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xchrom

(108,903 posts)
Tue Mar 26, 2013, 08:01 AM Mar 2013

As sequester furloughs loom, federal workers turn to local union leaders

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/as-sequester-furloughs-loom-federal-workers-turn-to-local-union-leaders/2013/03/25/97a89400-919c-11e2-9abd-e4c5c9dc5e90_story.html

John Hiller knows chemistry, not counseling. Until recently, he was a Customs and Border Protection scientist checking imported goods for drugs and toxins.

But a few weeks after being elected president of his union local at CBP’s Washington headquarters, the sequester struck. When the $85 billion in across-the-board cuts started taking effect this month, Hiller found himself fielding day-and-night phone calls and e-mails from employees worried about lost wages from as many as 22 furlough days.

“One thing I wasn’t prepared for was having a Gulf War veteran breaking into tears on the phone about being able to pay his bills,” said Hiller, president of National Treasury Employees Union Chapter 128. “He’s a Marine just getting his life back together, and suddenly he’s looking at losing $300 a month.”

In the sequester era, union locals are the nexus of anxiety. The national unions, such as the NTEU and the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), are waging the public budget battles on Capitol Hill. But it is to the offices of local union leaders such as Hiller that rattled federal workers — more than 300,000 in the Washington region — often turn for information, help and sympathy. Overnight, local union officials have become confidants, financial advisers and social workers.
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As sequester furloughs loom, federal workers turn to local union leaders (Original Post) xchrom Mar 2013 OP
This "sequester" is so wrong on many evils. It is the exact opposite of what we should be doing. RC Mar 2013 #1
+1 KoKo Mar 2013 #2
 

RC

(25,592 posts)
1. This "sequester" is so wrong on many evils. It is the exact opposite of what we should be doing.
Tue Mar 26, 2013, 09:21 AM
Mar 2013

The problem is not government spending, it is the tax loop holes and tax cuts on those most able to pay.
The other part of the wrong is making those least able to afford it, take the hits. It is the continuation of the across the board pay and benefit cuts for the masses and the furthering of the concentration of wealth at the top.

Congress has been bought off. Obama is part of the problem. Our federal government is mo longer answerable to the general public.

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