Federal workers rally at Federal Plaza in downtown Chicago over ongoing government shutdown

CHICAGO — Federal workers are speaking out as President Donald Trump threatens mass layoffs due to the ongoing government shutdown, with some federal employees already furloughed.

Federal workers are holding a press conference and rally Wednesday afternoon at Federal Plaza in downtown Chicago to express their concerns over how the government shutdown is impacting working families.

The shutdown reaches its eighth day Wednesday, and there’s no end in sight to it right now, because Democrats and Republicans still can’t agree to pass a bill that will address healthcare.

Thousands of federal employees were furloughed or ordered to work without pay when funding for their agencies expired last week.

“(Wednesday) is the beginning of the partial pay,” Jill Hornick of the Social Security Administration told WGN-TV. “Employees are seeing how little they’re going to receive this payday. They don’t know how they’re going to pay their bills, they don’t know how they’re going to put food on the table, they don’t know how they’re going to put gas in their car to get to work.

“Social Security, as well as many other federal agencies, requires their employees to show up and continue servicing the American public, even though they don’t get paid. It’s really hard to get to the office and service the public when you can’t put gas in the car.”

Trump, who’s blaming Democrats for the shutdown, now says federal workers may not get back pay when they do return to their jobs. The president says he’s open to negotiating with Democrats to extend healthcare subsidies, but only if they vote to reopen the government first.

“Get back to the table, open the government, do whatever you need to do to cut whatever deals you need to do,” Hornick said. “But don’t continue to hurt the American people.”

It appears the Senate won’t vote on any government funding by Wednesday evening, which means the shutdown will likely continue into a ninth day Thursday.