Not Standing Down: Federal Workers Launch Nationwide Week of Action After Shutdown “Deal” Betrays Working Families 

Federal Unionists across the country are organizing actions, service projects and town halls in response to Congress’s failure to tackle America’s healthcare and hunger crisis.

Washington, D.C. — Federal workers within the Federal Unionists Network (FUN) announced they are organizing a nationwide Week of Service and Action following Congress’s capitulation on extending Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies as part of the deal that ended the shutdown.

As Congress is set to extend the Trump Administration’s campaign of confusion, chaos, and cruelty by weaponizing the healthcare and hunger crisis, federal workers responded to the news of the pending shutdown deal with frustration and resolve.

Federal workers say they will continue to fight against any effort that dismantles the very programs they are sworn to protect. 

“While we appreciate we can get back to work for our communities, we will not celebrate a shutdown deal that sacrifices affordable healthcare and food for millions of families,” said April Goggans, President of NTEU Chapter 250, which covers HHS Administration for Children and Families (ACF) employees in DC, MD, VA, and WV. “We all deserve a functioning, fair budget — one that includes affordable healthcare and food, protects worker rights, and serves every person in this country.”

Federal Unionists Network Announce Week of Service and Action

In response to Congress’s failure to pass a people-first budget and reopen the government we all deserve, federal employees will take up a Week of Service and Action from Nov. 16-22. Across the country, federal workers are planning and organizing service projects and public actions for a government that works for all, including:

• An extension of ACA healthcare subsidies,

• The full release of emergency SNAP benefits,

• An end to executive overreach and attacks against federal workers.

Congress’s deal rightly provides temporary protections against illegal RIFs (mass firings) through Jan. 30 and reverses mass firings that occurred during the shutdown, but federal workers criticized these measures for not going far enough. 

“If Congress truly wants to ‘end the shutdown,’ it must end the cruelty — by making worker protections and healthcare affordability the foundation of any final budget,” said Paul Osadebe, a Steward with AFGE Local 476, a FUN Steering Committee Member and a civil rights attorney who is fighting termination for exposing how the Administration is refusing to enforce the Fair Housing Act. “Public service is not a bargaining chip, and federal workers and working people are not collateral damage. We’ll keep showing up, organizing, and telling the truth: This government belongs to the people — and we will not stop fighting this billionaire agenda so our government can serve everyday people, once again.”

“Since January, the Trump Administration has forced out 300,000 workers, disproportionately targeting Black workers,” Osadebe said. “This deal does nothing to restore the jobs killed during this purge -- let alone fix the harm it has caused to essential services. The deal also does nothing to prevent the ongoing destruction of public services and jobs.”

Since the shutdown began 41 days ago, federal workers have organized lobby visits, town halls, and the “Hold the Line” events to share furloughed and excepted workers’ stories, rally allies, and support the extension of the ACA subsidies. They vow to fight for a government that protects public services and equity, restores federal worker rights, and makes health care more affordable for millions of Americans. From day one, they’ve said Hold the Line, and that continues past the shutdown.

“Federal workers have made sacrifices during this shutdown to defend healthcare and public services for all working families. Meanwhile, Congress got paid the whole time and still sold us out,” said Monica Gorman, a Steward with IFPTE 29, FUN organizer and data scientist at NASA.

Referencing the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019, Gorman added that the deal’s language ensuring backpay should be unnecessary according to a law that Trump himself signed into law in 2019. “The fact that Congress deemed it necessary to restate existing law and state that federal workers must be paid backpay at the end of a shutdown shows that Congress knows this Administration’s lawlessness.”

Like all Americans, federal workers face an affordability crisis that’s been worsened by skyrocketing costs of living and job insecurity. While the shutdown deal has temporarily paused the Trump Administration’s ability to unlawfully fire federal workers, the measure is only temporary — lasting until January 30. The deal also fails to protect the 22–24 million Americans who will face unaffordable healthcare costs starting January 1, 2026 if ACA subsidies expire.

“We saw an opportunity to serve our country in a new way during the shutdown--to sacrifice our pay while asking our members of Congress to hold the line until they secured tax credits and affordable healthcare,” said Mae apGovannon, an AFGE Local 2157 Steward, FUN organizer and who works in the Veterans Benefits Administration. “We saw the shutdown as an opportunity to highlight that we all stand together until we win, or we suffer together. Now, it’s like our continued sacrifice was ignored, and that those of us who aren't billionaires were sold out yet again.”

Over time, healthcare costs speak for themselves: Health spending totaled $74.1 billion in 1970. By 2023, it had soared to $4.9 trillion. Out-of-pocket spending per person rose from $115 in 1970 (or $703 adjusted for inflation) to $1,514 per person in 2023. If Congress allows ACA healthcare tax credits to lapse, those trends will worsen — pushing working and middle class families even closer to the edge.

“This shutdown was a crisis for federal workers and I'm proud of how we met the moment. We were able to stand strong and support our broader community despite and because of the attacks on our jobs and the services we provide,” said Charlotte Slaiman, NTEU 344 member, FUN organizer and attorney with the Federal Trade Commission. “We built a foundation for future action and next time we are in a crisis we will be even stronger as a result.”

“Six weeks of hardship for federal workers as well as hungry families and the traveling public, and all Congress could offer was a promise to talk later,” said Ellen Mei, President of NTEU Chapter 255, who works in the Food Nutrition Service (SNAP), Northeast Region. “That’s not leadership — that’s abdication of responsibility."

Contact: 

Anna Bakalis | anna.bakalis@federalunionists.org

The Federal Unionists Network is a cross-agency and cross-union organizing network of federal workers and allies dedicated to protecting democracy and the public good. FUN connects workers across agencies and regions to defend public service, labor rights, and the communities federal employees serve.