Largest federal workers union calls for end to shutdown

• "Both political parties have made their point, and still there is no clear end in sight," AFGE National President Everett Kelley wrote in Monday's statement. "Work together on a bipartisan basis to address important policy matters like addressing rising costs and fixing the broken appropriations process."

What they're saying: Kelley also stressed the toll on the hundreds of thousands of workers already struggling to make ends meet.

• "Because when the folks who serve this country are standing in line for food banks after missing a second paycheck because of this shutdown, they aren't looking for partisan spin," Kelley said. "They're looking for the wages they earned."

State of play: The Senate failed to advance a vote to reopen the government for a 12th time last week.

• Some 658,000 civilian employees missed pay on Friday, and roughly 4.5 million paychecks could be withheld if the shutdown continues through Dec. 1, according to a Bipartisan Policy Center report.

• Food banks are already bracing for impact as SNAP benefits for approximately 42 million low-income Americans will come to a halt on Nov. 1.

Zoom out: AFGE is among several workers' unions pressuring Congress to end the "avoidable crisis."

• The National Federation of Federal employees, which represents 110,000 civil servants, issued a statement last Wednesday "demanding Congress do its job."
• Several airline and pilot unions also called for the end of the shutdown, as more than 13,000 air traffic controllers work without pay and flight delays pile up nationwide due to lack of staffing.