PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. — More than 450 Transportation Security Administration workers have quit during the partial government shutdown, the Department of Homeland Security said.
WATCH BELOW: 'There’s many of us that are suffering from this,' Mickey Alston tells WPTV's Ethan Stein
The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), the union representing government workers, said about 234,000 employees are not getting paid in various federal agencies, including the Coast Guard, Federal Emergency Management Agency and CIS, the agency responsible for the nation’s cybersecurity. Over the past six weeks, those employees have struggled to make ends meet during the partial government shutdown.
The union directed WPTV’s Ethan Stein to photos released by Palm Beach International Airport showing a food distribution event last week where more than 150 boxes of food from the Palm Beach County Food Bank went to TSA workers and Customs and Border Protection workers. Both aren’t getting paid as a result of the partial government shutdown.
Mickey Alston, who is a a representative with AFGE Local 558, said they’ve also received food from the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office and offers from local restaurants, like Rocco’s Tacos, for free meals. She said it’s difficult, because her daughter is going on a school trip and she’s struggling to find the money so her daughter can feed herself.
“I myself couldn’t pay a phone bill,” Alston said. My phone bill is only $43 and that’s tough when you can’t even pay a $43 phone bill. And I’m not the only one. There’s many of us that are suffering from this."
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Alston, who specifically represents TSA employees, is the only sector WPTV has heard from about the most recent government shutdown. She said she thinks other government employees are scared they will lose their job or get reprimanded if they speak out about the difficulties of working without pay, but she said it stops other people from understanding the effects of a government shutdown.
"I need my job too," she said. "However, I do believe that a voice is better to get the information out there, because without the information getting out there, you’re not going to hear about it.”
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Some unions representing government employees, like the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), are urging Congress to end the partial shutdown less publicly. The union representing the Customs Office of Field Operations and the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center sent a letter to Congress urging them to end the shutdown.
“That’s nearly a month of uncertainty where these frontline employees have had to wonder whether they’ll be able to pay their mortgage or buy groceries and a month of not knowing how long this shutdown will last,” said NTEU President Doreen Greenwald in the letter. “Yet even with such uncertainty hanging over their heads, they still come to work every day to keep our country safe.”
At this time, it is unclear when the shutdown will end. Congress is debating reforms for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and rules for voting.
