Staring at life without a paycheck, federal workers rally in Pittsburgh against shutdown

Saturday should be payday for local Internal Revenue Service workers like Elizabeth McPeak.

But because of a federal government shutdown, she’s one of about 250 local IRS workers and about 1.4 million federal workers nationwide who won’t receive a paycheck this weekend.

“Tomorrow is payday but there won’t be a payday tomorrow for 1.4 million people tomorrow, including me, including any of you,” McPeak, National Treasury Employees Union Chapter 34’s first vice president, told a group of about a dozen federal workers Friday in Pittsburgh.

About half of the 500 federal workers represented by the National Treasury Employees Union in Western Pennsylvania were furloughed earlier this month amid the federal government shutdown.

The chapter represents federal workers throughout the region, from Washington to Erie to Altoona. Many of them work at the William S. Moorhead Federal Building in Downtown Pittsburgh, which served as the backdrop for Friday’s rally.

Workers called for an end to the federal shutdown that has halted some services and kept them from their jobs.

Federal workers throughout the region, McPeak said, are struggling to keep up with bills and lining up at food banks amid the shutdown.

“We’re not D.C. elite,” she said, pointing out that about that about 85% of federal employees live and work outside the nation’s capital. Nearly a quarter are veterans.

Kristina Schultz is vice president of the local chapter of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, which represents about 250 Army Corps of Engineers workers in the Pittsburgh area.

Right now, they’re exempted from the shutdown and being paid.

But she doesn’t know how long that will last.

Many workers, she said, chose federal jobs to serve their communities and their country. Schultz and her coworkers ensure families have clean drinking water and offer support after natural disasters.

“Federal workers serve the public,” said Schultz, a biologist with the Army Corps of Engineers. “We are your neighbors, family and community members.”

NTEU Chapter 34 President Charleen Stephansky said furloughed workers deserve to return to work.

Right now, she said, workers are furloughed or working without pay are “the pawns caught up in the political gamesmanship.”

“For years, federal employees have been demonized and devalued even as we quietly keep the government and this country running,” Stephansky said. “All federal employees deserve dignity and respect.”