Hundreds of civilian employees at Arizona’s military bases returned to work Monday after they were furloughed last week in the federal shutdown. They were called back by Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel over the weekend.
Here in Arizona, more than 440 employees went back to work at Luke Air Force base in Glendale.
Harley Hembd is president of the American Federation of Government Employees — Local 1547, the union representing civilian workers at Luke. He said the week long furlough has added to morale problems at the base.
“There were a few employees that were exempt from the furlough, so the ones that were furloughed, there was a lot of animosity toward the ones that weren’t. And, now some of the employees that are coming back, the others aren’t happy because they’re thinking somebody got paid for time off” said Hembd.
A few hundred more civilian workers went back to work at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson; 449 employees at the Marines Corps Air Station in Yuma returned to work; and the Facebook page for the Fort Huachuca Army Base south of Tucson said all of its civilian workers are back on the job.