Unions Brief Federal Employees On Shutdown Procedures

Tom Webb is a president of AFGE Local 3615 -- which represents about 550 federal workers in Northern Virginia.

He's also a federal worker himself, with the Social Security Administration, and he's rarely been busier with both jobs than he is today with a government shutdown looming.

"I've been pretty much running around all morning -- various sections are holding meetings with employees and filling them in on the procedures."

Webb has been through this before. He had the same job with Social Security during the last government shutdown. Back then, he was actually called back into work before other federal workers because of the need for action on the hundreds of thousands of social security disability cases he helps sift through.

"The public started clamoring for their disability cases not being processed," he says.

He thinks that might happen again if a shutdown happens, but he also says that it'll be unconscionable if Congress lets a shutdown occur.