Bipartisan legislation to provide retroactive pay for the more than 800,000 federal workers furloughed because of the irresponsible House Republican government shutdown was introduced Tuesday in the House and Senate. Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.), chief sponsor of the House bill (H.R. 3223), said:

Nearly a million federal workers could lose their pay because Congress failed to do its job and keep the government up and running....Our civil servants have weathered furloughs, frozen pay and diminished benefits. Now they may go without their pay altogether because of this reckless Tea Party-led government shutdown.

AFGE National President J. David Cox Sr. today issued the following statement on the House Republican-forced government shutdown:

The moment we have been dreading has arrived. The House of Representatives has shut down the federal government, locking out 800,000 federal employees who want to go to work to support the American people.

Workers at two Army medical centers voted to join AFGE in an election that concluded last week. The 3,700 health care employees were part of the former Walter Reed Army Medical Center and were transferred to two new medical centers and other regional facilities when Walter Reed was shut down in 2001.

The AFGE local union that represents 2,100 federal workers at the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)—the federal agency that enforces the Civil Rights Act and the other laws barring workplace discrimination—has urged Congress to avoid a government shutdown.

In the early hours of Aug. 3, the AFL-CIO Union Veterans Council organized a group of national union leaders and activists to participate in the washing of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C. As the sun rose over the Three Service Members Statue, volunteers received a welcome from the Vietnam Veterans of America, saluted the memorial and observed a moment of silence.

After budget cuts were put into effect because of the sequester, the Department of Defense began implementing furloughs for 650,000 civilian employees that would cost those workers 11 days of salary at a time when the economy is still struggling to recover from the Great Recession. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has since announced that the number of furlough days will be cut from 11 to six. AFGE applauded the change but said it didn't go far enough.

In more than 100 events across the country Wednesday, working families rallied outside lawmakers’ offices, federal agencies, military bases and elsewhere to shine a spotlight on the impact of the sequester’s across-the-board cuts that will cost more than 750,000 jobs this year alone and to call for its repeal.

While most of the actions aimed at members of Congress were focused on Republicans who are using the sequester as leverage to get their way in Congress, in Beckley, W.Va., a group of more than 50 AFGE and other union members and community supporters received a shout out of support from Rep. Nick Rahall (D).

Working families rallied on Capitol Hill last week, calling on Congress not to make any benefit cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. They also told Congress to close tax loopholes for big corporations and the wealthiest 2% and to prevent the sequester from going into effect and harming the country. 

More than 1,500 people rallied Tuesday on Capitol Hill in support of working families and to tell Congress not to make any benefit cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. They also told Congress to close tax loopholes for big corporations and the wealthiest 2% and to prevent the sequester from going into effect and harming the country. Throughout the rally, working families spoke with a unified voice calling for "jobs, not cuts."

Mine Workers (UMWA) President Cecil Roberts and nine other union members were arrested in front of Peabody Energy’s corporate headquarters in St. Louis yesterday, as more than 750 members and retirees sang Amazing Grace and held signs calling for fairness. Several of those arrested had oxygen tanks, and many in the crowd were brought to tears as the arrested protesters were peacefully loaded into the sheriff’s van while Which Side Are You On played on the loudspeakers. The protesters arrived at Peabody after marching from federal bankruptcy court, where Patriot Coal’s lawyers were inside. Those arrested were released later in the day, according to the St. Louis City Division of Corrections.