AFSCME President Lee Saunders on the Trump Administration’s latest COVID-19 relief proposal

WASHINGTON — AFSCME President Lee Saunders issued the following statement in response to the latest COVID-19 relief proposal from the Trump Administration:

“Public service workers – nurses, EMTs, corrections officers, sanitation workers and many others – have fought on the front lines of this pandemic since it began. They have run toward the danger, not away from it. 

“For President Trump and Mitch McConnell to turn their backs on these American heroes as 1.2 million public service workers have been laid off because of state and local budget shortfalls in the Trump-COVID economy is unconscionable. 

“Speaker Pelosi understands that the only way to get our economy moving again is to beat this pandemic – and we cannot do this if we continue to lay off the heroes on the front lines. 

“Speaker Pelosi also understands that safe schools, 911 response times and clean streets are not blue or red issues. Bipartisan governors, mayors, county officials, and economists – including the Chair of the Federal Reserve – also understand this. So do the American people by overwhelming margins.

“If the White House truly wants a deal, the president needs to put an offer on the table that includes robust investment in state and local public services to beat the pandemic and get the economy moving again.”