Just as the government shutdown became the longest in U.S. history – surpassing the previous 35-day record set during President Trump’s first term – lawmakers finally struck a deal that could bring the shutdown to an end.
On Nov. 9, a majority of the Senate passed a measure that would fund the government through Jan. 30. A group of seven Senate Democrats spearheaded by Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., successfully fought for critical federal worker protections in the bill including guaranteed back pay for the shutdown, reversal of thousands of reductions-in-force during October, and a moratorium on future RIFs for the duration of the continuing resolution.
The bill still needs to be approved by the House and signed by the president.
Meanwhile, about 1.4 million federal employees are going unpaid – with roughly half being furloughed and the rest required to work.
“The [majority of the] members that I represent are not getting paid,” AFGE National President Everett Kelley said on the podcast Make It Plain with Rev. Mark Thompson.
“And they just like the rest of America, they live from paycheck to paycheck. Standing in line to get food, worrying about how they’re going to pay their mortgage. They’re worrying about how to provide medical care for ailing children, pregnant mothers calling me crying.”
AFGE is urging lawmakers to support Sen. Ron Johnson’s Shutdown Fairness Act (S. 3168), as amended, which would provide funds to immediately pay all civilian employees and military service members affected by the shutdown, whether they are furloughed or continuing to work without pay. The bill also would ensure workers are paid during future shutdowns.
Across the country, AFGE locals and councils are organizing food drives and working with community groups on similar assistance efforts to help struggling workers.
“I do have co-workers that don’t have any food. I have co-workers that have $1.98 in their bank account. I have co-workers that are, you know, going to food trucks and food pantries after they get off work,” AFGE Local 1040 President Johnny Jones from the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport told CBS Texas.
Transportation security officers are struggling to make ends meet while continuing to show up for work each day – and they need members of Congress to show up for them now, Jones said.
“It is time to open the government,” Jones said. “Our paychecks are being held hostage. We don't want a rain check. We need a paycheck like today, not tomorrow. We just want to see the politicians do their job. We all took the oath to protect and uphold the Constitution of the United States. They did as well. We just ask that they do their job so we can do ours.”
In Tucson, Ariz., seafood restaurant KingFisher provided free lunches to about 450 federal employees on a recent Sunday when the restaurant is normally closed. One of the patrons was AFGE Local 1207 Vice President Ken Beyersdorf, whose local represents U.S. Census Bureau employees.
Beyersdorf agrees that the shutdown needs to end immediately, calling it a “living hell” for the dedicated Census Bureau workers who are furloughed without pay.
“It’s really up to both sides in Congress to sit down, find common ground and do the right thing,” Beyersdorf told Arizona Public Media. “Because there’s a lot of people that go from paycheck to paycheck just sitting there, wondering how they’re going to eat or pay their bills the next day.”
The shutdown stalemate is just the latest injustice to hit federal workers since the start of the Trump administration, which is on track to eliminate 300,000 federal jobs by the end of the year.
AFGE and other union allies have been fighting those staff cuts in court. We have managed to block or reverse many of the reductions, including those at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, but it’s still taking a toll on staff.
“For many agencies, like the one that I am employed by, we’ve been effectively shut down for many months already because of the reductions in force that have already happened, and all of the attacks that we’ve been seeing on the federal workforce,” AFGE Local 3840 Vice President Micah Niemeier-Walsh from NIOSH told The Guardian. “It’s become out of control, and I really hope that this shutdown is a wake-up call of how bad things have gotten.”
Many federal employees are frustrated that they have been put in the middle of a political fight unrelated to their daily jobs, AFGE Local 898 President Tandy Zitkus from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration said in the same Guardian report.
“It’s overwhelming. It’s hard to stay positive,” Zitkus said. “Federal workers serve the people. They’re not politicians, and so there’s a lot of frustration being expressed to me by my members of: why is this going on, why is there a political fight going on that affects us? We’re civil servants, and we serve the American people, and we want to be able to continue to do that and be paid.”
For the latest shutdown news, visit www.afge.org/stoptheshutdown.
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