…unless you’re a federal contract worker.
Even though the government opened its doors and escaped a debt default, many low-wage contract workers are still struggling to pay their own bills. Unlike furloughed federal workers, contract workers won’t see a dime of back-pay to help them pay this month’s rent or buy groceries.
As John Anderson, a line cook at the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian told the Washington Post “I’m renting this room. I can’t afford to pay for it this week. But even now, going back to work, I won’t get paid for another two weeks … I don’t try to let [my son] see how stressed out it’s making me … I don’t want to put all the burden on him, wondering, how are we gonna get our next meal?”
With desperation in his voice, John told Bloomberg “We’re barely making it day to day.”
“This is immoral and wrong to deprive [John and other workers] their wages” Rep. Keith Ellison told Al Jazeera’s America Tonight.
Just days earlier, contract workers and over 70 faith leaders made a pilgrimage through the halls of Congress to seek compassion for locked-out workers devastated by shutdown.
Visiting Rep. Paul Ryan’s office, BillMoyers.com noted that Sr. Simone Campbell of NETWORK declared “We have furloughed workers who are with us. This is not just about numbers, this is about people. We pray that his heart is broken by it so that he will act courageously.”
Later on MSNBC’s Politics Nation with Al Sharpton, Sr. Simone recounted the suffering of the workers she met when she said, “Low wage workers who work as contractors with the federal government, who are on minimum wage and have no other income, they’re worried about how they’re going to eat tonight.”
Maria Velasco is one of those workers. An idled Reagan Building food court worker, she told Telemundo Nacional that she participated in the pilgrimage because Republicans need to know contract workers are “worried sick about paying the rent and feeding their kids” without a paycheck.
Maria and other Reagan workers had previously filed a Labor Department complaint to reclaim over $1 million dollars of stolen wages. The investigation – on hold due to the shutdown – was recently featured on Al Jazeera’s FAULTLINES, in an episode titled “Wage Theft in America.”
The hardships faced by these low-wage contract workers are why the faith community is speaking in unison against government-subsidized poverty.
In an op-ed picked up by the Washington Post, Sister Simone, Naeem Baig (president of the Islamic Circle of North America) and Rabbi David Saperstein (director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism) wrote that “The federal government washes its hands of responsibility for the plight of these workers. It could set the standard for the just and equitable treatment of working people who want to share in God’s vision of abundant life for all.”
Earlier, 24 national faith leaders sent a letter to President urging him to use his executive powers to grant contract workers a living wage. The letter, along with a letter to President Obama signed by 15 senators and a letter signed by 50 House members, was hand-delivered to the White House officials last month.
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