats over the shutdown. AFGE chief calls on Congress to open now and negotiate later. The largest union of federal workers called on Monday for Congress to pass a spending bill to immediately end the government shutdown,” the Times writes, “effectively siding with President Trump and Republicans who have opposed Democratic efforts to restore health care spending. ‘Both political parties have made their point, and still there is no clear end in sight,’ Everett Kelly, the president of the American Federation of Government Employees, said in the statement. He added, ‘It's time to pass a clean continuing resolution and end this shutdown today. No half measures and no gamesmanship.’ The statement,” the Times writes, “was a remarkable shift for the Union. Before the shutdown began on October 1st, Mr. Kelly called on Republicans to negotiate with Democrats who are seeking concessions, including the extension of subsidies for plans under the Affordable Care Act that would stave off premium increases and the loss of coverage for millions of Americans. The union has also worked closely with Democratic lawmakers on efforts this year to oppose Mr. Trump's policies, particularly his wide-reaching campaign to slash the federal workforce and fire career civil servants. But,” the story continues, “amid the punishing effects of the shutdown on federal workers, Some 730,000 are working without pay and another 670,000 are furloughed entirely. Senate Democrats have blocked legislation that would pay the civil servants who have been working without pay, a move that would provide relief to the union's members but would weaken the bargaining position of democratic lawmakers. The Republicans, in turn, blocked a pair of Democratic bills that would have paid both those federal workers who are still working and those who have been furloughed.”

“Provide relief to the union's members” there, then, would mean provide relief to a bit more than half of the union's members, while the others remain out of work and unpaid.

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