Essential US government employees being treated like 'indentured servants'
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Version 0 of 1. Government employees forced to work with no pay during the US government shutdown are being treated like “indentured servants”, the head of their largest union said on Friday. “At one point in our country’s history we had legal slavery in this country,” Jeffrey David Cox, president of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), told the Guardian. “This is indentured servitude.” Cox said nearly half of his 670,000 members had been deemed “essential workers” and had thus been compelled to keep working without pay while the shutdown continues. Workers who do not turn up for their jobs face disciplinary action and could be fired. The AFGE represents a spectrum of government employees, including nurses, doctors, aircraft mechanics, astronauts, scientists, safety inspectors, mine inspectors, food inspectors, fire fighters, janitors, lawyers and paralegals. “Our people want to go to work. They want to be on their jobs, protecting the food supply, guarding our borders,” Cox said. “Half of them are at home, the other half are going to work but not being paid.” The government has promised to pay essential workers for their time but “that can’t even happen until the shutdown ends,” said Cox. The House of Representatives this week passed a bill that would also give furloughed employees back pay for the time they have been out of work, a measure for which President Obama has expressed support. Friday would have been payday for many federal workers and as the shutdown entered its 11th day Cox said many of his members were beginning to struggle to make ends meet. “I spoke to an someone today who had received $100 in compensation last week. She has food to buy, rent to pay,” he said. “No employer requires its employees to work and not get paid. Nobody could want us to run a government this way. Nobody.” Tyrone Covington, a correctional officer at the Metropolitan Correctional Facility in downtown Manhattan, said many of his colleagues were running low on cash. “Today most of our people would have been paid, and we are expecting them to receive about five or six days pay at most,” he said. “People have childcare issues, they can’t put gas in their cars. It is creating a dangerous situation. We house some of the most dangerous criminals in the world.” Covington, who is president of the Local 3148 union that represents prison officers, said most of his colleagues earned between $35,000 and $65,000 a year. “They are living paycheck to paycheck,” he said. Some essential workers, he said, have asked to be furloughed so they can save money by not coming in to work. “People don’t show up. Others are working two shifts and not getting paid for either. This isn’t a government shutdown, it’s a shutdown of America,” he said. Cox said the blame lay with John Boehner, the Republican House Speaker. He said the Senate had passed so-called continuing resolutions that would allow the government to pay workers while Republicans and Democrats negotiate a settlement to the budget crisis. Cox said Boehner had so far failed to negotiate an agreement with his own party or with the Democrats. “He’s a speaker, not a leader,” he said. “If this continues, what is going to happen is our members will lose the roofs over their heads. They will not be able to eat,” he said. “It’s unconscionable.” Some 800,000 government workers were initially furloughed, equivalent to the combined workforces of Exxon Mobil, General Motors, Google and Target. The defense secretary, Chuck Hagel, has since called back almost all of the 350,000 furloughed civilian employees of his department. The shutdown is spreading into the private sector. Lockheed Martin plans to furlough 3,000 workers as a result of the shutdown. The engineering contractor URS has furloughed 3,000 and defense contractor BAE Systems 1,2000. The closure of the national parks has sent home as many as 15,000 private-sector workers, according to American Recreation Coalition, a park advocacy nonprofit. Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. |