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Quotation marks implies they are directly quoting from the leaked memo, i.e. not a sensationalized headline.

That's not how quoting works. You can't just quote one word and then put something else behind it. There's a difference between "neutralizing unions" and "neutralizing labor's attempt to ..."

It's like the difference between "we need to kill him" and "we need to kill his attempt to pass a law that would..."

"labor" as a noun is a synonym for union

Yes, the point isn't the word used, but that they want to "neutralize" a campaign's effects not the union. That's just not how quotes work.

> There's a difference between "neutralizing unions" and "neutralizing labor's attempt to ..."

The term neutralize as used here (i.e. "to counteract the activity or effect of : make ineffective", Merriam-Webster dictionary) actually make both sentences nearly identical.

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