The nation’s largest union of federal workers is calling on Congress to pass a short-term funding bill and immediately end the government shutdown as it heads into its fourth week.
In a strong condemnation of both parties on Monday, the American Federation of Government Employees argued the shutdown is an “avoidable crisis” harming American families and workers across the nation.
“Both political parties have made their point, and still there is no clear end in sight,” Everett Kelley, president of the AFGE, wrote. “It’s time to pass a clean continuing resolution and end this shutdown today. No half measures, and no gamesmanship.”
The AFGE represents more than 800,000 federal and Washington government workers and has filed several lawsuits against the Trump administration, including over mass layoffs.
Kelly on Monday emphasized that federal workers will be unpaid and face layoffs.
“When the folks who serve this country are standing in line for food banks after missing a second paycheck because of this shutdown, they aren’t looking for partisan spin,” he said. “They’re looking for the wages they earned. The fact that they’re being cheated out of it is a national disgrace.”
Though federal workers are guaranteed back pay once the government does reopen, the Senate last week rejected a Republican-led effort to pay active-duty members of the military and certain federal workers during the shutdown. Democrats have backed a proposal that would pay all federal workers during the shutdown and bar the Trump administration from firing workers during the shutdown.
Kelly said workers now are forced to work without pay — something he added is “unacceptable.”
“It’s time for our leaders to start focusing on how to solve problems for the American people, rather than on who is going to get the blame for a shutdown that Americans dislike,” Kelly said.
