Members of Maine labor and community organizations met Wednesday in Portland to deliver a letter to Republican Sen. Susan Collins calling for an end to the federal government shutdown that is forcing many government employees to go without pay.
Todd Ricker is a labor representative with the Maine State Nurses Association. He says that Collins' response to the shutdown has been disappointing.
“People in Maine are outraged that this lockout has gone on as long as it has, and that our senator, Susan Collins, has done nothing to end this lockout,” Ricker says.
Affected workers include Transportation Security Administration (TSA) workers, who have gone without a paycheck for weeks. Bill Reiley is a TSA agent and the New England vice president of the agents' union, the American Federation of Government Employees. Speaking to an employee at Collins' Portland office Wednesday morning, Reiley choked up when he described the situation in which he and his colleagues find themselves.
“I represent these people. These people want to work, they want to get paid,” Reiley says. “They want Susan Collins to get out and do something, be a voice for us. She's been very quiet.”
Among other demands, the group is asking that those workers who have been missing paychecks are repaid any and all costs, such as bank fees or interest payments, that came as a result of the shutdown.
“Susan Collins has a choice today,” says Ricker. “She can either stand with the workers of Maine, or she can stand with Donald Trump's racist, white supremacist agenda and keep this government shutdown all because of a narrow political agenda which is futile and destructive for the whole country.”
Speaking on the Senate floor Wednesday, Collins seemed to reservedly endorse the Trump plan to end the shutdown as a good starting point, but urged the Administration, and Senate Republicans and Democrats, to find a compromise.
