Trump admin orders nearly 50k back to work unpaid, to mitigate shutdown failures - Polidicks

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/rank-and-file-democrats-reject-trumps-invitation-to-shutdown-talks-backing-leaders-in-united-opposition-to-border-wall/2019/01/15/2539482e-18d2-11e9-9ebf-c5fed1b7a081_story.html The Trump administration on Tuesday said it has called back tens of thousands of federal workers to fulfill key government tasks, including disbursing tax refunds, overseeing flight safety and inspecting the nation’s food and drug supply, as it seeks to blunt the impact of the longest government shutdown in U.S. history. The nearly 50,000 furloughed federal employees are being brought back to work without pay — part of a group of about 800,000 federal workers who are not receiving paychecks during the shutdown, which is affecting dozens of federal agencies large and small. A federal judge on Tuesday rejected a bid by unions representing air traffic controllers and other federal workers to force the government to pay them if they are required to work. The efforts by the Trump administration to keep the government operating during the partial shutdown came as the White House and Congress made no progress toward resolving their underlying dispute. ... White House officials were continuing to be caught unprepared for major problems with how the shutdown is unfolding. For example, the initial notification they gave 800,000 federal employees that they would not be paid was set to expire Monday, and all of those employees must be notified again. But agency officials do not know how to notify all the employees, some of whom are working in outposts around the globe. They cannot email these workers — the employees are not allowed to check their work email during a shutdown. The White House Office of Management and Budget held a conference call with a number of agencies Tuesday to discuss how to proceed but could not come up with a solution. One idea was to send a certified letter to all 800,000 employees, but because of the shutdown, the agencies lack the money to pay for the postage. The government has shut down so hard it isn't even able to notify furloughed/unpaid employees that it's still shut down. Who's tired of winning?

One idea was to send a certified letter to all 800,000 employees, but because of the shutdown, the agencies lack the money to pay for the postage. https://media.giphy.com/media/XsUtdIeJ0MWMo/giphy.gif

I know it's been repeated, but he's definitely running the government like a business: into the ground while ordering his employees to work then not paying them.

Wow, this is fucked up.

Ronald Reagan wants to know your location

Radical idea: Maybe the only way to make sure people keep working for you is to pay them and their expenses.

The judge correctly points out that the judiciary has no authority to decide that the US government should spend money to pay these employees Thanks to the way modern shutdowns are used as a political weapon and are becoming more common and running longer, the Antideficiency Act, which has long been interpreted to mean that the federal government cannot spend any money which has not been appropriated and budgeted by Congress, is now conflicting head-on with the Fair Labor Standards Act which says, with certain exclusions, federal employees must be paid at least minimum wage plus applicable overtime for work performed. https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/01/11/how-can-government-force-people-work-without-pay-indefinitely/ Sadly in today's climate I could see the government, against the House's wishes, deciding to gut the FLSA and fucking over employee rights in sweeping ways for the sake of convenience instead of doing anything about disarming shutdowns. Because clearly what America needs to shine and grow in future decades is more of this every year or two: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/trafficandcommuting/for-now-the-skies-remain-safe-officials-say-but-the-shutdown-is-stressing-the-nations-air-safety-system/2019/01/15/d5fcca82-1819-11e9-8813-cb9dec761e73_story.html A food bank has been set up at Tampa International Airport to help workers during the shutdown. About 700 federal employees work at the airport, including about 600 for the TSA and the remainder for the FAA and U.S. Customs and Border Protection. ... The TSA has been forced to temporarily shut down security checkpoints in Miami and Houston because of a sharp increase in people calling in sick. The agency said about 1 of every 15 checkpoint workers failed to report for duty Monday. This time last year, the number was about 1 in every 40 workers. I'm calling it, in two weeks if the shutdown is still going airports will be intermittently halting operations because they're too understaffed. Travel in and out of the US will be disrupted, and all forms of airmail will start missing delivery timelines. The cracks will continue to get bigger and the impacts to the economy will start to become macroscopic.

That's what he's ALWAYS done https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/27/nyregion/trump-tower-illegal-immigrant-workers-union-settlement.html In 1980, under pressure to begin construction on what would become his signature project, Donald J. Trump employed a crew of 200 undocumented Polish workers who worked in 12-hour shifts, without gloves, hard hats or masks, to demolish the Bonwit Teller building on Fifth Avenue, where the 58-story, golden-hued Trump Tower now stands. The workers were paid as little as $4 an hour for their dangerous labor, less than half the union wage, if they got paid at all. Their treatment led to years of litigation over Mr. Trump’s labor practices, and in 1998, despite frequent claims that he never settles lawsuits, Mr. Trump quietly reached an agreement to end a class-action suit over the Bonwit Teller demolition in which he was a defendant.

this sort of thing seems like its fixable legislatively, like the new bill that just passed which guarantees backpay in the event of funding lapses from now on, but like the just pointed out such a law does not exist to provide such a carve out for essential employees.

So let me get this straight. 1) "I'll shut down the government over this wall." 2) "I shut down the government and refuse to re-open it. Everyone go home." 3) "OK only some of you go home, the rest of you keep working without pay." 4) "Those of you who left it'd be fine if you just never came back; that's fine with me." 5) "I'm ordering you to come back because my base needs their tax refunds." Dude's panicking and realizing that he's shoved his dictator policies into his followers' butts in his 'fuck the world frenzy'.

I know this has been said innumerable times, but hes a russian agent. He's actively destroying the US from the inside, or at the very least weakening the fuck out of the government so the russians can make their move when we're at our most vulnerable

https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/132997/57bcf789-fc07-4ed5-a8c1-56534c212577/download.png

So I agree that he is in deep shit with the Russians but I think they are counting on him being stupid and manipulating him more than him doing it on purpose. When it comes to stuff like trying to lift sanctions, that's a direct trade for money that Trump knows is shady, but I think the wall is his mess, and I think he's willing to do it because it's the perfect distraction from the Investigations and he's got more to lose than approval rating.

Hope they dont show up and go to protest instead. I'd be damned if my job wanted me to use gas to go to work for free.

Stop, just fucking stop.

Can't they just quit their jobs?

You can't have a shutdown and then try to demand away all of the fucking consequences of the shutdown End the shutdown if you want workers back, you insufferable cunt.

If there's anything I've learnt this shutdown, it's how little legal protections workers have in America, especially federal workers. The Reagan-PATCO thing blew my mind.

So first he praises furloughed workers leaving the government as a means of reducing to small government then orders them to come back (unpaid) when he realizes that government is what keeps the country running. This is some galaxy brain level thinking.

Wow its almost like the government is more nessessary than small gubment rhetoric talks about

Ayuuuup. I refuse to do anything work related if I'm not getting paid to do it.

This country is honestly fucked if this keeps going. And there are people who support this for "muh wall". I wish nothing more than for something to end this, and I'd really hope it'd be Trump removal from power. The damages he's causing to this country, the lives he is endangering, and the lies he's spun for his own gain show nothing more than someone who has no right holding office and is better of behind bars where he belongs.

Unpaid work, that is effectively slave labor.

They can't order them to spend money, but surely they can rule that they can't force people to work for no pay?

Honestly, if I was forced to work for no pay, especially with employers I don't like. I'd tell them "Fire me, then."

Wildcat strikes when? Like seriously, what're they gonna do? Withhold your wages? This is the time for solidarity amongst federal workers. If this isn't the time for a full on strike then I don't know what is.

The judge would need to be presented with an attack against the law or policy that makes essential workers forced to show up shutdown or not, and rule against it, because what's really the problem here is that the Antideficiency Act says the government can't spend money Congress hasn't allocated for the purpose, and whatever law/policy says essential workers are required to report to work even if the government shuts down and they aren't getting paid (until the shutdown ends with funding allocated and then they'll get backpay). In isolation, each of these has a completely sensible purpose and the potential harm is massively outweighed by the benefits when the government is operating normally. Congress allocates budget in a timely fashion to ensure continuity, and essential services like airport security and prison operations are not interrupted. Each is legally justifiable and generally harmless. But when shutdowns become weaponized and federal employees are hostages in the standoff, because Congress (or the President) roadblocks budgeting -- and let's not forget that the US government has been functioning on Continuing Resolutions instead of proper budgets for far too long -- for political maneuvering, you now have an abusive situation but it's difficult to attack it from the right angle without setting a lot of bad precedent. Like you can't just reverse the entire Antideficiency Act and say that the government can arbitrarily decide when and where to spend money that it deems "necessary" without Congress' say-so. The real solution is to put in very steep consequences for lawmakers (and the President) if they fail to fund the government and trigger shutdowns. But good luck getting Congress to agree to disarm themselves of the threat of torpedoing the budget process.

So he wants everyone working for the government to be unpaid interns. What a GOP dream

To clarify, Trump didn't sign anything. He threatened not to sign something, and congress then refused to send him a bill for him to veto. The shutdown wasn't caused by a single person. The shutdown was caused by Republican congressional leadership AND Trump. Congress could flex their muscle at any point and send Trump a bill and force him to veto it. Congress could work out a bill potentially that could override Trump's veto. Senate Republicans could even oust McConnell for someone that would be willing to bring bills to the floor for votes to alleviate the gridlock there. None of these potential checks are being used.

this whole thing is a libertarian dream about massively reducing the government's size in one fell swoop.