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Washington, D.C.—Federal employees are real people who will be seriously hurt by the government shutdown and do not deserve such treatment, the leader of the nation’s largest independent union of federal employees told the media at a Capitol Hill event today.

“Federal employees have mortgages and kids in college and elderly family members that need care,” said President Colleen M. Kelley of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), at a shutdown media briefing. She was joined by House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.); Ranking Member of the House Oversight Committee Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.); Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.) and other elected and union officials, as well as NTEU members from several agencies.

Speaking of the federal workforce, Kelley said that “because of the sequester cuts, which were also the result of this Congress not doing its job, many of them have already been sent home from work without pay over the last few months. And now, they are out of work and don’t know when they will be able to go back to do the important work they do for the public.”

The NTEU leader pointed to a widely-reported story that there is a bipartisan majority in the House that would vote today in favor of a continuing resolution without controversial amendments, which would “end this destructive shutdown.”

She asked: “Why won’t the House Leadership let that vote take place?” describing the failure to do so as “like a little kid taking their ball and going home when they know they are going to lose the game. But this is not a game. People’s lives are being hurt by this. Congress must stop this irresponsibility, and stop this shutdown now.”

President Kelley was joined by NTEU chapter leaders from the Department of Health and Human Services Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Internal Revenue Service and National Park Service.

NTEU is the nation’s largest independent federal union, representing 150,000 employees in 31 agencies and departments.