Gloves provided: Unpaid workers at NASA's Houston center asked to clean toilets during shutdown

"This is our reality at the Johnson Space Center. We now have no custodial services while we work without pay to keep the International Space Station operating #EndTheShutdown" "This is our reality at the Johnson Space Center. We now have no custodial services while we work without pay to keep the International Space Station operating #EndTheShutdown" Photo: @SpaceEliz/Twitter Photo: @SpaceEliz/Twitter Image 1 of / 24 Caption Close Gloves provided: Unpaid workers at NASA's Houston center asked to clean toilets during shutdown 1 / 24 Back to Gallery

NASA scientists, engineers and other employees working without pay at Johnson Space Center are being asked to do something else for free: clean the bathrooms during the federal government shutdown.

A NASA manager, whose work involves developing requirements for spacewalks to maintain the International Space Station, tweeted Thursday a copy of a sign posted at JSC asking workers to volunteer for bathroom cleanup duty once a week until the shutdown ends.

"This is our reality at the Johnson Space Center," the manager tweeted. "We now have no custodial services while we work without pay to keep the International Space Station operating."

She ended her tweet with an angry-face emoji.

BRAIN DRAIN? Postdocs at NASA's Johnson Space Center latest to lose funding under shutdown

Anger and frustration over the shutdown has reached a boiling point in Houston, where 94 percent of the 3,055 federal employees at Johnson have been forced out of work since the government was shuttered Dec. 22 because of a political battle over the proposed border wall.

With Johnson employees set to miss their second paycheck of the shutdown Friday, about 50 people took to the streets last week to protest, begging Congressional leaders to reopen the government so they could get back to work — and get paid.

Even postdoctoral fellows at NASA, who were assured the shutdown wouldn't affect them, have found themselves out of funding and therefore out of work because of the budgetary impasse. Four of the 203 NASA postdocs work out of the Houston center.

'HELPLESS:' About 50 people protest government shutdown at NASA's Johnson Space Center

Custodians may be next. Byron Williams, Houston-area labor representative for the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, said Thursday that only about 20 of the 50 or so custodians he represents currently are working on site.

"They're operating at a 50 percent reduction right now," he said. "If they don't reopen the government by [Jan.] 29th or 30th, they're no longer going to be able to fund it and they'll furlough the entire crew."

'Wipe Toilet Seats'

Johnson is home to the nation's astronaut corps, where human space flight research and training take place. It also is home to the space station's mission operations and the Orion program. About 200 federal employees still working at Johnson are there primarily to ensure the astronauts aboard the space station remain safe. Those employees are not getting paid.

The manager who tweeted the photo could not be reached for comment Thursday.

The notice posted asks workers to sign up to help "clean toilets, wipe toilet seats, handles, and sink faucet handles with disinfectant wipes."

It also asks employees to pick trash up from the floors and take out their own garbage.

"Please bring your personal desk-side trash to the brown bin (across from the men's bathroom) so we don't attract ants or rodents," the sign read.

Gloves will be provided, the sign says.

EXPERTS: Shutdown may drive NASA workforce to the private sector

The tweet was directed at Texas' Republican Senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, and U.S. Rep. Brian Babin, a Republican whose district includes the Johnson Space Center.

When asked for a comment, a spokeswoman for Cornyn pointed to the senator's vote Thursday to end the shutdown by supporting funding for President Trump's proposed border wall.

"This shutdown may have begun as a battle over border security, but it's affecting men and women in all 50 states whose jobs have nothing to do with border security," Cornyn said in a news release distributed after the vote.

Cruz also voted for the bill to reopen the government, a spokesman said in a statement, and is "committed to finding a solution to pay federal workers and fund common-sense border security."

"Sen. Cruz believes that NASA employees and all federal workers deserve good working conditions and a reliable paycheck," the statement said.

Out of work

A representative of Native Resource Development, the New Mexico-based company that holds Johnson's custodial contract, told the Houston Chronicle last week that they would begin accepting voluntary layoffs last Friday because of the shutdown, though he could not provide an exact number needed. Some individuals, he added, are exempt and will continue working.

"The task has been reduced because there's buildings that are not occupied," he said.

He directed more specific questions to company President Steven Cammack, who declined to comment Thursday. Cammack referred all questions to NASA personnel who were unavailable because of the shutdown.

UNPAID: Workers at NASA's Johnson Space Center brace for first missing paycheck

Shaun Azimi, a robotics engineer at Johnson who is working part-time during the shutdown, said Thursday he and his colleagues are less concerned about dirty bathrooms than they are about the welfare of the custodial staff themselves.

"Frankly, I wouldn't mind cleaning all the bathrooms on site if it meant the custodial staff could keep getting paid," Azimi said. "We are like a family here at JSC, and we just want to keep everyone, including our contractor team members, safe and employed. We're all just trying to do our jobs and support NASA's mission."

Alex Stuckey writes about NASA and the environment for the Houston Chronicle. You can reach her at alex.stuckey@chron.com or Twitter.com/alexdstuckey.

NEWS WHEN YOU NEED IT: Text CHRON to 77453 to receive breaking news alerts by text message | Sign up for breaking news alerts delivered to your email here.