Are federal employees being treated with the respect due to free men and women?

I believe they are not. It appears to me they are being treated like indentured servants by a master that can legally threaten their economic security, withhold compensation, and require work without pay at his or her sole discretion. The federal government is doing that now. The federal government has the power to penalize or end a career without cause other than an employee refuses to work without pay.

Private-sector professional employees and most union members in the private sector would not stand for those conditions. The result of this federal action is severe economic hardship for families and a clear message to job seekers: the federal government is an unreliable and heartless employer.

Why is this happening? The federal government is under no obligation to pass any funding bills at previous funding levels for federal employees. This is clear when bills that fund the government at previous levels sit in the Senate. The Republican senators and President Donald Trump refuses to even bring them up for a vote. This is the behavior of a master or slave owner.

What could we do? I suggest we pass guarantees in law that requires federal employees to get paid at regular rates of pay and on regular intervals, independent of government inaction.