As essential employees, federal prison workers in Minnesota are working through the shutdown without pay.
Minnesota has four Bureau of Prisons (BOP) facilities, all located in Greater Minnesota: Rochester, Duluth, Waseca and Sandstone. At least 619 federal employees worked at the facilities as of 2024, according to federal data.
In an already stressful workplace, morale drops fast during a shutdown, said Sandy Parr, who served as a local and national union leader during her 26-year career at Rochester’s federal medical center for BOP inmates.
“If you’re an essential worker you show up to work and you’ll get backpay, but that doesn’t help when a mortgage is due and you have to put formula in your baby’s mouth,” she said.
Parr, who retired in April, was president of the Local 3947 union during the 35-day shutdown in 2018-2019. On top of household budgets, lapsed paychecks strain local economies, she said.
Young families struggle to pay daycare costs. Workers scale back grocery runs and cut out discretionary spending at restaurants. Supplemental income streams are limited because these workers are still required to work full time.
She urged community members to “call on their congressmen and senators to end this shutdown so people can live their lives and get paid.”
As a retired federal employee, Parr can speak out in ways current workers can’t. Federal prison workers lost union protections in September when the BOP terminated its collective bargaining agreement with the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) Council of Prison Locals.
BOP Director William Marshall III described the union as an “obstacle to progress” in his announcement on the termination.
“It’s time for change,” he stated. “And today, thanks to President Donald J. Trump and Attorney General Pamela Bondi, we’re making that change.”
Trump in March issued an executive order enabling federal agencies to cancel union contracts. The AFGE sued the Trump administration, arguing that the order was unlawful. The case is ongoing.
Unless an injunction restores union rights, benefits like sick days are no longer straightforward, Parr said.
The shutdown “is really hard on morale, and then this year it’s more hostile because they don’t have their union,” she said. Federal actions “stripped rights [workers] were used to, and now there are threats of discipline if you call in sick.”
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