This week, the largest federal workers union threw its support behind a Republican government funding bill, increasing pressure on Democrats.
But many major unions told ABC News that they continue to support the strategy adopted by Democrats, breaking with the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), which represents hundreds of thousands of federal workers who are losing their pay and facing the threat of layoffs.
Many unions, a key bloc within the Democratic Party, support the push for an extension of Obamacare subsidies and remain eager to fight a president they see as an adversary of workers, some labor analysts and union officials said.
Jaime Contreras, executive vice president of Service Employees International Union Local 32BJ, which has 185,000 members, said he sympathized with the challenges federal workers face but disagreed with AFGE’s approach.
“They have to do what they have to do for their members,” Contreras told ABC News.
But he added: “In my view, it’s a false 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 officers, food service workers and other employees, meaning they are at risk of losing back pay when the government reopens, Contreras said.
“These workers are the most affected by this closure,” Contreras said, later adding: “We are urging our Democratic friends to hold the line.”
The stay-the-course approach maintained by key labor organizations has likely eased the pressure Democratic lawmakers faced after the AFGE announcement, some labor analysts told ABC News.
“Federal unions are not the most important players,” Nelson Lichtenstein, a labor professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, told ABC News.
AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler, who heads the nation’s largest labor federation, made up of unions representing nearly 15 million members, blamed President Donald Trump for what she sees as an attempt to divide workers.
“While federal workers don’t receive their paychecks and stand in line at food banks, President Trump is more focused on pitting workers against each other than on ending the shutdown,” Shuler told ABC News in a statement. “It’s time to fund the government, fix the health care crisis and put workers first.”
Speaking at the White House on Thursday, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy blamed Democrats for the impasse and said that while most workers could miss one paycheck, “none of them can afford two paychecks.”
“If Democrats don’t act very quickly, we’re going to see huge problems,” Duffy said.
The National Education Association (NEA), the nation’s largest labor union representing nearly 3 million members, stands behind a statement earlier this month that supports addressing health care and government funding, an NEA official told ABC News.
United Steelworkers International President David McCall told ABC News he supports a solution “that prioritizes affordable health care and funds the essential services our government provides.”
Liz Shuler, president of the AFL-CIO, speaks during a press conference to oppose an “anti-union executive order by President Donald Trump,” which eliminated collective bargaining rights for federal workers, at the Capitol Visitor Center on July 17, 2025.
Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images
The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and the United Food and Commercial Workers union referred ABC News to previous statements expressing similar sentiment.
“The Trump administration is putting enormous, enormous pressure on federal unions,” John Logan, a professor of American labor history at San Francisco State University, told ABC News. “Much of the rest of the labor movement is calling on Democrats to fight the Trump administration and not give up.”
“Despite these fissures, which are understandable, the union movement is quite united in its position on the closure,” Logan added.
AFGE did not respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
The union made headlines Monday when its president, Everett Kelley, called for a “clean and continued resolution,” a position in line with 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 views clear and there is still no clear end in sight,” Kelley said in a statement. “Today I’m making mine: It’s time to pass a clean, continuing resolution and end this shutdown today.”
To be sure, at least one major union has sided with AFGE. Teamsters President Sean O’Brien urged lawmakers to pass a clean, continuing resolution, reiterating his position Thursday in remarks delivered alongside senior Trump administration officials at the White House.
“Don’t put workers in the middle of a problem. They shouldn’t be there,” said O’Brien, who last year became the first Teamsters union president to speak at a Republican National Convention.
The Teamsters did not respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
For his part, Trump on Thursday night called on Senate Republicans to eliminate the filibuster to pass the Republican funding bill and reopen the government.
“The time has come for Republicans to play their ‘TRUMP CARD’ and opt for what is called the Nuclear Option: get rid of the filibuster and get rid of it, NOW!” Trump posted.
The government shutdown, which turned 30 days on Friday, appears unlikely to end anytime soon. Senate Democrats voted 13 times to reject a Republican funding bill and the upper chamber is in recess until next week.
