Union leader says workers feel targeted as government shutdown continues

The federal government shutdown is in its third week, and many workers just missed their first paycheck. A federal judge Wednesday blocked the Trump administration from laying off workers during the shutdown and more votes in the Senate to fund the government failed — again.

The union representing federal employees estimates there are between 30,000 and 40,000 workers in Arizona — in jobs ranging from TSA to the Social Security Administration, Defense Department, Border Patrol and Labor Department.

Mario Campos is a national vice president for the American Federation of Government Employees representing District 12, which includes Arizona. The Show spoke with him and asked what he’s hearing from his members.

Full conversation

MARIO CAMPOS: Well, there's definitely lots of uncertainty and fear to be honest from them. They don't know when they're going to be paid again. Some of them are furloughed, meaning they're at home and not working, and others that are deemed to be essential workers are still working, but also unsure of when, when, when they're going to get paid, when this shutdown is going to end.

MARK BRODIE: Yeah, and you know, obviously this week is the first week for folks to be missing paychecks. Have you heard anything from folks about how they're trying to make do, how they're trying to get by without getting their salaries?

CAMPOS: Well, through the union, we're trying to do what we can to, to assist our members and federal employees in general. Through these times, we have been working with different organizations such as the AFL-CIO and other unions and also food banks to try to get our members assistance however we can. However, there's no way that the union could ever take on the responsibility of the government to take care of their workforce.

BRODIE: Yeah, I would imagine that if you're looking to try to help out some of your workers, you could probably do that for some amount of time, but probably not forever, right?

CAMPOS: Correct. At the end of the day, it's the responsibility of the federal government to take care of its workforce, and it's the responsibility of our lawmakers to make sure that we have funding for our government to operate.

BRODIE: How would you describe morale among your members?

CAMPOS: In general? Low. You know, this greatly affects people's mental health and morale. You know, we have some people that are at home, like I said, not working, and others that are forced to continue working without pay. And not only the pay aspect of it, but there's also the service aspect of it.

When the government is shut down, lots of the activities that the employees would normally be doing are also shut down, meaning they're not providing service to the community. So most of the federal employees that I know that I interact with provide a service to our country and they take pride in that. They great pride in being able to service the community and those within their communities. And they're just not being allowed to do so right now because the government is shut down.

You add the uncertainty of their livelihoods. Lots of federal employees also have families. And in lots of these families, they are the breadwinners. They are single-income families and just not knowing when they're going to get paid again and how they're going to pay the bills. And some of them, you know, having to make choices between how they're going to feed their families and how they're going to pay for gas to get to work. Those essential things become a big deal and a big burden.

BRODIE: What have you heard from folks who might be concerned about being permanently laid off? I mean, the Trump administration has not made a secret of wanting to, you know, know, have a reduction in force. They've riffed a number of people, although there's a lawsuit that at least temporarily has blocked that from happening.

What are you hearing from members about that?

CAMPOS: Well, some of our members are starting to feel like the administration is not appreciative of what they do, like they're being targeted and their livelihoods are being attacked.

BRODIE: Is there chatter among your members about, especially those who are essential workers who are showing up to work and not getting paid for it, calling in sick or just not really wanting to be there?

CAMPOS: Not that I know of. I haven't spoken to anyone that has expressed anything like that. As a union, a federal employee union, we always discourage any type of activity that would even imply that our workforce is not willing to do their duty.

BRODIE: Now, am I right that you yourself are a Border Patrol agent?

CAMPOS: That is correct.

BRODIE: So have you been working these last couple of weeks without pay?

CAMPOS: Well, I am in a different situation because of the elected position that I am filling currently with the American Federation of Government Employee. I am on leave without pay already.

BRODIE: OK. I wonder if in your mind what's going on right now is has the potential to do maybe permanent damage to the workforce of the federal government and maybe make the kinds of jobs that your members do less appealing to people in the future.

CAMPOS: I think it's definitely a deterrent for people that are looking into careers within the federal government to know that at some point within any given year, if our Congress fails to fund the country per se, that they could be facing not only furloughs, but also reduction in forces if the administration decides to go that route.

So it does create uncertainty, again, as to, you know, federal careers and federal jobs.

BRODIE: Do you see any parallels or do you see any lessons that you can learn from the last time the federal government shut down that you can apply to right now?

CAMPOS: Well, in my opinion, federal shutdowns are not beneficial for anybody. It's not beneficial for the employees who are not getting paid, whether they're working or being sent home. It's not beneficial for the general public because they're not receiving the services that they should be receiving from, from our federal agencies. And it's a huge burden on the economy.

And so it's, it does definitely cause permanent damage every time that we have to go through one of these government shutdowns.

BRODIE: Do you have any measure of optimism that the government will reopen soon?

CAMPOS: Well, I do, or I am optimistic that the government is going to open soon. We just don't know when. So we urge our lawmakers to take action and to come up to an agreement and do their essential duty and fund our government so that we can reopen and serve as our community once more.