Union Blasts Plan to Fund Payroll Tax Cut With Pay, Job Cuts

GOP proposal would extend federal employee pay freeze, cut federal jobs across the board

WASHINGTON, Dec. 1, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The head of the American Federation of Government Employees, the largest federal employee union, today lashed out at lawmakers for floating a plan that would cut payroll taxes for millions of Americans in exchange for slashing wages and jobs of middle-class federal workers.

Republican senators have proposed paying for a one-year extension to the payroll tax cut by extending the current pay freeze for federal workers by an additional one to three years and making across-the-board cuts to the federal workforce.

Federal employees already have been subjected to a two-year pay freeze, which will save taxpayers $60 billion during the next decade, and are facing layoffs and downsizing due to shrinking agency budgets.

"These aren't overpaid government bureaucrats," AFGE National President John Gage said. "These employees are part of the 99 percent of Americans who have been struggling to pay their bills and put food on the table. They are the aircraft mechanics and commissary workers at your local military base, the nurses at your local VA hospital, the men and women guarding our borders."

The government is cutting more jobs than any other employment sector in the country, according to the global outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. Government agencies slashed 18,508 jobs in November alone, including 13,500 civilian jobs in the Air Force.

"Cutting payroll taxes for another year will boost the economy by giving the average American family a $1,500 tax break. But paying for it on the backs of the very workers who would benefit from the tax break is hypocrisy at its worst," Gage said.

"I'd like lawmakers to explain to me how you create jobs and spur growth by cutting jobs and taking money out of the pockets of middle-class workers."

The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) is the largest federal employee union, representing 625,000 workers in the federal government and the government of the District of Columbia.

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SOURCE American Federation of Government Employees

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