Federal Workers Rally in the Rain to Demand House Vote on Reopening Government
Friday, October 11, 2013(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)
The chant rang out over and over again,
despite pouring rain.“We want to work!”
“We want to work!” Hundreds of
locked-out federal workers defied the elements
yesterday to voice a simple demand: That the
House GOP, and specifically Speaker John
Boehner, allow an up-or-down vote on a money
bill to reopen the partially shuttered U.S.
government – a government where 800,000 of
its workers are locked out – and let them get
back to serving the people. Yesterday's rally
by members of the American Federation of
Government Employees, AFSCME, the Service
Employees, the Treasury Employees and other
unions was one of a series of protests (another
is scheduled for tomorrow; see below for
details), both in D.C. and around the country,
by the locked-out feds, victims of the ruling
Republicans’ absolute insistence that no
money bill funding the country could pass
unless it also defunded the Affordable Care
Act, the Obama administration’s health care
law. “What’s going on? Does our
government look dependable? Put us back
to work,” said Defense Department civilian
worker Andrew Sales, one of several idled
workers who addressed the rain-soaked crowd.
“I make $500 a week and I’ve already had a
pay cut due to furloughs” imposed by the
GOP-ordered “sequester” – cuts – in
last year’s money, said Census Bureau worker
Natasha Rozier. “Congress is not only holding
us hostage, they’re holding our tax dollars
hostage. Tell Congress to do their job so
I can do mine.” Sympathetic Democratic
lawmakers, led by Sens. Ben Cardin, D-Md., and
Bernie Sanders, Ind.-Vt., and Reps. Raul
Grijalva, D-Ariz., Keith Ellison, D-Minn., and
Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., vowed
to fight for a “clean CR” without any
strings attached.
- Mark
Gruenberg, PAI Staff Writer; photo by Beth Van
de Bussche/AFSCME Council 26