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NALC President Fredric V. Rolando has written to every member of the House of Representatives, urging them to vote no on H.R. 6684, a bill with provisions that would result in a direct 5 percent cut in the take-home pay of federal and postal employees:
Dear Representative:
I write on behalf of the 280,000 members of the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) who live, work and pay taxes in every congressional district in America.
I urge you to vote NO on H.R. 6684, a bill that is expected to be on the House floor today. It contains provisions that will result in a direct 5 percent cut in the take-home pay of federal and postal employees, American citizens who have already suffered serious cuts to their pay and benefits over the past four years.
The legislation would require employees in both CSRS and FERS to contribute more toward their pensions, starting in 2012 with a 1.5 percent increase, followed by a 0.5 percent increase in 2014, and 1 percent increases each year in 2015, 2016 and 2017. These increases would be implemented even though the Postal Service’s pension funds are over-funded. Worse, this unjustifiable pay cut is designed to preserve tax cuts for high-income Americans who received the lion’s share of the tax cuts adopted since 2000.
Additional cuts to federal pay and benefits have no place in the fiscal cliff negotiations. Federal and postal employees have already contributed $103 billion in deficit reduction. H.R. 6684 includes language that offers pay cuts as an alternative to automatic defense cuts and taxing the wealthy. If domestic discretionary funding replaces the automatic defense cuts, federal and postal employees will again be on the chopping block.
Letter carriers continue to be among the most trusted federal employees and continue to serve the American public six days a week. While we all have to make sacrifices to reduce the country’s debt, federal and postal employees have already made serious sacrifices. The GOP leadership should continue to negotiate in good faith with President Obama to reduce the deficit by asking the wealthiest to pay more instead of attacking the pay and benefits of hard-working federal and postal employees.
Again, I urge you to vote NO on H.R. 6684.
Sincerely,
Fredric V. Rolando
NALC President