Furloughs begin today for thousands in state

Several thousand federal civilian employees in Hawaii will be furloughed today because of the government shutdown.

Jamie Hiranaka, president of the Hawaii chapter of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, said workers in her organization are required to show up for work today to pick up their furlough letters and shutdown procedures, all within four hours.

“People are living paycheck to paycheck, so this is going to impact them pretty hard,” she said. In addition, the workers are scheduled to get paid Friday, but it’s not clear whether there will be funds or anyone available to issue them their paychecks.

Hiranaka said some essential workers have already been working through the weekend without pay since the government shut down in the middle of the night Friday. Those essential workers will not be furloughed, but won’t get paid until after the funding lapse is resolved.

Hiranaka said her union represents about 30,000 white-collar workers in federal agencies in Hawaii, such as the Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency and Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard. She said about 40 percent of shipyard workers will be furloughed today.

The shipyard is Hawaii’s largest industrial employer, with a civilian workforce of nearly 5,200.

Hiranaka said the “dysfunction on the Hill” is not fair for government workers.

“They have one job to do, and that’s to come up with a federal government budget,” she said. “It’s not right for federal workers to suffer.”

Workers today will start reporting for work at 6:30 a.m., and the U.S. Senate isn’t scheduled to vote to break a Democratic filibuster on a short-term funding bill until 7 a.m. Hawaii time, according to The Associated Press.

Meanwhile, several hundred employees who work for the Hawaii National Guard will also be furloughed, said Hawaii National Guard Lt. Col. Chuck Anthony.

The furloughs could affect as many as 800 federal technicians in Hawaii’s Army or Air National Guard, Anthony said.

About 1,400 civilians work full time for the Guard in Hawaii.

Workers were to report to work today to shut down any operations with the first full day of furloughs beginning Tuesday, Anthony said.

Several hundred workers in the active Guard Reserve are continuing to work despite the shutdown but will not receive pay until after the budget issue is resolved, Anthony said.

Hiranaka, of the engineering union, said her organization was also pressing Congress to pass bills in the U.S. House and Senate to pay furloughed workers for the days they missed after funding is restored. She said workers should be paid because it is not their fault the funding lapsed.

A similar measure was passed after the government shutdown in 2013, which lasted 16 days.