The government may be open, but the fight continues.
Just imagine finally getting the call to return to work, but in your absence your boss has burned down the building. Your oath to service means conducting your duties regardless of the embers smoldering around you.
While some federal workers are returning to work after the longest government shutdown in American history (and the third under Trump’s leadership), others are still on administrative leave or permanently laid off. When their work days finally begin again, many are prohibited from performing their duties to the public or silenced for speaking up. Departments are operating with skeleton crews or budget restrictions or both. The invisible victims of the shutdown–service workers, custodians, and security guards that keep federal workplaces running–are not guaranteed back pay for the weeks of work missed. The government may be back open, but the cruelty continues.
You’d think workers would throw in the towel. Instead, they’re organizing. Turning righteous anger into collective power that serves their communities. Despite Trump’s regime, shoddy political strategy, and baseless promises.
Sacrificing their own security, federal workers demanded elected leaders fight for all working people and hold the line for affordable healthcare during the shutdown. Even as many of their own coworkers faced food insecurity, federal workers across the country mobilized alongside working families to keep people fed as SNAP benefits were held hostage. And now, as they return to work, their resolve remains steady.
This leadership in a time of crisis needs more than admiration, it deserves our unwavering solidarity. It is clearer than ever that democracy is on life support, begging to be revived, reimagined, and released from the grasps of profiteers and political theater. Working people are answering the call for revival, but sustaining this energy for justice requires all of us.
In each corner of the movement there is an opportunity to practice solidarity.
The Federal Unionists Network (FUN) will hold a Week of Service and Action, November 16-22, to address Congress’s failure to pass a people-first budget. With community partners, FUN federal workers will launch service projects and public actions that demand an extension of ACA subsidies, the full release of SNAP benefits, and an end to executive overreach.
Allies in congress are working to introduce legislation which would permanently end the use of federal workers as pawns during negotiations and ensure they are paid regardless of a shutdown, and the Fair Pay for Federal Contractors Act would solidify that the most overlooked federal workers would be protected.
And at Jobs with Justice, we’ve relaunched the Worker Solidarity Fund to build power with workers who are meeting the immediate needs of working people in this current crisis.
The fight isn’t over because the government has reopened its doors. If anything, it’s time to double down and refuel the workers on the frontlines.