THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, September 19, 1995 TAG: 9509190068
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LON WAGNER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 66 lines
While Congress and the Clinton administration stagger toward a budget stalemate that could ``shut down'' the government on Sunday, Richard J. Higgins worries about more day-to-day problems.
Higgins, president of American Federation of Government Employees local 22 in Norfolk, wants to know how the members of the local would pay their electricity, phone and gas bills without a paycheck.
``The federal worker, he's the guy next door,'' Higgins said. ``We pay our bills. If you cut us, we bleed. I think people tend to look at us as a different breed, but we're not.''
Unless a stopgap agreement can be reached, the federal government will run out of money at midnight Saturday. Congress could pass something called a ``continuing resolution,'' which would allow the government to continue spending money before the budget is approved.
Higgins and a handful of other government workers attended a news conference Monday morning in Virginia Beach to hear the latest on the possible work stoppage from John Sturdivant, AFGE national president.
The American Federation of Government Employees represents 700,000 federal workers, making it the largest government employees union. AFGE represents 167,700 workers in Virginia, but was not sure how many members it has in Hampton Roads.
The Virginia Employment Commission counts 45,600 federal workers in Hampton Roads, according to its July report.
Local 22 has 950 members - and a bargaining unit of 4,000. Those members are fire and police officers, clerical workers and Army Corps of Engineers workers employed at Norfolk Naval Shipyard, Fort Story, Oceana Naval Air Station and other bases in Hampton Roads.
The affect of the work stoppage is unclear, because some government employees would be classified as ``essential'' and others as ``non-essential,'' Sturdivant said. Essential workers would report to their jobs, even though they wouldn't likely get a paycheck until the budget conflict is resolved. Non-essential employees would not report to work - nor be paid.
For the record, Sturdivant said he considers all government workers ``essential.'' He thinks the work stoppage could last several weeks, if not longer.
Although Sturdivant said he doesn't want federal employees to be used as ``victims and hostages'' in the budget battle, he doesn't want a resolution at any cost. He favors President Clinton's budget proposal over the proposals of Congressional Republicans.
``The American people may have voted for smaller government last year,'' he said, ``but they didn't vote for no government.''
Meanwhile, Higgins is just trying to find out if there's a list of essential and non-essential employees. He's heard it takes a week to get unemployment checks flowing, and he thought it might speed things up if some workers pre-registered at the Virginia Employment Commission.
``I feel like I'm caught in the middle here,'' Higgins said, ``just trying to look out for the members.'' ILLUSTRATION: John Sturdivant, national president of the AMerican Federation
of Government employees.
by CNB