Press Release For Philadelphia AFGE (Social Security Admin.) Picket, Wednesday, March 2, 2011!

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AMERICAN FEDERATION OF GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES
LOCAL 2006 - AFL-CIO
P O BOX 16527, PHILADELPHIA, PA 19123 - [phone]

Beverly Wilmer Joseph Ponisciak
President Executive Vice-President




FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
CONTACT: KEVIN PARKS, UNION REPRESENTATIVE, AFGE LOCAL 2006
PHONE: [phone]
EMAIL: [e-mail]
DATE: February 28, 2011


MARCH 2, 2011
INFORMATIONAL PICKET – 11:45 AM – 12:30 PM
3RD & SPRING GARDEN STREET, PHILADELPHIA , PA


Philadelphia, PA – Thousands of Social Security workers are worried about how they will provide service to the public. If a current proposal by the House of Representatives becomes part of the Continuing Resolution (CR) on March 4, 2011.

Social Security workers will protest the proposed budget cuts which would lead to reduced operations and services to the public, on March 2, 2011, from 11:45 AM to 12:30 PM at
300 Spring Garden Street, Philadelphia, PA.

“These cuts will punish Americans who count on Social Security and Medicare by adding to backlogs and limiting assistance for our seniors, the disabled and families that have lost a parent or spouse. To effectively dock a month’s pay of the dedicated Social Security workers adds insult to injury and further hurts our communities and economy,” said Agatha Joseph, President of Council 109, American Federation of Government Employees.

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Join AFGE activists and coalition allies in front of Social Security offices across the country this Wednesday, March 2, as we protest budget cuts that could furlough up to 50,000 federal and state employees and cut more than 3.500 staff.

http://strengthensocialsecurity.org/social-security-keep-it-working">Click here to find a location near you.

House Republicans have proposed a $1.7 billion reduction in SSA funding for the remainder of FY 2011. If this proposal is included in any of the Continuing Resolutions (CR) for FY 2011 that Congress will soon vote on – short term or long term -- the budget cuts would lead to a month of furloughs at the Social Security Administration. And, millions of Americans filing for retirement and disability benefits will wait longer for their benefits. Backlogs could reach record levels.

In protest of these proposed cuts, thousands of Social Security workers and our coalition allies from Strengthen Social Security and the Alliance for Retired Americans will be protesting across the country to stop the assault on Social Security’s ability to serve the American public. .

Events will start at noon. http://strengthensocialsecurity.org/social-security-keep-it-working">Click here to find a location near you.

Thanks for all that you are doing to Fight Back!


John Gage
AFGE National President

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FACT SHEET

What the House Proposed Cuts Mean – Shutting Down Social Security Offices for a Month
SSA is already operating under a partial hiring freeze because of the current continuing resolution which is likely to result in nearly 3,500 lost jobs for 2011. These additional cuts could lead to SSA offices closing their doors, which means stoppage of all claims processing and unanswered phones for about one month – one month out of the seven remaining in 2011. If Social Security shuts down for a month:

400,000 people would not have their retirement, survivors and Medicare applications
processed this year, resulting in a large backlog of unprocessed retirement and
survivor claims for the first time in SSA history.

290,000 people would not have their initial disability benefit applications processed,
which means disabled workers, who already wait months for their applications to be
processed, will wait an average of 30 days or longer.

70,000 fewer people will get a disability appeals hearing this year, which means
workers waiting to present an appeal to a judge, who already wait over a year, will
wait longer.

32,000 fewer continuing disability reviews, which means wasting millions of dollars
on improper payments now.

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