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As Pentagon Takes Secretive Donation for Military Salaries, AFL-CIO Says Pay All Workers Impacted by Shutdown
"While the paychecks have stopped, the bills have not. Rent needs to be paid. Mortgage payments are due. Groceries must be bought."
Oct 24, 2025
As the Pentagon plans to put a $130 million donation from an anonymous "friend" of President Donald Trump toward military salaries, the largest federation of unions in the United States on Friday demanded that federal lawmakers "stop playing political games" and pay all workers affected by the government shutdown.
"As the government shutdown drags into its fourth week, 1.4 million federal workers and at least 1 million federal contractors have missed a paycheck and will soon miss another if Congress fails to act," the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) noted in a statement.
The government shut down at the beginning of October because Republicans—who have majorities in both chambers of Congress—wanted to maintain their funding plans, while Democrats sought to undo the GOP's recent Medicaid cuts and extend expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies so millions of Americans don't lose their healthcare.
Republicans were able to get their funding proposal through the US House of Representatives, but their narrow control of the Senate means they require some Democratic support to pass most bills. The AFL-CIO released a letter that its director of advocacy, Jody Calemine, sent to all senators on Thursday.
"Workers and their families should not be used as pawns."
Calemine called on them to support Sen. Chris Van Hollen's (D-Md.) True Shutdown Fairness Act, which would provide backpay and continued pay to federal workers, contractors, and military personnel during the shutdown, as well as Sen. Gary Peters' (D-Mich.) Military and Federal Employee Protection Act, which would provide an immediate backpay installment.
"These workers—military, civilian, and private sector alike—serve the American people day in and day out in myriad ways," Calemine wrote. "Many federal workers, along with the military, have been required to perform their duties without pay. Other federal workers and contractors want to work but have been furloughed and locked out from their jobs. While the paychecks have stopped, the bills have not. Rent needs to be paid. Mortgage payments are due. Groceries must be bought."
"Sadly, their financial pain is being used as political leverage. The Trump administration has been exacerbating their hardship and anxiety, announcing unlawful, permanent reductions-in-force while blaming a temporary shutdown and threatening to deny federal workers backpay in violation of the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act," Calemine continued. "Workers and their families should not be used as pawns."
The letter was sent before the Senate voted on both bills, which Republicans blocked on Thursday. All Democrats except Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania and Sens. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, both of Georgia, also opposed Sen. Ron Johnson's (R-Wis.) bill that would have paid members of the military and some federal workers who are not furloughed.
Also on Thursday, Trump told reporters at the White House that "a friend of mine" who didn't want public recognition had made a donation toward military salaries, adding, "That's what I call a patriot."
Sean Parnell, the Pentagon's chief spokesperson, confirmed in a Friday statement that the US Department of Defense had accepted the donation "under its general gift acceptance authority."
"The donation was made on the condition that it be used to offset the cost of service members' salaries and benefits," he said. "We are grateful for this donor's assistance after Democrats opted to withhold pay from troops."
According to the Associated Press:
While the $130 million is a hefty sum, it would cover just a fraction of the billions needed for military paychecks. Trump said the donation was to cover any “shortfall.”
What’s unclear, however, is the regulations around such a donation.
“That’s crazy,” said Max Stier, president and CEO of the Partnership for Public Service, a nonpartisan organization focused on the federal government. “It’s treating the payment of our uniformed services as if someone’s picking up your bar tab.”
CNN reported that critics have raised concerns that taking the $130 million may run afoul of the Pentagon's gift acceptance authority and the Antideficiency Act—and "congressional appropriators on both sides of the aisle said Friday that they were seeking more information from the administration about the specifics of the donation, but had yet to receive any explanation."
Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), the ranking member on the chamber's defense appropriations subcommittee, said in a statement that "using anonymous donations to fund our military raises troubling questions of whether our own troops are at risk of literally being bought and paid for by foreign powers."
Sharing CNN's report on social media, the watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington wrote: "This should go without saying, but the American government should be funded by the American people, not anonymous megadonor friends of the president. This is not how things should work in a democracy—this raises all sorts of legal and ethical alarms."
Meanwhile, the House clerk on Friday read a message from Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) designating October 27-November 2 as a district work period. Responding on social media, Congressman Jason Crow (D-Colo.) said: "Republicans just extended their vacation AGAIN. Trump is heading to Asia. All as the government is shutdown. A total failure of leadership."
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'Put Working People First,' Says AFL-CIO Angered by Trump Agenda and Government Shutdown
"The labor movement's message to the administration is clear: Get to work. Fund the government. Fix the healthcare crisis."
Oct 01, 2025
The largest federation of labor unions in the United States called out President Donald Trump's administration on Wednesday after a government shutdown began at midnight following failed votes on competing congressional funding bills.
"The federal government is shutting down right now because President Trump and his administration chose chaos and pain over responsible governing," declared American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) president Liz Shuler in a statement.
"Now," she said, "countless jobs, the essential government services we all rely on, and the economy powered by our workforce are in jeopardy—all because the administration wants to take one more swing at wrecking the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and throwing working people off our healthcare."
Republicans control the White House and both chambers of Congress but need some Democratic support to advance most legislation to a final vote in the Senate. While the GOP wanted to pass a House-approved stopgap bill, Democrats fought to extend expiring ACA subsidies and reverse Medicaid cuts in Trump's so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act, or HR 1.
"It's not Washington politicians who are at risk here—it's working people just like us."
"Hundreds of thousands of federal workers are being locked out and stand to lose the paychecks their families depend on," said Shuler. "Federal contractors, including custodians and cafeteria workers, won't have the assurance of back pay. It's not Washington politicians who are at risk here—it's working people just like us, more than 80% of whom live outside DC, and 30% are veterans."
Federal workers deemed essential continue working during a shutdown, and those deemed nonessential are furloughed; none receive pay until the government reopens. The Trump administration has threatened to use the shutdown to continue the Department of Government Efficiency's (DOGE) effort to gut the federal bureaucracy.
"These are the people who get our Social Security checks out on time, keep our food and water safe, care for our veterans, and protect us at airports and during natural disasters," Shuler noted. "Under the administration's Project 2025/DOGE agenda, federal workers have been fired, rehired, and fired again. They've been stripped of their collective bargaining rights and union contracts."
"Now, President Trump is shutting down the government, using federal workers as pawns and threatening to illegally fire them—all to avoid fixing the mounting healthcare cost crisis that will hurt millions of Americans," she concluded. "The labor movement's message to the administration is clear: Get to work. Fund the government. Fix the healthcare crisis. Put working people first."
Leaders of AFL-CIO affiliates shared similar messages on Wednesday, including American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) national president Everett Kelley, who stressed that "when the government shuts down, American families pay the price."
"Congress must stop playing politics with the livelihoods of federal workers and the communities they serve, end this shutdown immediately, and stop holding workers hostage," he said. "These employees should be able to do their jobs free of political interference. Instead, these employees and the services they provide are being thrown into chaos because Congress refuses to act."
"Making matters worse," Kelley noted, "President Trump and Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought are threatening to illegally fire mass numbers of federal employees during the government shutdown to inflict further pain on communities and workers across the nation—an action we are already challenging in court."
In the lead-up to the shutdown late Tuesday, AFGE and another AFL-CIO affiliate, the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), filed a federal lawsuit in hopes of protecting government workers from mass firings.
Mary Turner, president of National Nurses United, another AFL-CIO affiliate, said Tuesday that "the Trump administration's only desire appears to be to placate and please the billionaire class and to declare war on our country's own people. This was abundantly evident in the passage of HR 1, which gave corporations and the ultrarich huge tax breaks while stealing healthcare coverage from 16 million people."
"When the Republicans passed HR 1, they voted to upend an already fragile system," Turner added. "If Congress doesn't act immediately to reverse these cuts, our patients will suffer from going without care. They will have to ration their prescriptions and face bankruptcy just to see a doctor. Experts predict more than 50,000 people will die unnecessarily each year because of these cuts."
In a letter sent to federal lawmakers before the shutdown, the nurses had urged them to vote for the Democratic measure and "address the looming healthcare crisis that Republican congressional leadership created."
The union also emphasized that "by refusing to govern, Republicans bear full responsibility for the devastating consequences that would ensue if the government is shut down."
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Teamsters Rally in NYC After Amazon's 'Illegal' Firing of 150 Unionized Drivers
"Amazon would be nothing without its workers," said one worker. "We're the ones who power their profits. We're the ones who put our health and safety on the line every single day."
Sep 09, 2025
Teamsters and their supporters rallied outside a New York Amazon facility Monday in protest of what they said was an "illegal" firing of over 150 unionized drivers.
According to the union, the fired workers were employed by the delivery service provider Cornucopia, one of thousands of providers the company contracts with to deliver packages. These workers joined the Teamsters last year as the union went on strike in nine cities across the US.
Amazon claims these workers are not employees, but "contractors," and that firing them does not constitute illegal union busting.
The union, however, described this as "a phony shell game," saying that the contractors "wear Amazon uniforms, follow Amazon rules, and work off Amazon's routing software."
"Amazon calls the shots," read a statement from the union. "They are the employer and everyone knows it."
Last year, a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) official in Los Angeles agreed that the company had engaged in unfair labor practices when it fired other unionized contractors in California, and determined that they did, in fact, count as employees of Amazon.
At the time, this ruling seemed to provide some clarity as Amazon workers fought to have their union recognized by the company, which has refused to recognize them for years.
This remained the case even after 2024, when more than 10,000 Amazon workers joined the Teamsters and the union launched the largest strike ever against the company right before the holidays, during which they demanded the company negotiate a fair contract that included wage increases and addressed workplace safety issues and illegal union busting.
Outside Amazon's DBK4 facility, which joined the strike last year, the Teamsters and their allies renewed calls for negotiation Monday.
"Amazon is breaking the law and we let the public know it," said Antonio Rosario, a Local 804 member and Teamster organizer.
Latrice Shadae Johnson, a Teamster who works at DBK4, added that "Amazon would be nothing without its workers."
"We're the ones who power their profits. We're the ones who put our health and safety on the line every single day. We're the ones who made them a $2 trillion corporation," said Johnson. "If Amazon thinks we're going to take this lying down, they have another thing coming. Our solidarity is only growing stronger."
That solidarity has come from many corners across New York City, with members of the City Central Labor Council, part of the AFL-CIO, taking part in the rally.
The Teamsters were also joined by democratic socialist state Sen. Kristen Gonzalez (D-59), who defeated the industry-backed cousin of former Queens US Rep. Joe Crowley in 2022.
"I've been in office three years, and every single year I've been right here in this spot because every single year Amazon has done union-busting," Gonzalez said to cheers from the crowd, "It's because they think they are above the law."
In 2024, Amazon joined a lawsuit filed by Elon Musk's company SpaceX, arguing that the NLRB, which is responsible for adjudicating labor rights violations, is unconstitutional because its members cannot be fired at will by the US President.
Just one week into his term, President Donald Trump fired NLRB member Gwynne Wilcox, effectively crippling the board's ability to rule on union-busting cases.
According to LaborLab, which publishes reports on corporate union busting, "Without a functioning board, companies like Amazon and Tesla can engage in union-busting tactics with impunity, facing no legal consequences for violating workers' rights."
The progressive state assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, currently the frontrunner to be New York City's next mayor, brought national attention to the Teamsters' plight on Monday.
"One of the most powerful corporations in the history of the world is firing unionized drivers in Queens," Mamdani wrote on X. "Solidarity with the Teamsters who rallied today against these unjust layoffs and to demand good faith negotiations."
Several Democratic members of the House of Representatives from New York, including Jerry Nadler and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, issued their own statements of solidarity, as did Republican Mike Lawler.
"Any company that denies workers the right to choose [collective] bargaining rights, including Amazon, should be confronted," Lawler said. "Unions are the backbone of this country. They helped build this country. And they damn well will ensure we have a strong and secure country moving forward."
Nadler added that he stood "with Amazon Teamsters as they rally in Queens today to hold Amazon accountable for its unlawful anti-union activity."
"Amazon," he said, "stop union busting and start bargaining a fair contract now!"
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