Employee Groups Urge Obama Not to Cut Benefits

A group of 15 labor unions and employee organizations have sent a letter to President Obama urging him not to adopt proposals backed by a national deficit reduction commission to trim federal employee and retiree benefits and cut the size of the workforce.

Calling the proposals "ill-conceived," the Federal-Postal Coalition, made up of 15 organizations representing 4.6 million employees and retirees, wrote, "in light of the growing number of critical challenges being tasked to federal workers, the government cannot afford to make substantial reductions to the earned compensation of individuals who have dedicated their careers to public service."

Specifically, the group rejected the proposals of the co-chairs of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform to:

• Base federal retirement benefits on employees' highest five years of salary, rather than the current three.
• Use the "chained" Consumer Price Index to set cost of living adjustments in benefits programs.
• Require federal annuitants to pay a higher share of premiums under the Federal
• Employees Health Benefits Program.
• Freeze or cut pay.
• Cut the federal workforce by 10 percent.

The members of the coalition are:

• American Federation of Government Employees
• American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
• Federal Aviation Administration Managers Association
• Federal Managers Association
• Federally Employed Women
• International Association of Fire Fighters
• Laborers' International Union of North America
• National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association
• National Association of Letter Carriers
• National Association of Postal Supervisors
• National Association of Postmasters of the United States
• National Rural Letter Carriers' Association
• National Treasury Employees Union
• Professional Aviation Safety Specialists
• Professional Managers Association