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A union that represents 150,000 U.S. government employees filed a lawsuit on Monday seeking to block President Donald Trump from stripping hundreds of thousands of federal workers of the ability to collectively bargain with government agencies through their unions. The National Treasury Employees Union said in the lawsuit filed in Washington, D.C. federal court that Trump’s executive order last week exempting more than a dozen agencies from collective bargaining obligations violates federal workers’ labor rights and the U.S. Constitution and threatens the union’s very existence. The NTEU said the order applies to more than 100,000 of its 158,000 members and would require agencies to stop deducting union dues from those workers’ paychecks, a major blow to the union’s revenue and bargaining power. “The strength and influence of any union correlate directly with the size of its membership,” the NTEU said. The NTEU said Trump issued the order to punish unions that have challenged many of his efforts to purge the federal workforce. The union has filed lawsuits over the mass firings of recently-hired federal employees, the shuttering of the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and an attempt to make it easier to fire workers in policy-related jobs. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. On the same day Trump issued the executive order, eight federal agencies filed a lawsuit against dozens of local union affiliates seeking to invalidate existing union contracts covering thousands of workers. Eliminating collective bargaining would remove obstacles for agencies to alter working conditions and fire or discipline workers. And it could prevent federal worker unions from challenging Trump administration initiatives in court. Trump in his order said that exempting large swaths of the federal workforce from collective bargaining was necessary to safeguard national security. None of the agencies covered by the order are primarily involved in intelligence or national security work, the NTEU said in the lawsuit. The order was “instead based on a policy goal of making federal employees easier to fire and political animus against federal sector unions who have opposed the Trump Administrations initiatives,” the union said. The lawsuit seeks a ruling blocking Trump’s order and barring federal agencies from complying with it. Trump in the order excluded from collective bargaining obligations agencies that he said “have as a primary function intelligence, counterintelligence, investigative, or national security work.” The order applies to the Justice, State, Defense, Treasury, Veterans Affairs, and Health and Human Services departments, among other agencies. The NTEU on Monday said the order affects 75% of federal workers currently represented by unions. Trump’s order significantly expanded an existing exception from collective bargaining for workers with duties affecting national security, such as certain employees of the CIA and FBI. The agencies that sued to invalidate union contracts said the Biden administration had entered into many of the agreements in order to impede Trump from carrying out his agenda, including a drastic downsizing of the federal workforce. The unions that were sued last week by the Trump administration have not yet responded in court, but have said the bargaining agreements are legally binding and that the lawsuit is a meritless attempt to intimidate unions and workers. Daniel Wiessner, Reuters
Category:
E-Commerce
As a potential TikTok ban looms in the United States (again), Substack is making (another) play for video creators to join its platform. Back in January, Substack CEO Chris Best wrote on his personal account that the company was going to rescue the smart people from TikTok! It seems hes making good on that promise, as the company announced on Monday that its rolling out a scrollable video feed in its app. Given the timing of this TikTok-like launch, Substack appears eager to capitalize on the potential void left behind if TikTok is actually banned this time around. Substack first launched video in 2022, later introducing an in-app Media Tab in 2024. The latest redesign transforms that tab into a scrollable, TikTok-style feed featuring short-form videos under 10 minutes, with long-form content and podcast previews expected to follow. This update comes just a month after Substacks announcement that creators can now monetize their videos on the platform and publish video posts directly through the Substack app. As of February, 82% of the platforms top-earning writers are using multimedia, up from just over 50% last April. Substack hopes to continue building on this momentum. According to the company, creators whove adopted video and/or audio have seen their revenue grow 2.5 times faster than those who havent. The new scrollable feed is designed to boost visibility and discovery for creators experimenting with new formats, while also helping readers stumble across new voices beyond their inboxes. Substack isnt built around any one mediumits built around creators. Were committed to giving them the tools to share their work, connect with subscribers, and contribute to a thriving network of independent voices, Substack product manager Zach Taylor tells Fast Company. As we expand publishing capabilities across formats, the updated media tab makes it easier to discover standout video content from across the networkwhether its a sharp take, a compelling story, or a powerful clip that sparks connection.” Taylor continues: Were excited to keep evolving the Substack app into a dynamic space where creators of all kinds can grow, connect, and build a sustainable business. From TikTok to Substack, the demand for bite-size content shows no signs of slowing down.
Category:
E-Commerce
Amazon on Monday launched its latest AI model, designed to take over a user’s web browser and perform simple tasks. The move places the e-commerce giant in more direct competition with artificial intelligence companies like OpenAI and Anthropic, which are also developing AI “agents.” The model, called Nova Act, is currently available as a “research preview” for developers, meaning its not yet open to the general public. It can complete tasks such as browsing the web and making purchases without supervision. For instance, the company demonstrated Nova Act searching for apartments within biking distance of a specific train station. It can also handle more nuanced instructions like “dont accept the insurance upsell.” “We think of agents as systems that can complete tasks and act in a range of digital and physical environments on behalf of the user,” Amazon wrote in a blog post on Monday. These types of agents are still in their early stages, but tech companies are placing big bets that agentic AI represents the next major frontier. OpenAI recently released “Operator,” a tool that automates web-based tasks, along with Deep Research, which it says can gather information from across the web and summarize it into digestible reports. Anthropic, the creator of Claude, and Google have also introduced AI agents. Nova Act is part of Amazon’s Nova series, first announced in December 2024, which is capable of generating text and images. “The Nova Act SDK is a crucial step forward, toward building reliable agents by enabling developers to break down complex workflows into atomic commands (e.g., search, checkout, answer questions about the screen),” the company wrote.
Category:
E-Commerce
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