Labor Unions to Protest Government Shutdown, Distribute Groceries to Correctional Officers

Representatives of labor unions in the Corpus Christi and San Antonio areas will hold a news conference to denounce the ongoing shutdown of the federal government and then distribute groceries to correctional officers who are working without pay.

The news conference will take place 1 p.m. Friday, Jan. 11, 2019, in front of the Federal Correctional Institution Three Rivers, 1700 U.S. Highway 72 West. Distribution of groceries, mainly healthy breakfasts and lunches for children, will follow. 

Union activists from Corpus Christi and San Antonio will be joined by Bureau of Prisons employees represented by the the American Federation of Government Employees, including President Richard Wechsler of the regional Correctional Officers union.

“The 800,000 federal workers who have been furloughed, or as with correctional officers, required to work without pay are part of the backbone of our communities,” Coastal Bend Central Labor Council President San Juan Garcia said. “It is outrageous that the inability of politicians to keep the government open has forced our Brothers and Sisters who oversee prisons into the awful choice of deciding whether to pay the rent on time or put food on the table.”

Contact: Becky Moeller
(512) 923-3707