US Stiffs Workers at Bases Overseas During Shutdown

The longest US government shutdown on record is doing more than grind activities to a halt at home: An ocean away in Europe, local workers at American military bases have started to feel the pain. Thousands of people employed at overseas bases in Europe have had their salaries interrupted since the shutdown began almost six weeks ago, the AP reports. In some cases, governments hosting the bases have stepped in to foot the bill, expecting the US to eventually make good. In others, including in Italy and Portugal, workers have simply kept working, unpaid. "It's an absurd situation because nobody has responses, nobody feels responsible," said Angelo Zaccaria, a union coordinator at the Aviano Air Base in northeastern Italy. "This is having dramatic effects on us Italian workers." The situation:

• The work: The jobs that foreign nationals do at US bases around the world are in food service, construction, logistics, maintenance, and other, more specialized roles. In some cases, foreign workers are employed by private companies contracted by the US government, while others are direct hires.
• The deals: How local employees are paid varies by country and is based on agreements the US government has with each host nation, said Amber Kelly-Herard, a spokesperson for the US Air Forces in Europe and Africa. During the shutdown, Kelly-Herard said local employees were expected to continue to perform their jobs in accordance with their contracts.
• Germany: In Germany, the government has stepped in to pay the salaries of nearly 11,000 civilian employees who work on US military bases, the nation's finance ministry said in a statement. American facilities in Germany include the Ramstein Air Base, a critical hub for operations in the Mideast and Africa and headquarters to the US Air Forces in Europe and Africa. Germany is counting on being repaid once the shutdown ends, per the AP.
• Italy: More than 4,600 Italian nationals work at the five US bases in Italy, said union coordinator Zaccaria. Of those, about 2,000 workers—mostly at bases in Aviano and Vicenza—were not paid in October, Italy's foreign ministry said Saturday. Officials said that they've discussed the issue with US officials, and that the US Army and Air Force were in talks with the Pentagon about using their own funds to pay Italian workers.

• Spain: The US operates the Moron and Rota military bases in the south. A union representing more than 1,000 Spanish workers said a delay in payments had been resolved last month with the help of the Spanish government.
• Portugal: At the Lajes Field base in the Azores archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, more than 360 Portuguese workers have not been paid, according to Paula Terra, head of the Lajes base workers' committee. Terra said unpaid staff are still turning up because furloughs aren't legally recognized in a US-Portugal agreement on the base. Staying away could leave them open to disciplinary proceedings, she added. But this week, the Azores Islands regional government approved a bank loan to pay the Portuguese workers at the base in the interim.
• The vulnerable: Linda Bilmes, a professor at the Harvard Kennedy School, said local workers at American military bases who work as contractors are generally most at risk of losing pay during US government shutdowns. In the past, she said, the US always paid back full-time employees, including those working at overseas facilities who may be foreign nationals. Contractors are not always covered, which is why some add extra fees in their contracts to cover potential government funding stoppages. "But I doubt anyone anticipated this length of delay," Bilmes said.