The Rev. Dr. Everett Kelley, President of the over-800,000 member American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), joined Make It Plain with Rev. Mark Thompson on WPFW-FM 89.3 Pacifica Radio to call for an end to the 34-day government shutdown in the midst of Trump nullifying the AFGE collective bargaining agreement, effectively locking out federal employees, earlier this year.
“ I have members of my union going to work and not getting paid, and another large majority of them just sitting at home on furlough,” said Kelley.
“These are people that provide a service for the American people. They make sure the air we breathe is good air, the food that we eat is inspected. These are people that make sure that the skies we travel in are safe. These are people that make sure that, you know, while we’re sleeping at night criminals are not roaming the streets, but they’re not getting paid,” he added.
Kelley provided specific details of one service where the public is suffering because of the shutdown and the attack on the federal workforce.
“Whether it be through a shutdown or just firing a mass number of people that means that the meat that we are eating is not being inspected adequately,” Kelley said.
“I represent those employees and what I already know is that only 50% of the meat that we were eating was being inspected prior to the shutdown,” he added.
So now if you start talking about laying off massive amounts of people, who’s gonna do that inspection? We’re gonna leave it up to the [meat-packing] plants to do that? That’s the fox guarding the hen house,” said Kelley.
Kelley said the impact of the shutdown, layoffs and furloughs on federal employees has been traumatic.
”Remember [OMB Director] Russell Vought was saying that he wanted federal employees to be traumatized,” Kelley said.
“More and more [federal employees] are standing in lines to get food than what I would’ve ever imagined,” he said.
Thompson asked Kelley about his perceived break with Democrats and other unions over ending the shutdown being tied to Affordable Care Act (ACA) extended tax credits which expire at the end of the year and which lower monthly health insurance premiums for millions of Americans who buy coverage through the ACA marketplace.
Kelley said, ”You know, when you start talking about medical, I’m also a recipient of that. Okay?”
“I’m not saying that that’s not important, but what I am saying, though, is that the members that I represent. Have suffered enough,” he added.
Kelley also said, “The [majority of the] members that I represent are not getting paid. And they just like the rest of America, they live from paycheck to paycheck. Standing in line to get food, worrying about how they’re going to pay their mortgage. They’re worrying about how to provide medical care for ailing children, pregnant mothers calling me crying.”
Kelley also discussed AFGE’s litigation against the Trump Administration.
”We got a preliminary injunction [preventing mass layoffs], and that injunction has been extended at this point,’ he said. “[The Courts] have determined that the action that [the Administration] is taking is completely illegal,” he said.
