Congress Moves to Gut Postal and Federal Pensions — APWU Calls for Immediate Action!

On April 30, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform approved a number of significant cuts to the retirement benefits of postal and federal workers. Passed by a slim margin of 22-21, this measure will now be included in the full reconciliation package which Republican leadership is aiming to hold a full House vote on sometime this month. The retirement cuts would have devastating implications for APWU members, including:

• Eliminating the FERS annuity Social Security supplement, which allows workers who have earned their retirement the ability to retire before their Social Security benefits begin;
• Increasing the FERS annuity contribution rates for all active employees to 4.4%;
• Replacing the High-3 FERS annuity calculation with a High-5 calculation, resulting in a reduction in annuity payments.

Also included in the passed were egregious attacks on federal employees, such as:

• Charging a filing fee for Merit Systems Protection Board Claims and Appeals, and
• Forcing new hires in the federal workforce to choose between at-will employment or paying an increased FERS contribution rate of 9.4%. While this specific proposal does not currently apply to postal workers, it is a dangerous change to eliminate job security and protections from government service.

“Make no mistake, Congress' outrageous proposal intends to finance tax-cuts for the oligarchy with money from postal and federal workers’ paychecks,” said APWU President Mark Dimondstein. “We must act quickly and with the full force of the labor movement and our union membership to protect our pensions.”

With a slim majority in the House of Representatives, and united Democratic opposition, we need only a handful of pro-labor Republicans to stand up and fight back against these attacks on the pensions of postal and federal workers. We were greatly encouraged by Representative Mike Turner (R-OH-03) who voted against this package because “making changes to pension retirement benefits in the middle of someone’s employment is wrong.” APWU looks forward to working with Representative Turner, and other labor allies on both sides of the aisle, to defeat these attacks.

“The time to act is now to save our pensions,” said APWU Legislative and Political Director Judy Beard. “We are actively engaging with lawmakers on this fight, but need each and every APWU member to pick up the phone and call your member of Congress. Tell them to keep their hands off our pensions!”