AFL-CIO: Federal Employees Already Have Given Enough

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)All efforts to privatize, outsource, reduce, undermine, politicize, underpay or undervalue the work performed on behalf of working families by our federal workforce should be vigorously opposed, the AFL-CIO Executive Council said last week. The council adopted a policy statement, "Federal Employees Already Have Given Enough," during its August meeting in Washington, D.C. last week. A total of 2.6 million civilian employees in the federal government do everything from making sure veterans receive their benefits to processing Social Security payments, Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements, collection, processing, and delivery of mail and so much more. Salaries of federal employees, according to the council, are on average 24 percent lower than those of comparable jobs in the private sector and their health care benefits are less generous, yet these workers have been the targets of attacks to further freeze their pay and reduce wages and benefits.  - Jackie Tortora, AFL-CIO Now blog; photo of AFGE rally against downgrades for VA employees on 6/13/2012 by Chris Garlock