AFGE, Top Federal Workers’ Union, Sides With Republicans on Shutdown

Politics|Top Federal Workers’ Union Breaks With Democrats on Shutdown

The largest union of federal workers called on Monday for Congress to pass a spending bill to immediately end the government shutdown, effectively siding with President Trump and Republicans who have opposed Democratic efforts to restore health care spending.

“Both political parties have made their point, and still there is no clear end in sight,” Everett Kelley, the president of the American Federation of Government Employees, said in the statement. He added, “It’s time to pass a clean continuing resolution and end this shutdown today. No half measures, and no gamesmanship.”

The statement was a remarkable shift for the union. Before the shutdown began on Oct. 1, Mr. Kelley called on Republicans to negotiate with Democrats, who are seeking concessions including the extension of subsidies for plans under the Affordable Care Act that would stave off premium increases and the loss of coverage for millions of Americans. The union has also worked closely with Democratic lawmakers on efforts this year to oppose Mr. Trump’s policies, particularly his wide-reaching campaign to slash the federal work force and fire career civil servants.

But amid the punishing effects of the shutdown on federal workers — some 730,000 are working without pay, and another 670,000 are furloughed entirely — Senate Democrats have blocked legislation that would pay the civil servants who have been working without pay, a move that would provide relief to the union’s members but would weaken the bargaining position of Democratic lawmakers. The Republicans, in turn, blocked a pair of Democratic bills that would have paid both those federal workers who are still working and those who have been furloughed.

Mr. Trump seized on those votes to try to drive a wedge between Democrats and the federal workers’ unions, asserting that Democrats don’t want the workers to be paid at all — though Mr. Trump himself previously signaled that he might try to deny some workers back pay after the shutdown ends. The president invited Senate Democrats to cross party lines and vote for the Republican proposal to reopen the government.

“All we need is five Democrats,” Mr. Trump said in the Oval Office last week, adding that the Republican proposal would “get the country back to work, get the people paid.”

In a statement, Senator Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, said that “Democrats want all federal workers to get their full pay and to address the health care crisis. We can do both.”

As the shutdown has stretched on, workers have begun missing paychecks, ramping up the financial pressure on the union’s members. Mr. Kelley said they are being asked “to keep our country running without the paychecks that keep their own households afloat.”

Congress, he said, must “put every single federal worker back on the job with full back pay — today.”

In late September, hours before the shutdown began, Mr. Kelley had pointedly called on Republicans to negotiate with Democrats on their demands to fund Affordable Care Act subsidies that are set to expire at the end of the year and benefit more than 20 million Americans. Increased health insurance prices for next year have already been made public in at least a dozen states.

In his statement on Monday, Mr. Kelley did not directly call on Democrats to drop their demands. But he suggested that those negotiations should continue only after Congress votes to reopen the government — which Democrats say would give up one of the few leverages they have to force Republicans to negotiate.

“Shutdowns have become a recurring tactic in Washington,” Mr. Kelley said. “But there is no ‘winning’ a government shutdown.” Congressional wrangling over the budget, he added, should be conducted “without punishing the people who keep our nation running.”

Eileen Sullivan contributed reporting.