” We Are People Getting Hurt by This”: Furloughed Federal Employees Rally for Resolution in Congress

WARNER ROBINS, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – The partial government shutdown is causing furloughed federal employees to take a stand and say they want a resolution.

Employees rallied Thursday with one message in front of U.S. Representative Austin Scott’s Warner Robins headquarters.

Ray Wessels held sign up, hoping to see a change. He’s a mechanic at Robins Air Force Base, who says he’s had to save every dime he has to make ends meet.

“Well it’s constant uncertainty of knowing whether or not I’m going to get a paycheck or not. We keep getting different instructions from the agency on base whether we’re going to get a paycheck or not,” Wessels said.

It’s a question many simply don’t have the answer to.

Will furloughed employees be able to put gas in their cars…or food on the table?

“It’s hard to plan for your budget when you don’t know what you’re going to pay in the next six months,” Wessels said. “In fact, I have coworkers in my shop where one spouse got a full paycheck last paycheck and one of them didn’t doing the exact same job.”

Tom Scott is the president of the Local 987 branch of the American Federation for Government Employees.

“You can’t actually plan for this all of the sudden, they’re actually told to go to work and work in, but their check doesn’t reflect the services they provide,” Scott said.

Scott says a few employees actually have IOUs, and they’re missing out on three to four days of money.

And for Wessels, he tired of being used.

“We’re not tools, we’re not pawns, and we’re not a part of the game. We are people getting hurt by this,” Wessels said. “Nothing is going to make everybody happy, but the need for us is to find something that everybody can tolerate just like we do on base. We don’t always get a win, sometimes we have to settle on the best for everybody.”

Furloughed workers actually held another rally in front of Congressman Scott’s office later in the afternoon, hoping to get more support after workers clocked out.

The AFGE chose Scott’s office, because they say he’s “middle Georgia’s direct line to Washington D.C.”