Progress Illinois

As federal employees brace themselves for furlough days, members of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) rallied against the sequester in downtown Chicago today.

Chanting anti-austerity slogans and carrying signs, more than 100 union members and supporters gathered in Federal Plaza Wednesday to protest $85 billion in  across-the-board federal budget cuts that went into effect March 1.

“Congress in their infinite wisdom are cutting jobs through sequestration,” said John O’Grady, president of the AFGE Local 704, which represents workers at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

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Tonya Yarbrough, a security officer at the Chicago Stock Exchange at 440 South LaSalle St., wakes up at 5 a.m. every day to commute on the Green Line from Englewood to be at work by 7 a.m. in downtown Chicago. She says she feels safer at work than she does at home.

“If I were paid a little bit more maybe I’d be able to make a better life for myself and my family,” she said. “Maybe I could move to a better neighborhood.”

Yarbrough, 42, a born-and-raised Chicagoan and security officer of nine years, makes $12.65 an hour.

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