Late mortgage payments. Car loan defaults. No child care. Dwindling savings.
These are just a few of the issues that federal workers told Capital B Atlanta they will be facing as the federal government shutdown drags on.
The suspension of pay and work disruption for many federal employees already has contributed to staffing shortages, longer lines, and flight delays at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. Transportation Security Administration employee Aaron Barker expects the situation to worsen next week, when many of his co-workers’ children will be out of school for Indigenous People’s Day and fall break.
Barker is president of the American Federation of Government Employees union’s Local 554, which represents about 1,500 TSA employees in Georgia. He said TSA workers are among those due to receive a reduced paycheck Friday as a result of the federal government officially shutting down at midnight on Oct. 1.
“There are going to be some problems,” the 38-year-old Dunwoody resident told Capital B Atlanta on Wednesday. “That extra money [TSA workers] would’ve had to pay for a day care or food because their kids are going to be at home is not there.”
It may be the last check many receive for a while.
Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill have been digging in their heels on federal budget negotiations, Medicaid spending, and passage of a continuing resolution that would temporarily end the shutdown and fund the government through Nov. 21.
Barker anticipates some of his fellow union members — who are classified as essential workers and are required to work without pay during shutdowns – may not be able to afford to travel to work or pay for babysitters next week once their wages start to dwindle.
He said many TSA workers live paycheck to paycheck and now are being forced to borrow money to pay their mortgages and car notes.
“It’s absolutely insane that you have to take out a loan to pay on loans you already have,” he said. “Not knowing how long this is going to last is even crazier.”
Local federal employees and union presidents, including Barker, say the latest government shutdown has left their members feeling like pawns in a game of political chess played by their elected leaders. That includes President Donald Trump, but also members of Congress who will be in recess next week while many of their constituents are furloughed or forced to work without pay.
Black folks make up about 31% of Georgia’s population, but Barker estimates they represent up to 90% of his TSA union members. They also comprise a disproportionate share (18%) of AFGE union members nationally. The AFGE is the nation’s largest federal union, advocating on behalf of more than 820,000 federal government workers across the nation.
As many as 110,900 employees in Georgia alone may have been impacted by the federal government shutdown, according to the state Department of Labor. That also includes National Park employees at The King Center in Atlanta and agents at the local Internal Revenue Service, as well as workers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
AFGE Local 2883 President Yolanda Jacobs said she was furloughed on Oct. 1 along with an estimated 2,300 fellow CDC union members, who have suffered through Department of Government Efficiency layoffs, stress from leadership changes and an attempted mass shooting that left an officer dead in August.
Many, according to Jacobs, have reached a breaking point. She expects their financial struggles will have a ripple effect on the local economy.
“At some point things are going to come falling down,” Jacobs told Capital B Atlanta on Wednesday. “We don’t know where everything is going to land when it does.”
Metro Atlanta IRS revenue agent Lakisha Murphy was furloughed on Wednesday. She said she’s worked for the agency for nearly two decades. She’s also the president of National Treasury Employees Union chapter 26, which advocates on behalf of more than 1,000 federal workers in parts of Tennessee, Alabama and Florida in addition to most of Georgia.
Murphy said she’s experienced multiple government shutdowns during her career, but this one feels “different.” The Trump administration’s focus on downsizing the federal government has left her and her members struggling all year with the uncertainty about their jobs.
“The workforce honestly has been traumatized all year,” Murphy told Capital B Atlanta. “We can’t go into this [shutdown and furlough] saying, ‘We always come out.’ It’s hard to trust the process at this point because we’ve been so attacked all year long.”
Jacobs described federal employees being used as a “bargaining chip” by politicians who are “out of touch” with the lives of regular people.
“These are people that get up every morning and they don’t have to, for one moment, think about how they’re going to put groceries in the house, how they’re going to make a mortgage payment or a car payment, how they’re going to buy Pampers for their babies,” she said. “They’re doing everything they can to continue to disrupt the lives of people who don’t have it that way.”
Republicans control both legislative chambers in Congress, as well as the White House. Democrats on Capitol Hill, who have been urged by their supporters to fight harder against the Trump-led downsizing of federal government programs, this time appear to be betting on voters blaming the GOP for the latest disruptive shutdown.
Jacobs said her disproportionately Black union members aren’t happy about the instability, but they appear to be in favor of the Democrats refusing to capitulate.
“We’re getting both sides in our emails, but we are getting more of them that are saying, ‘Hold the line,’” Jacobs said.
Some federal employees Capital B Atlanta reached out to have expressed fear that if they publicly share their views on the shutdown, they may be targeted for termination by the Trump administration.
Janice Taylor is the alias of a furloughed CDC worker who asked Capital B Atlanta not to use her real name, fearing potential retaliation. She said she supports what Democrats are doing, but hopes it doesn’t last much longer. She, her husband and their two teenage children have enough savings to last about a month.
Taylor and others also expressed concerns about Trump’s perceived threat not to honor back pay for furloughed employees.
“I want [Democrats] to hold the line as long as they can, continue to fight, but also ensure that all federal employees will receive payment afterward,” Taylor told Capital B Atlanta on Wednesday. “A lot of people are OK with them holding the line as long as they get paid. Ensuring that that happens is important.”
