Ex-Labor secretary urges federal employees to stop working, picket

Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich is urging federal employees going without pay during the partial government shutdown to “stop working,” and urged furloughed workers to picket their workplaces.

The Clinton-era Labor secretary tweeted a dig at what he called President Trump’s “callous disregard for all of you.”

“As a former secretary of labor, I urge federal workers who continue to toil without pay to stop working and those who are furloughed to picket their workplaces,” Reich tweeted. “Trump’s callous disregard for all of you and for the public welfare must end. He must reopen the U.S. government.”

As a former secretary of labor, I urge federal workers who continue to toil without pay to stop working and those who are furloughed to picket their workplaces. Trump’s callous disregard for all of you and for the public welfare must end. He must reopen the U.S. government.

— Robert Reich (@RBReich) January 22, 2019

The partial government shutdown has now lasted over a month, and is the longest funding lapse in U.S. history.{mosads}

An estimated 800,000 federal employees are either furloughed or working without pay, many of whom have turned to food pantries or other forms of aid to help with financial struggles as they miss paychecks.

Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents, who are working without pay at airports nationwide, have called out sick in record numbers. Some TSA agents held a protest at Pittsburgh International Airport earlier this month.

Reich has been highly critical of Trump in the past, saying in 2017 that the president was “losing his mind” and that the 25th Amendment should be considered to remove him from office.

The shutdown began last month after lawmakers failed to reach a funding deal that satisfied Trump’s demands for $5 billion in funding for a wall along the southern border.