Fed unions vow: We’ll get payback
By S.A. MILLERLast Updated: 3:58 AM, February 28, 2013Posted: 1:17 AM, February 28, 2013
WASHINGTON — The dreaded federal spending cuts set to start tomorrow won’t reap any budget savings from furloughing government workers — if their powerful union gets its way.
“We will absolutely fight for back pay in the event of a furlough,” said Cory Bythrow, spokesman for the National Federation of Federal Employees. “Why should hardworking, middle-class federal employees have to suffer because our elected officials can’t clean up the mess they created?”
That would erase any budget savings or debt reduction resulting from the furloughs, which is supposed to be the whole idea.
Federal employees have a history of winning these labor fights.
The workers got their back pay the last time they suffered mass “unpaid” furloughs during the 1996 government shutdown under President Bill Clinton.
The automatic spending cuts, known as the sequester, threaten furloughs of up to a day a week for hundreds of thousands of federal employees, cutting their weekly paychecks by 20 percent.
Furloughs for as many as 875,000 federal workers would kick in after April 1, forcing workers to stay home without pay one day a week for about 22 weeks.
The White House has warned that staffing reductions will cause longer lines at airports and fewer flights. And with fewer food inspectors in the field, furloughs could raise prices on meat and poultry.
A plan outlined by Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood last week calls for eliminating the midnight shift in more than 60 air-traffic control towers and closing another 100 at smaller airports. |
