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Federal Workers Tell Congress: ‘We’ve Sacrificed Enough’

 

November 29, 2012

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As Congress contemplates avoiding going over the “fiscal cliff” – the series of automatic tax hikes and budget cuts that will take effect next year – there is a lot of talk about shared sacrifice.

 

But a coalition of 22 different federal worker unions says the only people who have sacrificed anything on Capitol Hill are government employees.

As the Federal Workers Alliance – a group that includes the IBEW and other unions representing federal workers – put it in a recent letter to congressional leaders:

To date the federal work force has given $103 billion back to the U.S. Treasury.  That equates to an average of $50,000 in compensation per federal employee over 10 years – a huge sacrifice for any worker to have to incur.

Congress ordered a two-year wage freeze for federal employees in 2010, which saved the government more than $60 billion dollars. If continued, it could end up amounting to a $16,500 pay cut for the average worker over the next decade. If that was not enough, employees have also had to cough up another $15 billion in additional retirement contributions.

Says the letter from the FWA:

Considering that no other group has yet to give anything toward reducing our debt we believe that federal workers have already more than done their part.

The Alliance, which includes the IBEW, is calling on Congress and President Obama not to slash federal worker wages and benefits as part of any deal to avoid falling over the fiscal cliff.

Says IBEW President Edwin D. Hill:

Our federal workers do so much for this nation, from protecting our borders to maintaining a first-class Navy. To make them give up even more while the wealthiest Americans benefit from wasteful tax breaks, is an outrage.

Click here to read more about the Federal Workers Alliance.