As I considered the effects of Trump’s government shutdown, one thought kept monopolized my thinking – why in the heck are government workers forced to work without pay and without any guarantee that they will eventually be paid for lost wages.  How in the heck can that be considered fair or even legal? Could corporation get away with not paying their workers for any length of time yet force them to keep working if they wanted to keep their jobs in the future?  Of course not!  So why can the idiot in the Oval Office get away with doing that the same thing purely for political purposes?

As I though about ways to combat this stupidity I learned that many Home Land Security agents were calling in sick and using their accrued sick time to avoid having to go into work.  When I first heard about this it sounded like a government worker’s revolt to me and I liked the idea.  I later learned that many of those agents were calling in sick only because their financial situations forced them to do so. For instance some are single parents who can no longer pay for daycare for their children, so they have to stay home with them.  However, the idea of a worker’s revolt still appealed to me as a solution to the shutdown.

So I began thinking about how government workers could effectively revolt against the stupidity of the -politician who is unapologetically using them as pawns in his political games. The idea that came to me is for said the government workers involved to file suit.  I am not familiar with the law but even if there is in legal justification for forcing people to work without pay, how can the underlying law be constitutional? So I came up with the idea that of workers being forced to work without pay suing the government.

Have you ever come up with what you thought was a great idea only to learn that someone else had the idea before you even consider the need?  This situation is a perfect example.  As I did research for this article I found an article on the Forbes website which stated, “The National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) filed a lawsuit alleging the administration is violating the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) by requiring federal employees to work without pay during the partial government shutdown.”

Well, just because I wasn’t the first to come up with the idea, doesn’t mean it isn’t a good one. I hope that all of the government workers who are being forced to work without pay join the suit and ask for an immediate injunction against the Trump administration allowing them to walk off of the job without recriminations.  That would end the shutdown in a heartbeat.

Imagine if every TSAS worker walked off the job at the same time shutting down every airport and sea port in the country.  Trump, with his political investment in the border security issue would soon be pleading with Congress to immediately pass a spending bill, any spending bill that would reopen the government so he could sign it.

Dang, that would be so cool!

Cajun    1/8/2019