Obama Praises Federal Workers, But Forecasts More Fights Over Pay
Wednesday, July 2, 2014(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)
President Barack Obama is again
praising federal workers, while forecasting more fights with Congress'
controlling Republicans over those employees' pay and working conditions.
“It will be a tough negotiation just because everything is a tough
negotiation in Washington right now,” he said at a June 26 “town hall”
meeting in the Twin Cities.
29-year Defense
Contract Management Agency worker Katie Peterson said she and a colleague –
standing alongside – “feel really privileged to serve. It's been a great
career, we love it, but lately, as you know, there’s been a few rough patches
with three years of pay freeze and sequestration and furloughs,” Peterson
added. “And we're just kind of wondering what you foresee for the next
fiscal year for government workers.” There are almost 2 million federal
workers.
After praising
federal, state and local workers, including teachers, “who work really hard
doing important stuff,” Obama confessed he's puzzled by how and when
government work “somehow not became a real job.
“It frustrates me when I hear people acting as if somebody who’s working for
the
federal government somehow is less
than somebody working on the private sector. If they’re doing a good job and carrying on an important
function, we should praise
them,” he declared.
While
the private sector drives the
economy, public workers “helped create the platform and the wealth we enjoy,” Obama said. “So
this whole idea that somehow
government is the enemy or the problem is just not true.”
Except GOP critics of public workers
believe it is, he said. And the critics plan to keep making life for public workers
difficult.
While the administration “has been able to stabilize” government pay and get rid of
GOP-mandated budget cuts – sequestration – and furloughs,
“When we go into the
budget talks with
Republicans next year, we may go through some of the same
problems, in part because the other side has said they want to
cut funding for
education, they’ve said
they want to cut support for vulnerable families, they
want to cut Medicaid, which would have an impact on the elderly
and families
that have folks with
disabilities. And I’ve said no.”
- PAI