Trump hates working people
Posted: Tue Jan 29, 2019 12:55 pm
"No he doesn't, I'm working class!" -- Rice grad Left Behind
Hope this was a lesson for any working folk who voted for the revolting pile of human waste. He doesn't give a fuck about you.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business ... -back-pay/
Hope this was a lesson for any working folk who voted for the revolting pile of human waste. He doesn't give a fuck about you.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business ... -back-pay/
The lowest-paid shutdown workers aren’t getting back pay
Janitors, security guards and cooks aren’t guaranteed compensation after losing wages
By Danielle Paquette January 29 at 7:00 AM
Her debt was mounting: $156 for the gas bill, $300 for electricity, $2,000 for the mortgage. She could no longer afford her blood pressure pills. But what stung Audrey Murray-Wright most was rationing the groceries.
“I never, ever want to tell my son, ‘Don’t drink all that milk so you can save your brother some,' ” she said, choking up.
Murray-Wright, a cleaning supervisor at the National Portrait Gallery, is one of more than a million federal contract workers nationwide whose income halted when the government partly shuttered for 35 days.
Unlike the 800,000 career public servants who are slated to receive full back pay over the next week or so, the contractors who clean, guard, cook and shoulder other jobs at federal workplaces aren’t legally guaranteed a single penny.
They’re also among the lowest-paid laborers in the government economy, generally earning between $450 and $650 weekly, union leaders say.
And even as they began returning to work Monday, they were bracing for more pain. President Trump’s new deadline for Congress to earmark funding for his proposed border wall is Feb. 15. Agencies could close again if no deal is reached.
[Federal contractors who lost health insurance during the shutdown remain in limbo]
Murray-Wright, who lives in Maryland and has worked at Smithsonian properties for 15 years, said seeing her name back on the schedule has brought little relief.
She clocks in again Tuesday but doesn’t expect a paycheck for at least another week. After her husband died last year of a heart attack, she has struggled to support her sons, ages 12 and 15.
“I did have a little money in the bank — now that’s all gone,” she said, crying. “I don’t have any help. My electricity might be turned off any day now.”
Héctor Figueroa, president of 32BJ SEIU, a labor union that represents 170,000 service workers on the East Coast, said reopening the government is a temporary fix for people on such shaky ground.
“Contracted workers are still in limbo,” he said in an email. “The men and women who clean and secure federal buildings have been living on the edge of disaster for five weeks. Many of these workers are facing eviction, power shut-offs, hunger and even going without lifesaving medications. And unlike direct federal employees, they may never be made whole.”
After the 16-day shutdown in 2013, approximately 850,000 federal workers collected compensation. About 1,200 cleaners, security guards and food-service workers in the Washington area, however, received no makeup pay.