AFGE leaders and members who are locked out of their jobs or forced to work without pay during the government shutdown continued to highlight the impact on them, their families, and the public through public rallies, media interviews, and meetings with members of Congress.
AFGE Local 2139 President Imelda Avila-Thomas from the Department of Labor in San Antonio said her family is feeling double the impact from the shutdown because both her and her husband have been furloughed from their federal jobs.
She told ABC News that she has stopped hiring a tutor for her 12-year-old daughter, who has dyslexia, and is planning a garage sale to raise money as her “desperation and uncertainty” rise. “Any day that goes by, it adds up,” she said.
Many federal workers live paycheck to paycheck, just like most Americans, and the prospect of going without a salary during the shutdown means making tough decisions, AFGE Local 3145 President Mark Cochran from the National Park Service in Pennsylvania said.
“So we’re going to have to drastically cut our spending, because we don’t know where or when our next paycheck is going to happen,” Cochran told Business Insider.
During an Oct. 7 press conference with multiple AFGE locals in El Paso, Texas, AFGE Local 2516 President Julian Patrick said 30 percent of the Army and Defense Health Agency employees his local represents at the William Beaumont Army Medical Center are filing for unemployment insurance.
"Some of them are living check to check, or I should say were living check to check before this scenario, and obviously they're going to be even more impacted with the situation," Patrick told the local Fox affiliate.
On Friday, Oct. 10, the Trump administration carried through with its threat to begin issuing reduction-in-force notices to furloughed employees doing work it considers out of line with the administration’s priorities. AFGE President Everett Kelley joined CNN the following morning to discuss the lawsuit we filed preemptively.
“I think that this is absolutely un-American to have such actions taken against very patriotic employees. So we have initiated a lawsuit. We anticipated that this would occur. And so we’re ready and we’re ready to fight legally against these actions,” Kelley said.
The Trump administration’s threats to not pay furloughed workers once the shutdown is over has essential workers like those at the Transportation Security Administration also worried that they won’t be paid, AFGE Local 2617 President Mike Gayzagian told Boston’s NPR affiliate.
“There’s unfortunately a higher level of anxiety at this shutdown than ones that I’ve experienced before,” Gayzagian said.
During a roundtable with workers and union representatives in Oakland, Calif., held by Rep. Lateefah Simon and covered by the local ABC affiliate, AFGE Local 1230 Secretary Gilbert Galam said the transportation security officers his local represents are struggling to meet work and family obligations during the shutdown.
“We have families. A lot of our TSOs live paycheck to paycheck. They have childcare issues. They have to show up at 3 o’clock in the morning to fly out the traveling public,” Galam said.
During an Oct. 8 rally in Chicago with federal workers and local political leaders, AFGE Local 1395 Administrative Vice President Jill Hornick said she’s worried that the stress of having to work without a paycheck will cause unneeded distractions for the Social Security Administration employees she represents.
“When they’re trying to serve the American public and they’re mentally not healthy, mistakes happen,” Hornick said. “So the ripple effects of what a shutdown does are incredible.”
Federal employees are traumatized by this administration’s attacks on their jobs – but that’s precisely the point, President Kelley told the panelists on MSNBC’s The Weeknight.
“It brings about a morale issue. But I can’t stress enough that these employees are so patriotic. They will continue to do their job and they will do it effectively and efficiently,” he said.
At a roundtable with federal workers in Denver hosted by Rep. Diana DeGette and covered by the local Fox affiliate, AFGE Local 4012 Executive Vice President Brenda Carsten from SSA warned that many workers will be feeling the economic impact of the shutdown long after it’s over.
“A lot of our members were already living paycheck to paycheck. You know? Then the prospect of not getting paid or getting paid late is devastating. If you miss one payment or you are late on one payment, that could have repercussions for years. This doesn’t go away when the shutdown ends,” Carsten said.
Even though SSA employees remain on the job, the agency is preventing workers from issuing benefit verification letters to people calling in to request them. These official letters act as a sort of income verification and are therefore key to obtaining aid like housing assistance, fuel assistance, and help from nonprofits.
“They don’t consider benefit verification letters essential, but they are to the public, you know. It really runs many of their lives,” AFGE Local 2829 President Barri Sue Bryant from Wilkes-Barre, Pa., told NPR.
Some EPA employees began receiving notices Oct. 9 that they are being furloughed as the agency runs out of money left over from the previous budget. AFGE Council 238 President Justin Chen warned of negative environmental impacts if EPA employees can’t do their jobs.
“Furloughing EPA employees is not just an attack on federal workers, but an attack on every American’s right to clean air, safe water, and uncontaminated soil,” AFGE Council 238 President Justin Chen said in a statement published by E&E News. “When the essential services that EPA workers provide stop, that means pollution monitoring, toxic cleanup, and other public health protections stall and communities suffer.”
Parks maintained by the National Park Service remain open even though most staff are furloughed – and it’s coming at one of the busiest visiting periods of the year, AFGE Local 446 member James Jones from Boone, N.C., told UPI.
“We don’t have enough maintenance folks to really keep up with the amount of traffic that is coming into the park each day,” Jones said.
While employees want the shutdown to end as soon as possible, Jones said park service staff are worried about what condition the parks will be in once they eventually return.
“We work for Americans, we serve the American public, and the longer we’re out of work, the larger the toll it’s going to take on these public services,” Jones said.
Since taking office in January 2025, President Trump has issued a series of unlawful executive orders, and taken several unlawful actions, seeking to shut down congressionally mandated agencies, fire and displace federal workers, outlaw their unions, and gut merit systems protections.
Read More
A federal judge has ordered the Department of Veterans Affairs to reinstate the union contract covering 320,000 VA employees represented by AFGE in a major victory over the implementation of President Trump’s union-busting executive orders.
Read More
As the Department of Homeland Security shutdown reaches the one-month mark with no end in sight, AFGE leaders are calling on Congress to ensure all DHS workers are paid.
Read More
