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.”
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PAI