"I'm calling on everybody to stand with the federal employees in this country and end this shutdown," said Brent Barron, president, of the National Council of Field Labor Locals.
With the government shutdown rolling into a second week, the Trump administration is warning of no guaranteed backpay for federal workers for furloughed employees according to a memo circulated by the White House. After the last government shutdown, Trump himself signed a law guaranteeing retroactive back pay once funding is restored.
"I think what the White House is clearly signaling is they're not going to follow the law, and that concerns all of us," Barron said.
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Workers and union leaders from the EPA, IRS, Social Security Administration and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers among others showing up to make their voices heard alongside, local, state and federal officeholders. Illinois Governor JB Pritzker joined the news conference in progress.
"Donald Trump has not only closed the government, but also is threatening to take away your paychecks," Pritzker said.
When pressed on the issue of backpay this week, President Trump said he follows the law.
"For the most part we're going to take care of our people," Trump said. "There are some people that really don't deserve to be taken care of, and we'll take care of them in a different way. "
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Meanwhile, some federal workers are already faced with difficult decisions , including IRS employee Lorie McCann, who says she received her furlough letter just before coming to the rally.
"What am I going to pay? What can be held off?" McCann said. "What can you pay the minimum on when I would normally, let's say, for a credit card, I'll normally pay it off every month. I just pay the minimum."
Jill Hornick's union, the American Federation of Government Employees Local 1395, represents Social Security workers in Illinois. She says the stress level in federal offices among employees is incredibly high.
"When they're trying to serve the American public and they're mentally not healthy, mistakes happen," Hornick said. "So the ripple effects of what a shutdown does are incredible."
The stalemate continues. Both Democratic and Republican proposals to fund the government failed to advance in the Senate Wednesday.