The largest federal labor union this week backed a Republican government funding bill, increasing pressure on Democrats.
But many of the top unions told ABC News they continue to support the Democrats’ strategy of breaking with the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), which represents hundreds of thousands of federal workers who are losing pay and facing the threat of layoffs.
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Jaime Contreras, executive vice president of Local 32BJ of the 185,000-member Service Employees International Union, said he sympathizes with the challenges federal workers face but disagrees with AFGE’s approach.
“They have to do what they have to do for their members,” Contreras told ABC News.
But he added, “I think it’s the wrong choice to say we have to give up affordable health care for millions and millions of Americans in order to get federal workers back to work.”
SEIU 32BJ represents about 2,400 federal contractors who work as security guards, food service workers and other workers, meaning they are at risk of not being paid when the government reopens, Contreras said.
“These workers are bearing the brunt of this shutdown,” Contreras said, later adding, “We urge our fellow Democrats to hold the line.”
Some labor analysts told ABC News that the stay-the-course approach taken by major labor organizations likely eased the pressure Democratic lawmakers faced after AFGE’s announcement.
“Federal unions are not the biggest players,” Nelson Lichtenstein, a labor professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, told ABC News.
AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler, who leads the nation’s largest labor federation of unions representing nearly 15 million members, accused President Donald Trump of what she sees as an attempt to divide workers.
“As federal workers miss paychecks and line up at food banks, President Trump is more focused on antagonizing workers than ending the shutdown,” Shuler said in a statement to ABC News. “It’s time to fund the government, fix the health care crisis, and put working people first.”
Speaking at the White House on Thursday, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy blamed the impasse on Democrats, saying that while most workers can miss one paycheck, “none of them can miss two.”
“If the Democrats don’t get their act together very quickly, you’re going to see big problems,” Duffy said.
The National Education Association (NEA), the nation’s largest union representing nearly 3 million members, stands by a statement it issued earlier this month supporting health care and government funding, an NEA official told ABC News.
David McCall, president of United Steelworkers International, told ABC News that he supports the decision “both to prioritize affordable health care and to fund the essential services our government provides.”
Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images – PHOTO: Liz Shuler, president of the AFL-CIO, speaks during a news conference opposing “President Donald Trump’s union-busting executive order” that eliminated collective bargaining for federal workers, at the Capitol Visitor Center, in 2025. July 17
The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and the United Food and Commercial Workers pointed ABC News to earlier statements expressing similar sentiments.
“The Trump administration is putting tremendous, tremendous pressure on federal unions,” John Logan, a professor of U.S. labor history at San Francisco State University, told ABC News. “Much of the rest of the labor movement is crying out for Democrats to fight the Trump administration and not give in.”
“Despite these rifts, which are understandable, the labor movement is pretty unified on the shutdown,” Logan added.
AFGE did not respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
The union grabbed headlines Monday when its president, Everett Kelley, called for a “clean continuing resolution,” a stance echoed by Republicans who have refused to negotiate with Democrats on health care and other issues until lawmakers vote to reopen the government.
“Both political parties have made their point, but there is no clear end in sight,” Kelley said in a statement. “Today I’m doing mine: it’s time to pass a clean continuing resolution and end this shutdown today.”
Of course, at least one major union sided with AFGE. Teamsters President Sean O’Brien urged lawmakers to pass a clean continuing resolution, reiterating his position Thursday, speaking at the White House alongside top Trump administration officials.
“Don’t put working people in the middle of the problem. They shouldn’t be there,” said O’Brien, who last year became the first Teamsters union president to address the Republican National Convention.
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The Teamsters did not respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
For his part, Trump called on Senate Republicans Thursday night to remove the objection to pass the Republican funding bill and reopen the government.
“Now is the time for the Republicans to play their ‘Trump card’ and go with the so-called nuclear option – get rid of the Filibuster and get rid of it NOW!” Trump announced.
The government shutdown that began Friday the 30th doesn’t appear to be ending anytime soon. Senate Democrats voted 13 times to reject the Republican funding bill, and the upper chamber adjourned until next week.