sort of known unions. >> stop the shutdown! [ crowd chanting "stop the shutdown" ] [ crowd chanting "stop the shut down now" ] >> all right! hey, hey! ho, ho! shutdown has got to go! hey, hey! ho, ho! shutdown has got to go! [ crowd chanting "hey, hey, ho, ho shutdown has got to go" ] [ crowd chanting" hey, hey, ho, ho shutdown has got to go" ] [ crowd chanting "hey, hey, ho, ho shutdown has got to go" ] >> we've got one more. are we ready? we want to work! we want to work! we want to work! we want to work! we want to work! [ crowd chanting "we want to work" ] [ crowd chanting "we want to work" ] [ crowd chanting "we want to work" ] >> we've got another one. we want our pay! we want our pay! we want our pay! we want our pay! we want our pay! [ crowd chanting "we want our pay" ] [ crowd chanting "we want our pay" ] [ crowd chanting "we want our pay now" ] >> brothers and sisters, please welcome aflcio president rich trumpka. [ cheers and applause ] >> good afternoon, brothers and sisters. i'm rich trumka president of the aflcio. brothers and sisters, the government of the united states has been shut down for almost 20 days. 20 days. and if it continues to saturday it will become the largest, longest shutdown in our history. and that's not a record that anyone should be proud of. and let's call this shutdown what it is. it's a lockout. hardworking american patriots are being locked out of their job for no reason than the politics of fear. shame on the senate! shame on the white house! this lockout has to end, and it has to end now! >> the house passed a bill. it was the senate's own bill. it would open the government and now it's time for mitch mcconnell and the senate to do the same. it's not a heavy lift. it's going to be instead of going to the border for a photo-op, president trump should be on the hill negotiating a deal to open the federal government and put our people back to work! >> now this is supposed to be payday for 800,000 federal employees and contractors in every single state, but because of this ridiculous divide and distract political games, these workers will not be paid for their service. let me ask you something. let me ask you something. is working without pay okay with any of us? let me hear that again. is working without pay okay? >> no! >> see? these are men and women who took an oath to serve the public. they keep us safe. they take care of the sick and the elderly. they help our veterans and by the way, in this case, 250,000 of those locked out are veterans right now. those workers don't do it for the big bucks or notoriety. they serve because they care. they serve because they love america. they deserve to be paid every single day and we will make sure that that happens! [ cheers and applause ] >> she's are hardworking americans. they're worried about how they'll put a roof over their heads, put food on the table. they're worried about how they're going to be able to survive. you're going to hear from a number of them today. folks who are suffering through no fault of their own and quite frankly, for absolutely no good reason. this lockout is yet another manufactured crisis cooked up by politicians looking to score political points and american workers are fed up. we are tired of being pawns! we are tired of always being the ones who get hurt and we are not going to take it and we are going to remember. we're going to remember. [ cheers and applause ] so just hear me loud and clear! stop playing politics with our lives! end this lockout, open the government, do your job so we can do our job! [ cheers and applause ] and until that happens, we won't sit down, we won't be silent, we'll never stop standing up and fighting and marching for every single worker because we serve america. we build the roads, we bake the bread, we lift the loads, we wake this country up every single day and we put it to bed every night and we make a run. the people that are locked out make this country run every day and they deserve better. we're in the american labor movement and we will not -- we will not be denied! god bless you! >> brothers and sisters, please welcome house majority leader steny hoyer! [ cheers and applause ] >> ladies and gentlemen, we're out in the cold. we are out in the cold voluntarily because we care about running government for the people. but the president is putting people out in the cold without asking them by your leave and nancy pelosi said the other day to the president when he sat in the white house, most of those people almost unanimously don't have a daddy to say call up and give me a million. >> let me tell you the first day we were in the congress of the united states sworn in. we passed a bill to open up government the first day we were in office. >> let me tell you what we're doing this week, the second week, we're passing bills to open up the government to serve the american people. yes, we'll lament the pain being inflicted on the 800,000 people who worked for the federal government and the 440,000 people who are being asked to work with no pay. back in the 1860s they talked about working with no pay. shutting down the government is not a policy that should be followed. what if i ran for president of the united states and said vote for me, i'm going to shut down your government? there are some 38 million people in america. we are talking about 800,000 and we need to take care of our employees, david we also need to take care of 38 million of our fellow citizens who are worried about getting a check to put food on their table. this is not just about federal employees and this is about hundreds of millions of americans who rely on government for security and safety. veterans who rely on the government to send them a check. ladies and gentlemen, we need to keep yelling and screaming and hollering until this president opens up that government of the people, by the people and for the people! [ cheers and applause ] >> ronald reagan went to berlin, and he said to gorbachev tear down that wall. let us all be saying, mr. president, open our government! >> we need raise our voices. we need to walk the walk. we need to talk the talk and we need to make sure that 800,000 people can put bread on their table tomorrow. so i want to thank my friends in organized labor. through history, many have died. many have been injured. many went without. many walked the line so that workers would get fairness. that's all we are asking, mr. president, fairness for our federal employees and fairness for the american people. open up their government. god bless you. god speed. thank you very much. [ applause ] >> ladies and gentlemen, before we have our next speaker, for the sake of security some of you have gone down to i street. it's very important that we keep everyone safe. so please move on to 16th street. those of you on 16th street, let our brothers and sisters have some room so we can stay safe. so, please, stay off of i street. with that, i'd like to introduce and please welcome senator mark warner from virginia! >> we have gone through two years of this trump administration. every day through this administration you think it cannot get worse, and then it gets worse. first of all, i want to thank all of you, every federal employee who has gone to work or been furloughed and have done their job even though this white house has not done their job. i want to echo what steny said. it is time to open up our government. [ applause ] earlier today, under the leadership of ben carlin and chris holland all of the democrats came to the senate floor and said pass the house bill. open our government. you want to fight about border security, we'll have that discussion, but do not hold 800,000 people's lives as political pawns. mitch mcconnell said he can't do that. mitch mcconnell said he can't do anything that the president won't sign. well, i would point out -- i would point out that the constitution of the united states of america says the congress is an independent branch of government. [ cheers and applause ] >> the constitution of the united states in article 1, section 7, clause 2 says the congress can override the president with two-thirds vote. and the funny thing is in the middle of december the republicans, not the democrats, the republicans brought a bill that would keep the government open and it passed 96-2. let us vote on that legislation and override this president. friday, it is something that we haven't done in a long time in this country where workers, contractors and you think about businesses that live and work near our park, but particularly the 800,000 federal employees aren't going to get your paycheck. that is morally wrong. that is economically wrong and we must not let that happen! so let your voices be heard. what my hope would be rather than this president getting on tv or rather this president taking what he even called a photo-op trip to the border, let donald trump come out and explain to you, the workers of america, why he's keeping this government shut. we will succeed. keep the faith. god bless! let's keep our government open. thank you. >> brothers and sisters, please welcome senator chris van holland of maryland! >> it is great to see all of you rich trumka, aflcio and everybody gathered here to say very simply, donald trump, mitch mcconnell, senate republicans, cut it out. open the government and end this unnecessary and shameful government shutdown and do it now! now we have a president of the united states who said he would be proud to shutdown the government. there are now millions of americans and more every day who are being hurt by the lack of important government services. i -- we have a president who says he's proud of that. we have 800,000 hardworking federal employees who aren't getting a paycheck. i want the president to come over and listen to a mom from maryland who yesterday started a go-fund me, crowd funding campaign to help pay the tuition of her son at college because she's a federal employee and tomorrow she's not going to get a paycheck, and she pays for her son's college on a monthly installment basis. she's not going to be able to make that payment. she had to go on the internet to try and fund that monthly installment payment on go fund me and the president says he's proud of his government shutdown. the president said he can relate. he says, i know people can -- i know people can just make do. in fact, i don't know if you saw what the coast guard said to their employees and other agency, they said hey, when you're not getting a paycheck here's how you can supplement your income to get by. it says have a garage sale. it says clean out your attic, basement and closets at the same time, oh, let's just have a great time during the government shutdown. give me a break, president trump! you know what? between flying from mar-a-lago to trump tower and the white house this president cannot relate to any of these hardworking federal employees. upon now i'm going to end by emphasizing a point that senator warner made. this is a shutdown started by donald trump, but every day that it goes on, mitch mcconnell and the senate republicans are accomplices in this government shutdown, and the reason is they have the power today to vote to open the government. the house one week ago, their first order of business, they said we're not going to mess around with anything else until we open the government. they sent two bills to the united states senate. both bills that had bipartisan support from the united states senate in the past and that's why just about an hour ago my great partner and colleague from maryland senator and i went with senator kaine and all of the others gathered here and we said to mitch mcconnell, let's get consent because the senate can give consent any time it wants, let's get consent right away on those two bills to re-open the government. he said, you know, we just can't do that because the president says he doesn't want to do that. last time i checked the united states senate was a separate branch of government and nobody should be contracting out their constitutional responsibilities or their votes to the president of the united states. nobody should be doing that. and anybody who just sits on their hands is an accomplice and complicit in the shutdown. let's end it. we can end it today. keep your voices loud. keep marching because we than in the end, justice will prevail here. thank you for being part of this great cause. end the shutdown now. [ cheers and applause ] >> brothers and sisters, please welcome senator ben cardon of maryland. >> brothers and sisters, i am proud to be here to stand with you and my other colleagues in unity to tell president trump stop holding america hostage to your politics. this has nothing to do about government from the point of view of security. it has everything to do with president trump and the way he does business. senator warner's right. it's been a long two years. every day we hear more and more things. this shutdown is outrageous, it's dangerous and it has to end now. now! >> it's well beyond just the 800,000 that are being asked to work without pay or furlough without pay. we have the best federal workforce, the best government workers in the world that work on behalf of the american people. i am proud to represent them in the united states senate. they do their work the best in the world! and they should be paid! and government should be open! there's no excuse for it. what makes this totally outrageous is that on six of the appropriation bills they're not even involved in the president's world debate and yet the president's holding them hostage. they pay us by over 90 votes in the united states senate. as it's been pointed out, we are a co-equal branch of government. we not only have the votes to pass it, we can override the president's veto. let's do it now! do it now! do it now! there is no reason for government to be shut down! none whatsoever. it's more than just the 800,000. it's the people of america who are being denied the services they need. it's our economy that's suffering as a result of president trump's policies! people are being hurt and it's got to end and it's got to end now. so our message is simple. if we can't convince the president then mitch mcconnell, give us a vote on the floor of the united states senate for the bipartisan legislation to pass the house of representatives. we want government open now! we are united! we are together on behalf of the american people! god bless! [ cheers and applause ] >> brothers and sisters, please join me in recognizing the following members of congress who have joined us today. congresswoman joanna hayes, connecticut, 5th district. senator amy klobacher of arizona, representative tom swayze, new york, 3rd district. representative katie hill for california, 25th district. congressman don bier, virginia 8th and now we're going to please welcome american federation of government employees president j. david cox! good afternoon, brothers and sisters. so here we are brothers and sisters, out in the cold on a windy day to tail mitch mcconnell to stop hiding from reality and allow a vote to re-open the government, brothers and sisters. we all know there is a simple answer to this stupid mess that donald trump and mitch mcconnell have made. we know that the senate voted unanimously for the republican spending bills just three weeks ago. you've heard our senators tell us over and over, and nothing has changed then except -- except what the right-wing tv people say on tv and our president and mr. mcconnell are scared to death of them! brothers and sister, they were elected to do a job and by damn, they need to do it! i'd like to make sure that everyone knows that this effort and extortion is more of a lockout than a shutdown. we are either locked out without pay. you know, maybe it's even more than an accurate description that i would say. it's a shakedown, brothers and sisters. it's a shakedown. it couldn't be more of a shakedown if they were wearing a mask and a gun, i can tell you that. and what's being held hostage? our tax dollars are being held hostage. the government programs we've all paid for are being held hostage, our members' jobs and paychecks are being held hostage. senators, senators, republican senators do your damn job! let there be a vote in the senate! hey, don't be scared of the president of the united states! you were elected in your state! do your job! you know, brothers and sister, we're not scared. we're out here. are you scared? hell no we're not scared! do your job! do your job! brothers and sisters -- brothers and sisters, they can threaten, they can lie, they can steal, they can bring the united states government to its knees, but we're going to be fighting. we're going to be marching. we're going to be standing up and we are going to make sure and hold mitch mcconnell accountable. mitch, do your job! mitch, do your job! mitch, do your job! brothers and sisters, i'd like to call forward a person that knows first hand what it is right now. he represents over 30,000 correctional officers throughout the federal prison system. they're forced to go to work in some of the most dangerous jobs in this country. they're working without pay. eric young, president of our council of prison locals. eric, come on down. >> good afternoon, brothers and sisters. our law enforcement officers all around the country today are showing up in our nation's 122 facilities. we work for some of society's worst of the worst, enemies foreign and domestic inside of our prisons. there are murderersen side of those prisoners similar to the one that murdered a two-tour war veteran jose rivera in the united states penitentiary in atwater, california. like the murderer who murdered eric williams at the height of his life and in pennsylvania, and also the narc owe drug dealers that plague our prisons, that murdered our beloved osvaldo aburrate as he went home to his wife and two children. our prisons are inherently dangerous, yet today we don't have enough correction officers to basically secure our prisons from the terrorists and other security and disruptive threat groups inside those facilities, particularly the notorious ms-13 gangs the president often mentions. today our prisons are operating despite these extraordinary conditions using secretaries, teachers and cooks to fill in behind missing correction officers. this administration has levied policies to underfund and freeze our hiring inside our prisons. yet today we have more than 30,000 heroes still trying to go and keep this country safe. in closing, i want to remind mitch mcconnell what he stated less than a year ago. you said, senator, we will see which senators make the patriotic decision to stand up for the american people and who vote to continue to fund our government. you said, senator, the american people will see which senator votes to shove aside veterans and military families and vulnerable children holding an entire country hostage. you said, senator, it is completely unfair and uncompassionate to filibuster government funding and harming our troops to crowd out every other priority. i repeat those words to you, senator, do you have any decency? do you have any decency? our pay is our priority! funding the internal security of this nation is our priority! the mechanisms that keep the congress in this american government working, to know that we have our united states military, our coast guard not getting a paycheck is a sad and undecent act. sir, we are the people who protect the people in america and america is watching you and this congress. do not be hypocrites holding federal employees' pay for hostage and ransom. i remind every politician on the hill today, your allegiance is to the american people not to an administration that is constantly attacked the working man. get this government up! get it up right now! end this lockout right now! end this lockout right now! end this lockout right now! end this lockout right now! >> ladies and gentlemen, i'd like to welcome national federation of federal employees, president randy irwin! >> good afternoon, brothers and sisters. i want to thank the union members across the country, everybody here and everybody watching this around the world. thank you. you make our fight possible. without you we wouldn't be in this fight. thank you. i want to thank everybody who came out on this cold day to deliver a message to the president and to capitol hill. we need to stop this shutdown right now! because let me tell you, this shutdown isn't funny anymore. it was never funny in the first place and right now it is ruining people's lives. 800,000 people, just federal employees and tons of contractors as well and everybody across the country is impacted, but they have had the carpet ripped out from under them. they've had their income shut off indefinitely until this congress passes a budget. these are middle-class families. they cannot sustain for a day, a week, a month or any period of time having their income shut off. how out of touch is this president? does he not understand the struggle of middle-class people in this country? so the president was interviewed the other day and he said, don't worry. they'll make adjustments. what kind of adjustments did he think -- was he talking about? is he saying that people aren't going to fill prescriptions that they can't afford to fill anymore? are they going to miss paying their bills and ruin their credit? are they going to just turn off the heat in the middle of winter and tough it out? how out of touch are you? we need to stop this shutdown right now! >> in that same interview he says, can you relate to the predicament of the people whose lives you're ruining. he says, yeah, i can relate. do you think he can relate? no! can he relate to our predicament? >> no! >> don't tell us that you can relate. those words don't mean anything. show us you can relate by shutting down -- opening this government right now! okay. okay. all right. i'm going to introduce a person that i'm very proud is here. her name is jamie rodney. she's right here. thank you. she's a nevi member and came from california, she's with the department of housing and urban development, does great work. she's also a wife and a mother and it's her turn to tell her story. >> thank you, randy. hello. i'm a little petite here. good afternoon, fellow americans! i am a federal investigator for hud. i enforce your civil rights and fair housing for a living so what does that mean? regardless of your race, national origin, color, familial status, sex, religion and disability, you have the right to choose wherever you want to live in america and if anybody gives you any trouble with that, you contact me and my team at hud and we protect you with our federal laws. and i am here today to ask president trump, senator mitch mcconnell and all senate republicans to stop this shutdown now. stop holding 800,000 federal employees and their families hostage. end this shutdown now. >> we are middle-class americans and cannot afford to, as president trump said, wait for as long as it takes for our next paychecks. we have mortgage and rent to pay. we have student loans to pay. we have day care costs to pay. we have car bills to pay. we have all of our bills to pay and we need our paychecks now! get federal employees back to work so that we can go back to work for you and all american citizens. there is the important work at hud and all of the federal agencies that is not being done now because of this shutdown. because of this shutdown millions of americans are at risk at being evicted and homeless because hud rental assistance payments are not going to go through if the government is shutdown, and you know who that affects? that affects our senior, our disabled, our veterans, our children, our families who need our government to help them survive. so i am here to speak on behalf of my family, the families of all 800,000 federal employees who are being shut out and left without pay as well as the millions of americans who rely upon us federal government employees to help them and the federal government to help them survive in america. please, end this shutdown now! >> please welcome international association of machinists, general vice president brian bryant. >> good afternoon, brothers and sisters. is there labor in the house? >> are the finest machinists in the house? like many of you, i listened to the president try to make his case for this ridiculous shutdown. not once did he mention the impact on federal workers, federal contractors, their communities and their families. not once did he mention one-third of federal employees of veterans and not once did he mention the damage being done to the american people in our economy! well, mr. president, i want you to listen closely. my brother steve ching is a dedicated, hardworking federal contractor at nasa. he is one of thousands of machinist union members out of work due to this shutdown. steve is an industrial high-voltage technician who is tasked with the important job of monitoring the power grid at kennedy space center. this mission of nasa and the safety of the people who make this agency run are literally at risk every day he's not on the job and while china just became the first country to land on the far side of the moon, steve is here to bring an end to this needless shutdown. mr. president, senator mcconnell, end this shutdown now! brothers and sisters, my brother, steve chang! >> good afternoon, brothers and sisters. good afternoon, america. my name is steve ching. i have 15 years supporting america's space program at the kennedy space center, and i am a proud fighting machinist member. this shutdown affects thousands of federal workers, subcontractor, vendors and businesses throughout our community. this is true trickledown economics. by that i mean no paychecks means no gas for our cars, no money for our prescriptions, no money for groceries, no money for utilities and no money for our mortgages or rent. these are all affected businesses in our community that will see a downturn in their ability to make money. hardworking americans like myself are being used as pawns in this great political divide. congress and the president must put aside political differences, re-open the government and work together to solve america's problems just like they always have in this great country. i personally know of a co-worker who has a child with special needs. this medical care for these children do not stop. their parents are scrambling to make sure their needs are met. we are all wondering how long will our families be able to hold out? what about medical insurance? we love our jobs, but hate this uncertainty. federal workers and their families do not deserve this. many have questioned if they should move on to another job. if these workers go on to other jobs the impact to our space program will suffer. these are highly trained, skilled professionals with security clearances and certifications that will be hard to replace. the entire middle class should be upset that we aren't working. working america wants to go back to work. thank you, brothers and sisters, let's stop this shutdown now! [ cheers and applause ] >> please welcome senator macy hirono from hawaii. [ cheers and applause ] >> aloha, everybody! okay. how many of you think that the president is on our side? hell no! so we know -- we know that he has federal workers and unions as big, fat targets because federal workers, he's tried to freeze your pay. he's made it hard for unions to organize and stay organized and now he's shutting you all out from your jobs so that he can get his vanity wall. there are two people who can end the shutdown right now. one is the president, but you know what? he is an amoral hostage-taker. he makes no difference between right and wrong and thee doesn't give a rat, and he's a hostage-taker because he has taken 800,000 federal employees and thousands and thousands of contractors hostage, and we don't negotiate with amoral hostage-takers. that doesn't get us anywhere. second person who could end this shutdown right now is mitch mcconnell. mitch mcconnell has no problems using his power to force 1.5 trillion in tax cuts for the richest people in our country not helping the middle class. he had no problem using his power to force us to within one vote of eliminating affordable care act for millions of people and yet -- and yet he will not use his power to end this shutdown to help 800,000 of you to get paychecks. you know, most of us live in a world where we need our paycheck, hello, president trump? as nancy says, we don't all have daddies to give us millions to tie us over so mitch mcconnell. you know what his lame excuse was for why he's not bringing the house-passed bill and we senate passed last year to keep government running. you know what his lame excuse was this morning? oh, the president won't sign it. it won't do any good. last time i looked, the president is not the majority leader of the senate who has the power to bring these bills to the floor! so the pressure should be on mitch mcconnell, the man missing in action. the man missing in action to come out of hiding and do his job so that we can all do our jobs. mahalo. we're all in this together. this is not going the last of the fight as we all know. hang in there. we'll be with you. aloha! >> brothers and sisters, welcome from the international federation of professional and technical engineers, president paul sharon. >> thank you. thank you, everybody. thank you for coming out. you know what? >> it may be a little cold out here, but it's not nearly as cold as the man down there at the white house and that's not nearly as cold as mitch "the trump puppet" mcconnell. we need to get back to work. today thousands of highly skilled, highly skilled federal workers are locked out of our union at ifpt. they're locked out at nasa. they're locked out at noaa and locked out at epa and of all things, hundreds of immigration judges that we represent are locked out today. make no mistake, this is political. this has nothing to do with security. this is nothing more than a political tug-of-war and the lives of our members and our great federal employees are held in the balance along with their families. you know, we've had enough. we've had enough of this president's failed art of the deal. he needs to learn the art of responsible management. let's put 800,000 locked-out federal workers back to work! back to work! back to work! back to work! now! [ crowd chanting "back to work now" ] >> i'd like to introduce one of our members who is here today. barry epistein is here. barry is a president of one of the ifpt locals and he's from nasa headquarters. barry is a nasa engineer, and what barry does is some of that really complicated stuff so barry works at nasa's human exploration efforts so this is, i'm sure, keeping people alive, far more important, i think, than some of the stuff that the president happens to be doing today. barry? >> thank you. thank you very much. thank you. >> i am a proud nasa engineer working to advance human exploration and space to the moon and mars. but let me correct that, i am a proud nasa engineer furloughed from working at nasa headquarters. i speak as a private citizen and as the president of nasa headquarters professional association ifpt local 9, this administration and those who support the shutdown are hurting our democratic institutions and the critical services we provide to citizens and the nation. for example, this shutdown could wind up impacting crew from th international space station. projects that we work on that impact the crew's health and well-being and their ability to conduct their missions are sitting idle at nasa centers around the country. it may take months, or years, to get the countless new technologies and scientific research efforts that support all of nasa's missions back on track while adding wasteful unplanned costs to that recovery. you've heard countless stories of individual federal employees that are suffering under this furlough. and that includes nasa scientists, engineers, analysts, and administrative officials that are discovery. and we also need to remember the contractors, even those in the cafeteria and shops around the nasa offices that will never recover their lost wages. but the greatest damage these shutdown enablers are causing is to america's belief in our nation's ability to do great things. we want to get back to work, back to our mission of exploration and discovery, for us and for future generations. thank you. [ cheers and applause ] >> please welcome american federation of teachers president randy winegart in. >> so, let's just hear it for the federal workers of the united states of america. [ cheers and applause ] . the nasa engineers, the tsa workers, the nurses, the house cleaners, everyone who makes sure that we are safe in america and everyone who actually makes america great. [ cheers and applause ] federal workers have stood up for all of us for the last years, every year of our republic, and we have to stand up and fight for federal workers right now. [ cheers and applause ] so it's important that we see and hear and feel the face of this hostage taking. when we hear the federal workers who have spoken already or the worker like dina who is a member of my union, a military veteran, a worker on tribal lands who already lost all of her belongings in alaska because of the earthquake, and now has not been able to pay for her bills because she is not getting a paycheck. this is not how we should be treating the people who have protected us and who have made our country great. [ cheers and applause ] now, i'm a history teacher. i teach about the history of the united states. we have had many conflicts in the united states of america. and normally the congress and the president who don't always get along with each other, they sit down and they settle these things. it is only in recent memory that they use a government shutdown for hostage taking. and that is wrong. and we must do what we can to stop it. [ cheers and applause ] so, so this rally today, yes, it's the 20th day of this, but at the end of the day there are, as people have said, two people who can stop this right now. one lives right down the block from us. and the other is mitch mcconnell. when we go to work, no one goes to work as a republican or a democrat or an independent. we go to work as americans. and we need to get donald trump to understand, do not take hostages. do not make federal workers ponds. and th and -- pawn ns this shutdown now. >> brothers and sisters please welcome me in recognizing the federal members of congress that have joined us today. representative madeline dean, pennsylvania, fourth district. representative jan, illinois, 9th district, congressman mark -- i'm so sorry -- mark de-sal knee, california 11th district. representative abbie from iowa. representative steven horseford, nevada, fourth district. and mary kay seaner, stanner, from pennsylvania, fifth district. thank you so much for joining us. now, please welcome afc president lee saunders. >> good afternoon everybody. now i've got one question for you. are you willing to make your voices heard every single day to fight? to fight like never before? are you fired up? >> yeah. >> are you fired up? >> yeah! >> all right. down here saw the report last week where the president of the united states called the shutdown a strike. he called the shutdown a strike. come on, man. come on. you know, it's obvious that he doesn't know anything about the labor movement. he doesn't know anything about the dignity of work. he doesn't know anything about what motivates the hundreds of thousands of federal fleece who have been sidelined for nearly three weeks. the character they show every day, the pride, and the passion they bring to their jobs. the sacrifices they make to deliver first class public services every day. you do that. you do that. and you should be proud of it. no one chooses a career in the federal government to get rich. you do it because you care. you do it because you care and you love your country. you do it because you care and you love your communities. >> yes! >> you do it because you care about all americans who deserve a shot at the american dream. you do it out of commitment and dedication. you know, the shutdown, this shutdown is about one thing and one thing only, this administration's desire to promote a manufactured crisis and imaginary security threat to advance a dishonest agenda based on fear, based on paranoia. this shutdown is hurting our families. it's hurting our communities. it's hurting our country. public health is jeopardized. consumer protection is compromised. many national parks are overrun with garbage. food assistance for low income families is now at risk. and the working people who make public service happen are facing uncertainty and hardship every single day. all they ask is the ability to continue to work to fulfill their responsibilities, to get the salaries that they have earned, and we will fight for that every single day. because we ain't going no where. now, let me turn the microphone over to one of those hard working federal employees who is a research liarian at the u.s. department of justice of the give it up for gee knees freddie, a local f 3937 council 20 right here in washington d.c. janis. [ cheers and applause ] >> thank you, president saunders, for standing was. the union is a community and because we look out for each other, i'm a proud many of local 3797. as president saunders has said, i'm research librarian at the department of justice. let me tell you about my work. when someone takes a case, i compile the cases. and the cases would work on effect the lives of every single american. jobs like mine are behind the scenes and often overlooked, but they are essential. my years of service began as a linguist in the u.s. army. ten years ago i went from a private law firm to the department of justice because i wanted to work directly for the american people again. >> thank you. >> on december 21st, the day before i was furloughed, that was my day off. but i came to work and i put in my normal ten-shower shift, because i had work that had to be done. these past 19 to 20 days have been a roller coaster ride. like everyone else, i have bills, mortgage, heat, water, and my student loans still need to be paid. my creditors want cash, not iou. we federal workers are a community and work together to support each other and all citizens of this nation. we do this work because we care about our country and the justice system. and the collective genus of federal employees needs to be put back to work now. [ cheers and applause ] the american people deserve our best and this shutdown now. [ cheers and applause ] >> brothers and sisters, we just have a few more speakers, then we will all march to the white house. but, first, everyone, let's get the message out. tweet. #shut the shutdown. stop the shutdown. stop the shutdown. also, take a selfie, share it on facebook, #stop the shutdown. #stop the shutdown. and, now, please welcome the national treasury employees union president, tony riordan. [ cheers and applause ] >> good afternoon, federal employees. good afternoon, union members. i'm honored to be with all of you here today. i applaud you and everyone who is rallying around the country standing up and demanding that you be treated fairly. we have a message. we're fed up. we're fed up. we're fed up. we're fed up. we're fed up. we're fed up. >> we're fed up. >> and we're here to tell the congress and the administration, remove federal employees from the middle of your political fight. bring this shutdown to an end. [ cheers and applause ] and get us paid. get us paid. get us paid! get us paid! get us paid! get us paid! everyone across this country needs to understand, this is not a game. it's about people's lives. it's about families and their future. it's about treating federal employees like human beings, with the dignity and the respect that they deserve. >> that's right. >> all of you federal employees took an oath to our constitution, to the united states of america, to do your valuable work for our country and to go to work every single day and to do it to the best of your ability. and the american people are missing out on the valuable work that you do. and the valuable services that you provide. the american people need you on the job. and they need you to be paid to do your job. [ cheers and applause ] pay us now! pay us now! pay us now! pay us now! i want to bring to the microphone one of nteu very special members. i want you to hear directly from him. so please welcome tom hull who is an employee at the national park service. everyone please welcome him [ cheers and applause ] >> bear with me a moment because most of the time i'm across the street working. but i can't do that. my name is talton hall and i'm a worker for the national parks service. [ cheers and applause ] >> thank you. >> i'm also a chapter of mteu chapter 336. i'm a gardner and been here for 11 years. i'm in charge of laugh fee et park. i love my job. pulling weeds and making it look good. i've met very interesting people and seen more demonstration. these parks host tourists and they have looked good. i hate being off work. not only the park being ignored, but i'm hurting financially. i couldn't on each and every paycheck to pay my bills. you know what this is like to worry about keeping a roof over your head and food on your table. i'm worried about that every day right now. and it's not fair to me or you. i should be back at work. and i should be getting paid for my time. i thank all of you for being here and listening to my story. i know i'm not alone and that helps. i think we can help bring an end to the shutdown and end it by working together. and i'm proud to stand with all of you to make this happen. [ cheers and applause ] let's get this done! open up the government! [ cheers and applause ] >> please welcome to the stage service international employees union 32, bj, vice president. >> well, who wants to march? >> yes! >> i'll be real quick. i'll be real quick. i just want to say, from a veteran who came here undocumented, me, fleeing civil war in the south in 1998, this goes to a draft dodger right there, a liar, a racist, and a cheater, shame on you. shame on you. >> shame on you. >> shame on you. and the same goes to mitch mcconnell, shame on him. so it is my distinct honor to introduce to you two warriors, some folks that have never talked about are the contracted out workers who work in these buildings. i want to introduce to you lyla johnson who works at the department of agriculture and also donna kelly who works as a security officer to come up to the stage and get us ready to march. [ cheers and applause ] >> hello brothers and sisters. my heart goes out to everyone last of you all. because i'm going through what you are going through. i was working at the department of agriculture or contractors for 21 years. now at the age of 71, i need a job. you all need a job. president trump, you are a liar. you was lying to us from day one. it's time for us to get up off our ham and do something about it. we as america, we have to do something about it. until we stop fighting back, nothing is going to change. because this man was lying to us from day one. i am tired of it. i'm sick of it. i'm ready to fight. an at my age, i feel like i can do it myself. but i'm going to tell you i need each and everyone of you all. i am not growing to go into detail what's going on with me now because i feel like every last one of you all knows what's going on with each other. we don't even have a paid job to even go to. the shutdown needs to end now and we need to fight for the government to be reopened. until we do that, nothing is going to change. because this man is just like a 6-year-old child. temper tantrum. we didn't ask for no wall. i don't know want to wall. itsds time for us to fight back and put food on our tables for our kids. thank you. [ cheers and applause ] >> i just want to say hello to everybody. and i just want you all to know that i'm one of those that's been affected. because i have to pay for my health insurance out of pock connect. i have to pay for my medication. and because of this shutdown, i am not able to do that. so i'm saying we all need to get back to work. president trump, end this shutdown now. end this shutdown now. end this shutdown now! >> end this shutdown now! >> all right. please welcome national association of government employees president david hallway. [ cheers and applause ] >> good afternoon. i'm from massachusetts and we had a governor, mitt romney, you can boo if you want. in the four years he was our governor, i didn't agree with him one time. but we are finally in agreement. he wrote an editorial that said, to a great degree, our presidency shapes the public character of the nation. our president should unite us to follow our better angels. our president should demonstrate the essential qualities of honesty and integrity and elevate the national discourse with mutual respect. with the nations so divided, resentful and angry, presidential leadership and qualities of character are indispersonsable. and this is a provence where president trump's short fafall been most glaring. now the sooner that mitch mcconnell and his posy realize that the emperor has no clothes, the emperor has no clothes, he should put us all back to work. it is migray great pleasure to introduce you to the next guy who is working to keep us safe. yet tomorrow he will receive no paycheck. so let's welcome matt perry. [ cheers and applause ] >> thank you. thank you all for having us here today. thank you all for standing in solidarity as a union. it's amazing to stand here and represent my union and career in this very difficult time. i work in aviation and i love what i do. i'm so lucky to represent some of my best friends and some of the finest workers in aviation today. in my job we help keep the skies safe and make sure the people get to where they need to go safely and on time. if we do this job correctly, none of the people in the planes over there even know we are down here. but we are down lear. and there is an impact on us all through the shutdown. i want to talk about this impact of the shutdown on myself and my family, especially me and my coworkers. i'm a father of a five-year-old and i could stand up and tell you about the impact on my wallet, impact of asking my landlord for plex ability in my rent, impact of asking my car fnsz company to be patient, that i'm not receiving a paycheck through no fault of my own other than being a patriotic federal employee. but that's not the real lasting impact. the lasting impact i see is in my back seat driving home from kindergarten. the incompetent pact on mpact o. my son asking why do i am i worried. seeing me go to work and nothing in return. the act of explaining this political stunt to a five-year-old. i hear similar stories to people i work with and people that i represent. those are the reasons that we are up here fighting for this shutdown to end. we need the shutdown to end. we need the shutdown to end. not just for our bills. we need the shutdown to end for our families' futures, for our dignity, and for our pride as federal employees and union members. thank you. [ cheers and applause ] >> ladies and gentlemen, please welcome senator bernie sanders from vermont. [ cheers and applause ] >> thank you all for standing up and fighting back for justice in this country. it is unbelievable that we have a president of the united states who is prepared to deny a paycheck to 800,000 federal workers. it is unbelievable that we have a president who is prepared to deny basic governmental services to millions of americans who need those services. so today we say to this president, grow up. do your job. end this shutdown. [ cheers and applause ] thank you. [ cheers and applause ] >> please welcome to the stage from the national weather service employees organization, mark pel an r i.d. o. >> mark pelaredo. >> hello my fellow pawns. let me give you something here, this forecast is brought by the national weather service employees organization. but we are still feeling the cold and biting wind of this shutdown. >> that's right. >> so i just came off of eight night shifts, and then drove down here. why would i do that to myself? because i've seen the collateral damage that is being inflicted on my coworkers and i need to share it with you. one in particular. our newest employee, one of our newest employees, she's been on the job less than a year. and, so, you know, she's just getting started and doesn't have a lot of money saved up. a few months ago, she had a seizure followed by another seizure both involving ambulances and diagnoses and follow ups and medical bills. these medical bills are now due. it turns out they do not take ious. but she does. she's taking ious right now. she's working every day for no pay. her doctor says it is possible that a seizure, an additional seizure could be brought on by any stressful, high stress situation, and here we are. is this stressful enough for her, do you think? >> oh, yeah. >> what a travesty that her federal career begins this way. so weather is a 24/7 gig. the weather service, we are there day, night, swinging shifts, whatever, working holidays, working weekends. we are up to that task, however. it's our mission. it's our passion. we love our jobs. and it's a calling to serve our country. it is difficult to serve our country to the the best of our ability when we are distracted by things unraveling at home, not knowing when our paycheck is going to come. you know, i've heard thus all d as pawns. we are pawns. we are powerful. a power less. are we power less? this is awesome. we are pawns. you know what pawns do? they protect each other. and pawns march forward one step at a time. and if enough of us do that and we keep protecting each other, even the most powerful pieces on the chess board run out of moves, and they'll have no choice but to end, to quit this silly game. so who is ready to march forward one step at a time? [ cheers and applause ] thank you on behalf of the national weather service employees organization. [ cheers and applause ] >> good afternoon, brothers and sisters. are you ready for 30 more speakers? >> we're ready to march. >> are you ready to march? >> yes. >> all right. first thing, i'd like to thank everybody standing on the stage, our members of congress, our federal employees, our union presidents. [ cheers and applause ] if everyone would just bear with me. i have a few announcements. so i would like the folks on the stage to go this way and follow this marshall. thanks very much. so, everyone, if you are facing me, i guess you look to your right. look to your right. what do you see over there? that's right. that's where the white house is. everyone don't start -- please don't start moving yet. just look over there. just look over there and look at that white house. in just a minute, we are going to march over there and we are going to tell that white house what we think of this shutdown. that's right. but before we get started, i just would like to end with thanking all of the unions, and all of the organizations that helped make this union happen, afc io, aft, apwu, the firefighters, the machinists, the electrical workers, ifpte, np, the laborers, nag, nelc, postal mail hand letters, nteu, nwsco, pass, seio, smart, ufco, a and ufpt, professional employees and the teamsters. teachers. all right. so we are starting to move a little bit, so just hold on, let us just get settled. we are all going the same place. we all know where we are going. so let's start with a little cheer. end this shutdown. end this shutdown. end this shutdown. end this shutdown. end this shutdown. end this shutdown. end this shutdown. end this shutdown. ♪ ♪ going down in this land ♪ untborn in the usa ♪ ♪ born in the usa ♪ i was born in the usa ♪ born in the usa ♪ set off to a foreign land ♪ to go and kill the yellow man ♪ ♪ born in the usa ♪ i was born in the usa ♪ born in the usa ♪ i was born in the usa ♪ come back home ♪ man says it was up to me ♪ went down to see a va man ♪ he said man. >> wrapping up this aflcio rally to end the government shutdown. rally attendees are now beginning to march to the white house. if you missed any of the speakers, you can see this event on our website c-span.org. president trump is in mcallen, texas today, he won't see any of the rally marchers there. he'll there to tour the border. a briefing on border issues. we are planning to bring you live coverage of the round table starting at 2:10 p.m. eastern here on c-span3. we are now 20 days into the government shutdown. the house continues working on four separate bills to reopen certain agencies, including the treasury, housing and urban development and agricultural departments of the however, over in the sflat majority leader mitch mcconnell has refused to consider any bill unacceptable to the president. and yesterday the white house issued a veto threat against the four house bills over the lack of funds for a border wall. we will continue to follow the story. we'll bring you any updates as they are warranted. and now california's new democratic governor gavin newsom inaugural address in sacramento, talks about ml

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