BY JOSH EIDELSON: GOP shutdown tactics will cause “involuntary servitude,” union says

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.salon.com/2013/09/30/gop_shutdown_tactics_will_cause_involuntary_servitude_union_says/

Top federal workers' union blasts House GOP as immoral hostage-takers, and urges Obama not to lose his nerve

BY JOSH EIDELSON



Eric Cantor, Paul Ryan, Ted Cruz (Credit: AP/Steven Senne/Reuters/Yuri Gripas/AP/J. Scott Applewhite)

Hours before a looming government shutdown, the president of the country’s largest federal employee union accused House Republicans of forcing “involuntary servitude,” urged President Obama not to “bargain with hostage-takers,” and pledged to oppose any deal with further cuts to federal workers’ compensation.

American Federation of Government Employees president J. David Cox told Salon Monday afternoon that it was “immoral” and “unconscionable” for House Republicans to try to “close the government down and punish everybody in this country” because they “don’t want 48 million people to have the opportunity to purchase health insurance.”

“The House of Representatives is choosing to lock out a number of its employees from providing services to the American people,” charged Cox. Noting that perhaps half of AFGE’s membership deemed “essential” staff would continue working without the guarantee of getting paid, Cox said, “I am certainly not an expert in the law, but under the Constitution I do believe involuntary servitude is not allowed.”

Cox described the legal distinction between “essential” and “non-essential” personnel as untenable, given that the efforts of the former often depend on those of the latter. “Most of the people that support the military will be furloughed …” said Cox. “So our troops will start running out of supplies, they will run out of parts.” Cox told Salon, “You can’t run the government if you don’t run the Department of Defense. It’s going to cripple the military.” Cox, a licensed practical nurse, warned that a shutdown could also “have a severe effect” upon disabled veterans already in “a sad state of affairs.”

FULL story at link.