The partial government shutdown that began Dec. 22 is now the longest in U.S. history. Our union is calling on the Trump administration and Congress to reopen the government immediately. Here’s what happened as the shutdown drags on and entered its fourth week on Jan. 14.
For the pay period that ended Jan. 5, the normal pay dates would occur between Jan.11 and Jan. 17 depending on their agency payroll schedule. But because of the shutdown, the employees didn’t get paid. Thousands have applied for unemployment to get by. A TSA officer put his home up for sale because of the shutdown.
To pressure Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to call a vote on the House-passed bills that would reopen the government, AFGE members, federal employees, and allies rallied at Nationals Park where Senate Republicans were on a retreat.
TSA officers who have been working without pay rallied at airports across the country to protest the shutdown that began Dec. 22. TSA officers are among the lowest-paid government employees and among those hit the hardest by the shutdown. If more officers quit their jobs as they can’t afford to come to work, it will endanger the flying public.
The Internal Revenue Service, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Agriculture Department recalled thousands of furloughed employees to soften the shutdown blow on the American public, but the employees will not get paid until the government reopens.
The State Department, on the other hand, searched their funding resources and found funds to recall and pay employees for two weeks.
A bill has been introduced to allow feds to withdraw retirement funds without penalty.
At the urging of AFGE, a bipartisan bill was signed into law to provide back pay for federal employees forced to work without pay or locked out of their jobs without pay during the shutdown.
As the employees started to miss their paychecks with no end in sight, more financial institutions and insurance companies have offered financial assistance. AFLAC, for example, is offering an open-ended grace period. PayPal is offering an interest-free cash advance up to $500. Unum ensures that feds’ insurance coverage will continue during the grace period and will work with employees if the shutdown continues. Check out www.afge.org/shutdown for more financial resources.
As the Department of Homeland Security is under a shutdown, security experts fear sophisticated hackers would infiltrate DHS’s new Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which is being operated under a skeleton crew, and use that as a launching pad to attack other federal networks.
The median government salary is $77,000 a year, and approximately one-fifth of federal workers make less than $50,000. A new analysis shows a typical federal employee has so far missed $5,000 in wages.
Businesses led by the U.S. Chamber of Congress is putting pressure on Trump and Congress to reopen the government since the shutdown is causing damage to families, businesses, and the economy.
Thanks to the hard work of our union and members, the House Appropriations Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee voted to give federal employees a 3.1% pay raise next year, rejecting the proposal to freeze it.
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On June 5, AFGE VA members across the country stood together and received tremendous support from veterans and allies. The 68 rallies and events held by AFGE and VA employees nationwide shows the strength and solidarity of we have.
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Our union is looking into all possible remedies, including workers’ compensation, for current and former workers who have been exposed to 81 different hazardous substances including lead, cadmium, arsenic, asbestos, and other potentially cancer-causing chemicals at the Goodfellow Federal Center in St. Louis, Mo.
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