It’s Day 9 of the federal government shutdown.
But Camillie Piñeiro, a Social Security claims representative, still works in her Springfield office every weekday from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. She and thousands of other essential workers in Massachusetts won’t get paid until the shutdown ends and they receive back pay guaranteed by the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act passed in 2019.
“But there is a difference between the money that you need now, you know, to pay your rent or your mortgage, to pay your car, child care, to pay your food, your electric bill ... and the money that you will get, I don’t know, a month in the future,” she said.
Piñeiro will get a partial paycheck on Friday because the shutdown began midweek, on Oct. 1. When the next paycheck will arrive is anyone’s guess.
“This shutdown is anxiety-ridden,” she said.
But Piñeiro is lucky: Her husband has a non-government job and they don’t have any kids. It’s been harder for other workers. Piñeiro said she knows one colleague who will only be able to cover their mortgage with tomorrow’s paycheck, but no other living expenses; another person will only have $35 left, leaving them without gas money to get to work, or money for food.
Piñeiro is also president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 1164, which represents Social Security employees in New England. She said the union is directing members to call 2-1-1 and learn what programs they qualify for, whether that could be going to the food bank or getting fuel assistance.
“A bit of help in different places could be the difference between making it reasonably or struggling,” she said.
Officers with the Transportation Security Administration are also essential federal employees who have been showing up to work without pay. For many officers, it’s their first government shutdown, said Mike Gayzagian, local president of the TSA officers union.
He said some are concerned about not receiving back pay when the shutdown ends because of threats made by President Donald Trump.
“There’s unfortunately a higher level of anxiety at this shutdown than ones that I’ve experienced before,” Gayzagian said. That uncertainty could be a public safety threat, he said.
“Our job is to prevent bad actors from getting on airplanes. We have to be laser-focused on what we’re doing all the time. And this is a huge distraction for people,” he said.
David Gonzalez is the national vice president of the second district of the AFGE, which serves New England. He said members are “scared” that they won’t get paid or that they’ll lose their jobs because of the president’s threat to lay off furloughed employees.
“Republicans and Democrats need to come to the table, iron out their differences and open up the government,” Gonzalez said. “It’s not fair to the federal employees that federal employees are the scapegoat over a political debate.”
