WMass federal workers turn to gigs and loans as government misses payday due to shutdown

SPRINGFIELD – The federal shutdown means employees at the Social Security offices in Springfield and Holyoke did not receive pay on Friday, even as they continue to go into work.
As fridges empty and bills become due, federal employees are turning to gig work, loans from their retirement accounts and public assistance to hold out until the shutdown ends and they get paid.
“Everybody is in the same boat, but some people are going to feel it more than others,” said Rafael Castillo, a shop steward with the American Federation of Government Employees, the union representing workers at both offices.
He was traveling between the Holyoke and Springfield offices Friday, checking in on workers. He said single mothers and couples who are both employed by the federal government feel the shutdown most acutely.
For instance, the Trump administration mandated in-person work for federal employees, which means workers must have gas money to travel to their offices, he said.
“One paycheck (missed), people might survive and get through,” Castillo said. “If this gets to two paychecks. I don’t know. I don’t know how things are gonna go, you know?”
On Thursday, the Senate failed to pass a Democrat-backed measure that would authorize pay for federal employees, furloughed and not. The Republican measure, which would have green-lit pay for federal employees working through the shutdown only, suffered a similar fate.
AFGE Local 1164, which represents almost 550 Social Security Administration employees across New England, has told its members to file for food stamps and talk to their banks about zero-interest loans and postponing their mortgages as they work without pay.
During the last shutdown, for instance, Navy Federal Credit Union issued 32,000 loans to its customers, who include active members of the military, veterans and Department of Defense employees to help cover expenses during the shutdown. The loans went out to 19,000 people and totaled $53 million.
During this shutdown, there has been a significant increase in interest in its government shutdown loan program, according to a spokesperson for the credit union.
William Hinkle, a spokesperson for Eversource, said the utility has received about 100 calls from federal employees. A “higher volume of those calls” have come within the last few days, Hinkle wrote in an email in response to questions from The Republican.
“We’ve enrolled most in a payment arrangement to help protect their account from a disconnection during the shutdown,” Hinkle said.
This shutdown comes at a time when the Trump administration has sought to reduce the federal workforce, in part by incentivizing employees to resign or retire early. This has led to an increased workload and a brain drain of seasoned workers, according to Castillo.
“Many of them felt that they didn’t want to go through this,” Castillo said. “They felt that it was gonna be tough times.”
Workers at the local Social Security offices were last paid Oct. 10, but that was a partial check. Union members were already feeling the pinch with the partial pay, said Camillie Piñeiro, president of AFGE Local 1164.
Piñeiro said some federal workers, veterans of the shutdown that started in 2018 and stretched for 35 days, filed paperwork so they could work a second job, and they’ve picked up gigs delivering food for, say, Instacart or clocking in at temp agencies.
But this shutdown has affected Social Security workers deeply, Piñeiro said, leaving them discouraged and depressed.
“It’s like someone died,” Piñeiro said. “And what died is their faith in the agency, in government. They should not go through this.”
She has urged union members to reach out to lawmakers in order to share their stories. She herself urged lawmakers to arrive at a resolution to the shutdown.
“The success of any administration relies on public employees, relies on all of us to show up and to do well,” Piñeiro said. “Part of the contract of doing well is getting paid for our work.”
A federal employee’s experience during the shutdown varies depending on where they work.
The American Postal Workers Union said at the beginning of the shutdown that because the U.S. Postal Service is an independent agency that is largely self-funded, its employees would work as usual.
Meanwhile, about 500 civilian employees work at the Westover Air Reserve Base in Chicopee. A minimal number of civilians who are “essential to national security and safety” are continuing to work without pay, said Master Sgt. Seth Logsdon, a spokesperson for the 439th Airlift Wing, which is stationed at the base. He declined to share numbers on how many civilians are working and how many are furloughed.
Members of the military, those on active duty and those on active guard reserve received pay Oct. 15 for services they performed during the first half of the month, Logsdon wrote in an email.
Logsdon said several local nonprofits contacted the base saying they were available to assist members of the base during the shutdown. Members of the base received a list of those nonprofits, he said.