[Vision2020] Anger, helplessness’ for workers living payday to payday

[Tom Hansen]

Courtesy of the Army Times.

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Anger, helplessness’ for workers living payday to payday

Because of the shutdown, Joshua Keller and some of his co-workers at Fort Sill, Okla., are so worried that they have filed for unemploy­ment.

The 29-year-old is one of 30 work­ers at the post public works depart­ment who were stunned to be sent home Oct. 1. He has no idea when he would return, and without his $15-per-hour job, he is scraping by on odd jobs.

“I don’t know how I’m going to pay my bills the next month, or get my mortgage or car payment paid. Ev­erything came to a screeching halt,” said Keller, a married Army veteran with a 2-year-old son.

“It’s a lot of anger, a lot of help­lessness,” he said. “I don’t side with Republicans or Democrats be­cause neither’s getting the job done. And we all have the struggle because of the shutdown.”

Across the Army, federal govern­ment workers like Keller are deal­ing with the frustrating and dispiriting impact of the partial government shutdown.

An estimated 800,000, or about 40 percent of the total federal work-f­orce, have been furloughed. The rest, because their jobs are deemed necessary to protect life or proper­ty or some other critical function, are still coming to work but, with the exception of some Defense De­partment employees, will not see a paycheck until after the shutdown ends.

In the Army, the shutdown means evaluations won’t be proc­essed, and most soldiers and Army civilians traveling or away for training must return to their duty stations. 

Canceled and closed 

Staff Sgt. DesmondCassell, 31, of Fort Story, Va., said he and his pregnant wife waited in a long line for seven hours to replace her ID at Hampton Roads, Va.

All of the dining facilities on the post were closed, which complicat­ed theirwait after they had driven 45minutes to the facility, andtheir medical appointments were can­celed.

One place the shutdown is caus­ing anxiety and headaches is Dug­way Proving Ground, Utah, an isolated desert post where contrac­tors like Cindi Hawkins must drive an hour for groceries because the shutdown closed the post commis­sary.

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Sleep well tonight, V-Peeps.  Congress will.

Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .

"Moscow Cares" (the most fun you can have with your pants on)
http://www.MoscowCares.com
  
Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"There's room at the top they are telling you still 
But first you must learn how to smile as you kill 
If you want to be like the folks on the hill."

- John Lennon
  
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