NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS | January 18, 2019 | PAGE 5
Unions and allies blast Trump ‘lockout’ of federal workers
By Mark Gruenberg
Press Associates Inc.
WASHINGTON, D.C.—With
denunciations ranging from
“shutdown” to “lockout” to –
one speaker in D.C. said –
“shakedown,” workers and their
allies blasted President Donald
Trump’s closure of a large hunk
of the federal government and
his denial of pay to 800,000
workers.
The sharp criticism came in a
night rally Jan. 9 in the D.C.
suburb of Silver Spring, Md.,
and Jan. 10 rallies in DC,
Chicago and Kansas City. They
came as Trump’s lockout
stretched into its 20th day, and
after the president stormed out
of a meeting with congressional
leaders he called the day before
to discuss the issue.
At that Jan. 9 session, Trump
bluntly asked House Speaker
Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., if De-
mocrats would agree to his $5.7
billion demand for money to
build a Mexican border wall in
return for ending the lockout/
shutdown. She said “no,” and he
marched out. Senate Minority
Leader Charles Schumer, D-
N.Y., who also participated,
called Trump’s action “a temper
tantrum.”
Meanwhile, replying to
Trump’s prior claim that unpaid,
locked-out workers could “make
do” or ask their parents for
money, Pelosi retorted that, un-
like Trump, their parents didn’t
have millions of dollars to lend.
Trump’s late father, Fred, gave
him millions to get his develop-
ment business going.
Speakers at the rallies, includ-
ing several of the locked-out
workers, said they want to go
back to work, in jobs ranging
from meat inspection to airplane
safety inspection to working at
national parks to researching
cases for U.S. Supreme Court
briefs.
“At age 71, I need a job,” said
Lila Johnson, a 21-year contract
worker at the Agriculture De-
partment. Johnson spoke before
a D.C. crowd of several thou-
sand who were gathered in front
of the AFL-CIO headquarters
before a two block march to the
White House.
Contract workers like John-
son—such as janitors and fast-
food workers at malls in federal
buildings – get no back pay even
when the shutdown ends. In past
GOP-caused shutdowns, regular
workers later got back pay,
though some had to sue for it.
“Every federal employee has
done their job, but the White
House has not done its job,” said
Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., one of
a parade of lawmakers who al-
ternated with union leaders and
rank-and-file locked-out work-
ers at the AFL-CIO podium.
At midnight Dec. 21, Trump
shut the Interior, Justice, State,
Treasury, Commerce, Housing
and Agriculture Departments
among others – plus the EPA and
other key agencies - which lack
money. Trump said won’t sign
their funding bills unless Con-
gress agrees to his demand for
funding of a Mexican border
wall.
As a result, some 800,000
feds, plus three times as many
dependents, face payless weeks
or months.
Trump wasn’t in D.C. to hear
the workers’ chants and protests
on Dec. 10. He spent part of the
day visiting a section of the bor-
der in McAllen, Texas, for what
even he called a “photo-op.”
Several speakers on Jan. 10
added Senate Majority Leader
Mitch McConnell, R-Kent., to
the list of culprits, citing his ab-
solute refusal to even allow
solons to vote on House-passed
money bills to reopen the gov-
ernment while continuing talks
about funding Trump’s wall.
Those money bills are identical
to legislation bipartisan majori-
ties approved just before Dec.
21. Trump agreed, then reneged.
“Senators, senators, do your
damn job!” declared J. David
Cox, president of the largest fed-
eral workers union, the Ameri-
can Federation of Government
Employees (AFGE). “Don’t be
scared by the president of the
United States. You were elected
in your own right.”
But Trump was the main tar-
get of the speeches, chants and
signs, and not just from union
leaders such as Cox, Trumka,
Treasury Employees President
Tony Reardon and AFSCME
President Randi Weingarten.
She called Trump’s lockout
“hostage taking.”
...GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN
From Page 1
eral government’s lowest paid
employees: Most make $16 to
$19 an hour. Portland TSA
agent Greg Biel says one of his
co-workers has begun driving
for Uber in off-hours, while an-
other is selling plasma. Biel is
president of American Federa-
tion of Government Employees
(AFGE) Local 1127, which rep-
resents 3,000 TSA employees in
Oregon, Colorado, Idaho,
Wyoming, Montana, and Utah.
On Jan. 10, he and other AFGE
officers passed out fliers at the
airport asking the public to call
members of Congress to call for
an end to the shutdown.
The shutdown is a partial
shutdown because most federal
agencies remain open (and are
funded through Sept. 30). But
nine Cabinet departments and a
number of smaller agencies
have been without funding since
Dec. 22. That’s because Presi-
dent Donald Trump said he
wouldn’t sign any more spend-
ing bills unless they include
$5.7 billion for a wall along the
border with Mexico — a wall he
long insisted that Mexico would
pay for.
“If we don’t get what we
want,” Trump told Chuck
Schumer and Nancy Pelosi in a
televised meeting Trump called
on Dec. 11, “I will shut down
the government.… I will take
the mantle. I will be the one to
shut it down. I’m not going to
blame you for it.”
Republicans were in charge
of the House and Senate the last
two years, and at no time did
they vote to fund a wall. Only
after Democrats won back a ma-
jority in the House did Trump
threaten to shut the government
unless he got funding for the
wall.
AFGE, the largest of the fed-
eral employee unions, likened
that to hostage taking.
A CBS News poll found that
59 percent of Americans — and
84 percent of Democrats — are
against building a wall.
WHAT ABOUT UNEMPLOYMENT
BENEFITS? NOT SO SIMPLE
Federal workers who are working
without pay aren’t eligible for un-
employment benefits, because
they aren’t considered unem-
ployed. Meanwhile, those on fur-
lough are eligible for unemploy-
ment benefits, but if, as is widely
assumed, they later get full back
pay, they’re supposed to repay
whatever benefits they receive.
David Gerstenfeld, administrator of
the Oregon Unemployment Insur-
ance Division, said his agency won’t
try to collect the “overpayments”
but they’ll count against whatever
benefits workers are entitled to if
they apply for unemployment ben-
efits again in the next five years.
Congress could end the shut-
down by approving funding for
the agencies, but overriding a
presidential veto would take a
two-thirds majority in each
chamber.
How to help workers affected by the shutdown
As of press time, Portland-based Labor’s Community Service Agency, a union-sponsored charity, planned to deliver 100 food boxes
to TSA officers at a planned Jan. 18 airport event, and is collecting donations from unions and union members to provide relief for
workers affected by the federal shutdown.
■ Individuals can donate online at lcsaportland.org/donate
■ Unions can mail donations to LCSA at 9955 SE Washington St. Suite 211, 97216.