\n<\/p>\n
As the US federal shutdown enters its second month, government workers are accusing the Trump administration of being \u201cout of control\u201d and bullying people who are \u201csimply trying to do their best\u201d.<\/p>\n
The shutdown surpassed 35 days this week, beating the previous record set under Donald Trump\u2019s first presidential term. About 700,000 federal employees are furloughed without pay, and about 700,000 additional federal workers have been working without pay through the shutdown.<\/p>\n
Affected workers say the shutdown has been a continuation of attacks they have experienced under the Trump administration, from mass firings \u2013 many of which have been overturned or blocked in federal courts \u2013 to drastic budget cuts, pushes to take early retirements or resignation buyouts, and threats of withholding back pay for workers furloughed during the shutdown.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s already been a chaotic year,\u201d said Micah Niemeier-Walsh, who works at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (Niosh). She was initially fired along with most employees at the agency, but reinstated in May after a court intervened to block most of the firings.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor many agencies, like the one that I am employed by, we\u2019ve 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\u2019ve been seeing on the federal workforce,\u201d said Niemeier-Walsh, who is also vice-president of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) Local 3840.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s become out of control, and I really hope that this shutdown is a wake-up call of how bad things have gotten.\u201d<\/p>\n
In November, furloughed government employees received furlough extension notices, although many notices did not contain assurances they would receive back pay once the government reopens. Denial of back pay has been a threat repeatedly made by the Trump administration during the shutdown, along with firings during the shutdown, which were blocked in a federal court.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have never, ever, ever, ever, ever thought that we would have our government attacking government employees,\u201d said Omar Algeciras, who works at the Department of Labor. \u201c I think this is the epitome of harassment, bullying and attacks on people that are simply trying to do their best to provide a service or services to American workers.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Trump administration\u2019s treatment of federal workers and their unions has put significant pressure and mental health burdens on federal workers who provide services to the American public, said Algeciras, vice-president of AFGE Local 2391.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is unprecedented, it\u2019s unnecessary and I really do think that it\u2019s very disheartening and saddening to see and to have to talk to some of our members and remind them that they need to take a moment for themselves, not to focus on what\u2019s being said,\u201d added Algeciras. \u201cWe\u2019re having to take care of our union members, we\u2019re having to take care of our co-workers, because it\u2019s not coming from the top down any more.\u201d<\/p>\n
The AFGE has called for an end to the government shutdown, avoiding assigning blame to Republicans or Democrats for the shutdown and its prolongation.<\/p>\n
As the stalemate to end the government shutdown continues into November, Trump has affirmed he has no plans to negotiate with Democrats, with the shutdown adding to the stress and anxieties federal employees have already endured under the administration\u2019s efforts to cull their workforce.<\/p>\n
Russell Vought, the White House office of management and budget director, said before the administration took office he wanted to put federal workers \u201cin trauma\u201d and for them to be viewed as \u201cvillains\u201d, and he has attempted to use the shutdown to further those efforts.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor myself and my members, they\u2019ve been going through this chaos and stress and anxiety since February of, from one day to the next, not knowing if they\u2019re going to have a job,\u201d said Tandy Zitkus, AFGE Local 898 president and a furloughed worker at the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (Osha).<\/p>\n
\u201cSince February, there\u2019s been a constant threat every day when you get up and go to work, and it\u2019s unfortunately nothing new. It\u2019s become a norm for the federal worker.\u201d<\/p>\n
Workers have been forced to budget as best they can around missed paychecks, from filing for unemployment and waiting on those benefits, deciding whether to visit food banks and requesting deferments on bills, said Zitkus.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s overwhelming. It\u2019s hard to stay positive,\u201d Zitkus said. \u201cFederal workers serve the people. They\u2019re not politicians, and so there\u2019s 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\u2019re civil servants, and we serve the American people, and we want to be able to continue to do that and be paid.\u201d<\/p>\n
Abigail Jackson, the White House deputy secretary, placed the shutdown blame solely on Democrats and repeated the misleading claim that Democrats are pushing for healthcare for undocumented immigrants.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe only reason the government was shut down at all, let alone for this long, is because the Democrats decided to hold the American people hostage to push their radical, far-left policy agenda of free healthcare for illegal aliens,\u201d Jackson said in a statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cAmerican families have missed paychecks and benefits because of the Democrats\u2019 irresponsible behavior. President Trump wants the government reopen \u2013 the Democrats can choose to reopen it at any point, and they should do so immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As the US federal shutdown enters its second month, government workers are accusing the Trump administration of being \u201cout of control\u201d and bullying people who are \u201csimply trying to do their best\u201d. The shutdown surpassed 35 days this week, beating the previous record set under Donald Trump\u2019s first presidential term. About 700,000 federal employees are<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32375,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[97,5666,15618,319,558,6939,2969,11209,81,1438],"class_list":{"0":"post-32374","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-control","9":"tag-decry","10":"tag-drags","11":"tag-federal","12":"tag-government","13":"tag-longest","14":"tag-officials","15":"tag-shutdown","16":"tag-trump","17":"tag-workers"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32374"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32374\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/32375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}