NEW ORLEANS — Nearly 4,000 federal employees in Louisiana are not getting a paycheck because of the partial government shutdown.
One-quarter of them work for the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Finance Center at the Michoud Facility in New Orleans East.
Terrance Johns, president of the American Federation of Government Employees at Michoud, described the shutdown, now in its fourth week, as a "crisis."
"We're Americans. We don't deserve this," Johns said. "We're asking all of our lawmakers and our Louisiana delegation to fight for us."
Janelle Slack and Lorna Monroe work at the finance center and are both looking for part-time jobs to help pay their bills.
"Being able to pay your mortgage, your car -- those are things you need," Monroe said. "You need a roof over your head. You need transportation."
"It's just the uncertainty," Slack said. "Do I get a new job? Do I wait? What do I do at this point?"
With so many people temporarily out of work, there is a ripple effect in the community.
Business at Vucinovich's Restaurant down the street from Michoud has dropped by about 25 to 30 percent during the shutdown.
"You see them everyday for lunch," owner Russell Vucinovich said. "You're missing a lot of the friendly faces and a lot of the faces that usually come in."
These government employees say they are suffering because of the politics over border wall funding.
"It's not fair," Slack said. "Twenty-six days because of a wall."
"The longer this goes on the more it's going to hurt other people, everybody in some kind of way," Monroe said.
"We ensure that our food is safe. We ensure that our borders are safe. We ensure that our airports are safe," Johns said. "Right now they're not safe because those people that are on those jobs are concerned about how they're going to pay their bills and where their next meal is coming from."
The Coast Guard also has a large contingent at Michoud. Those service men and women are now working without pay.
Paul Murphy can be reached at pmurphy@wwltv.com.