“It impacts on really every public service job,” said Lee Saunders, president of the 1.4 million-member American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, AFL-CIO. “It’s a shame. Those that have been working and been furloughed and laid off, they’ve been providing essential services and, many of them, risking their lives every day. And then they get a pink slip? That’s unacceptable.”