WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — About one million federal workers will be deprived of employment if the US government shuts down at the end of September, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) National President J. David Cox told reporters.
"Somewhere between 850,000 and 1 million would certainly be sent home off the job and told not to work," Cox said on Thursday.
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest had announced earlier that the Obama administration was in the planning stages preparing for a possible US government shutdown, and has reached out to federal agencies to make sure they know what to do.
Cox noted that in 2013, about 850,000 federal workers did not work during the US government shutdown at a significant costs to taxpayers.
"The 2013 shutdown costed the taxpayers $24 billion," Cox said. "And what did we get in return? 850,000 federal employees lost 6.6 million work days during the 2014 shutdown costing taxpayers two and a half billion in lost productivity."
"You shut down the government, you shut down employees who are employees of contractors," Cox said. "It’s about two million who work for the federal government. There’s a shadow work force of 10 to 15 million who get affected in this process."
Cox also said AFGE has yet to receive any plans from the different US federal agencies on what they would do if they were shut down.
"I would anticipate we have gone through several of these now, it would be in a similar fashion of sending people home," Cox said. He said he has spoken with different US congressman including US House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who have guaranteed their support out in the streets protesting if a shutdown were to occur.
On Thursday, another US federal workers union The National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) National President Tony Reardon told Sputnik that the shutdown of the US government would not only compromise US national security but it would also harm the US economy and take away daily services many US citizens rely on from the US federal government.
