m********a
发帖数: 1041 | 1
Federal Worker Unions Face Hurdles in Staging Protest; Signs Fall Short of
Poetry
March 19, WSJ
On Wednesday, members of the American Federation of Government Employees
will rally in downtown Chicago, scene of some of history's most storied
labor protests. Their aim is to stop sequestration, the $85 billion in
across-the-board cuts to the federal budget that took effect March 1.
For many workers, this turns out not to be the most rousing cause. The cuts
roll out slowly, in early April for some agencies and programs but not until
May for others. Most agencies aim to trim around the edges to avoid layoffs
. Workers in some departments aren't in line for furloughs at all, and for
others it might be just a few days.
"I'll be honest. People are saying 'you're giving me a day without pay? I'll
take July 5,' " says Brent Barron, president of AFGE Local 648.
Midwestern U.S. government workers aren't plentiful to begin with. The AFGE
is the largest federal employee union, but it has only about 10,000 members
in the entire state of Illinois. Many of them are throwing up their hands at
the idea that a one-hour rally can reverse yet another aggravating
Washington edict. Even Mr. Barron has begun to regret booking the windswept
plaza outside Chicago's John C. Kluczynski federal building, where "if you
get 300 people it looks like 20," he says.
And then there is the term "sequestration," an arcane Washington word that
dates to the budget fights of the 1980s. For the purpose of protest chants,
it's really tough to rhyme.
John O'Grady, president of AFGE Local 704, a veteran of demonstrations
against banks and the war in Iraq, has been saving slogans for years. On the
eve of sequestration, he dug into his pile and labored to adapt them to
more mundane times.
"Government Furloughs Make Us Nervous—Don't Disrupt Our Public Service."
"Working Class Is Sick Of Payin'—While the Rich Keep Getting Away"
"OK, these are a little weak," says Mr. O'Grady.
He plans to sing "we are, we are, union," to the tune of Queen's "We Will
Rock You," but he says people will go crazy singing that the whole time. So
two weeks ago, Mr. O'Grady sent a memo to his membership titled "Chants that
Rhyme with Sequestration (It Wasn't Easy)."
Mr. O'Grady has proposed ditties that range from the mildly annoyed ("Thank
You for the Irritation—We Say No to Sequestration" and "Is There No
Limitation—To Your Stupid Sequestration") to the irritated ("We Have Major
Detestation—For Your Idea of Sequestration") and the threatening ("Congress
Should Have Sterilization—When They Thought of Sequestration").
And because it is Lent: "Hey We Ask For Dispensation—From Your Fast, Called
Sequestration."
Mr. O'Grady set up a Stop the Sequester page on Facebook, FB -1.69%and
invited 3,813 supporters with this message: "I am asking any and all Union
brothers and sisters to come out and FLOOD the plaza to protest this
nonsense called 'SEQUESTRATION!' " As of midday Tuesday, 42 people said they
planned to attend, 35 said maybe.
For the rally, Mr. O'Grady has called in some non-AFGE labor reinforcements
—colleagues at the AFL-CIO and at several government agencies to provide
advice and warm bodies at the barricades.
"What we're going to focus on is what our agencies do and the services they
provide, and detailing the kinds of important things that are going to be
impacted." He dreams of a turnout like the 10,000 who marched during the
September Chicago teachers' strike, or the 1,500 who swarmed the city's
financial district during the financial crisis.
That said, "government employees don't build ships or planes," he says. They
compile statistics, perform inspections, write reports for highly engaged
but small audiences on subjects such as bee-colony collapse. AFGE employees
care about the missions of their agencies, Mr. Barron says. But it is
difficult to inspire Bureau of Labor Statistics employees, for example, to
rally around the fact that under sequestration they won't likely lose their
jobs, but they might have to stop collecting data on one specific type of
job loss.
Mr. O'Grady, a Chicagoan who is a freelance opera singer, works as a
scientist at the Environmental Protection Agency—an agency where employees
are in line for anywhere from a dozen to 22 furlough days, depending on
whether the cuts happen and how long they last. Last week, he met with his
colleagues and asked how many had written their members of Congress to
demand a stop to sequestration.
"One or two raised their hands," he sighed. He said he told them, "Hey folks
, we haven't had a pay raise since January 2010. Do you think this is going
to stop if you don't say anything?"
Dorothy James, vice president of AFGE's District 7, which includes Illinois,
Michigan and Wisconsin, says that sequestration carries a whiff of
Washington silliness that is keeping people on the sidelines. After two
false alarms in two years—the government shutdown and the fiscal cliff—"
this is like crying wolf." AFGE's government shutdown rally of 2011 drew 137
government workers in Chicago, "and that was pretty bad," Mr. O'Grady says.
Ms. James had a staffer from the AFL-CIO, the nation's largest labor
federation, in her office all day Friday working to drum up marchers from
non-AFGE locals. They hit a setback when the powerful teachers' union
declined to send a bus, since its members don't get out of school until 3 p.
m.
Some unions complained there won't be a podium for them to announce their
presence: "If you have a bandstand, you have to have a million dollars in
insurance, because these things tend to collapse," Ms. James says. They
decided to use bullhorns instead.
As the final days before the rally ticked down, Mr. O'Grady was optimistic.
He had reached out to as many of Chicago's 500,000 union members as he could
—even teachers at his daughter's high school. He had heard from several pro
-union groups who promised to show up. Chicago's is one of 100 AFGE rallies
planned for Wednesday, from East Syracuse, N.Y., to San Juan, Puerto Rico.
The Windy City rally will surely draw more marchers than Lincoln, Neb., Mr.
O'Grady predicts, "or I'm fired."
Last week, he sent out the final list of protest chants.
"We Say No to Sequestration—Without Any Representation!"
"Congress Needs Some Liquidation—They Dreamed Up This Sequestration."
"We're going to get people to at least be able to say the word '
sequestration,' " Mr. O'Grady says. "That would be progress." | t**********3
发帖数: 12623 | 2 MLGB，挣我们几倍的工资，Private sector三个人养他们一个人，还不好好干活，就得
想里根总统当时雷掉航管局联邦工会一样，不拿硬的对丫的丫们能得瑟死 | l******g
发帖数: 6771 | 3 几倍工资？靠谱吗？
【在 t**********3 的大作中提到】
: MLGB，挣我们几倍的工资，Private sector三个人养他们一个人，还不好好干活，就得
: 想里根总统当时雷掉航管局联邦工会一样，不拿硬的对丫的丫们能得瑟死
| m********a
发帖数: 1041 | 4 Congressional Budget Office (CBO)國會預算辦公室的報告說: Thus, total
compensation was about 16 percent higher, on average, for federal workers
than for similar private-sector workers. | t**********3
发帖数: 12623 | 5 I mean overall cost of labor in a general sense, excuse the inaccuracy of my
language. The factors counted in are wage, benefit, pension, and so on.
【在 l******g 的大作中提到】
: 几倍工资？靠谱吗？
| m********a
发帖数: 1041 | 6 這次的規模跟幾個月前公立學校大罷工差好多喔!可能天氣太冷也有關係 |
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