As the partial government shutdown stretches into its third week — making it the second longest shutdown in U.S. history — federal workers in Philadelphia took to the streets Tuesday to protest the White House and congressional inaction that has left them without work and pay for 18 days.
About 150 workers from various government agencies, including the Transportation Security Administration and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, joined the rally organized by the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), with the support of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU). Organizers called for an end to the shutdown that began late last month over President Donald Trump’s demand for $5 billion in funding to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Nearly 800,000 federal workers across the country have been affected by the shutdown.
“It is unconscionable that many employees are having to work – and in some cases overtime – with no pay whatsoever,” NTEU National President Tony Reardon said in a press release Monday. Reardon’s organization filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration Monday, alleging that the shutdown violates the Fair Labor Standards Act by requiring federal employees to work without pay.
“Many of us used our credit cards to pay for Christmas and now we’re being hit with high interest rates on that. So, it’s really overwhelming,” Jan Nation, a protester who works for the EPA, told NBC Philadelphia Tuesday. “We don’t want a wall, we want to do our jobs.”
Philadelphia rally organizers also plan to travel to Washington, D.C. on Thursday for a second protest outside the AFL-CIO headquarters. Several hundred workers from multiple unions are expected to attend Thursday’s protest, which will be followed by a march to the White House.
Federal workers in St. Louis and Boston have also organized or plan to hold rallies in opposition to the government shutdown, despite Trump’s comments to reporters last week that federal workers “agree 100 percent with what I’m doing.”
In St. Louis, which is home to a U.S. Department of Agriculture office that employs 1,200 federal workers, a small contingent of USDA employees spent much of last Friday and Monday rallying outside their offices.
“We’re just tired of being held hostage,” Don Pusczek, a USDA accountant, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch Friday. “The longer it lasts, the more the bills pile up and don’t get paid.”
Federal workers in Boston also plan to hold an AFGE-organized rally Friday outside the offices of the Environmental Protection Agency in the city’s Post Office Square.
“Federal employees want to go back to work. They believe in their mission and want to provide quality services to the American people,” AFGE President J. David Cox Sr. said in a statement Monday. “These are real people, with real lives and real responsibilities. It’s time to end this shutdown, open the government, and get federal employees back on the job — with pay.”
This article was originally published at ThinkProgress on January 8, 2019. Reprinted with permission.
About the Author: Elham Khatami is an associate editor at ThinkProgress. Previously, she worked as a grassroots organizer within the Iranian-American community. She also served as research manager, editor, and reporter during her five-year career at CQ Roll Call. Elham earned her Master of Arts in Global Communication at George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs and her bachelor’s degree in writing and political science at the University of Pittsburgh.
