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