Government Workers

As a taxpayer and a private-sector employee all my life, why should I feel sorry for the federal employees who, on average, make more money than me, have a better pension than I do, have more vacation time to be with their families, and work fewer hours ("Federal workers rally, underscore their sacrifices," Dec. 6)? The Wall Street Journal just published the results of the American Time Use Survey, which the Bureau of Labor Statistics administers to a large and representative sample of American households each year.

Anne Arundel County's government e-mail system is back up an running today, according to Tracie Reynolds, a county spokeswoman. The system was shut down on Friday night so that information technology workers could fix problems with the system. Last week, government workers and elected officials encountered issues with the system, including delays in sending and receiving messages or messages not going through. The shutdown came at a busy time for the County Council, whose members are getting a lot of e-mail messages about issues such as the county budget, which is scheduled to be finalized on Tuesday.

Once again, Marta Mossburg displays her disturbing obsession with public employees, as she plays the apologist for the wealthiest Marylanders ("In Maryland, your taxes support many of the one percent," Dec. 7). Ms. Mossburg is again muddying the waters about America's increasing income disparity that has been so clearly documented. Mirroring rhetoric that was bought and paid for by the multimillionaire Koch brothers in Wisconsin, and puppeted by Gov. Scott Walker, Ms. Mossburg has attempted to convince us that public employees are the problem with today's economy.

As talk of the sequester ratchets upward in the ranks of government employees who might be affected ("Sequester furloughs begin for U.S. public defenders," April 4), here's a quick word of advice: Keep the whining to yourselves! While readers generally do not like to hear of the government's heavy handed financial impact on fellow citizens, the vast majority don't shed crocodile tears over discussions of government employee furloughs "of up to 14 days. " Before posting lengthy editorials on the possible negative effects of the sequester, please consider how those in the private sector - outside of the golden triangle of government contractors, finance and health care - have been brutalized by the recession.

I've heard and read about the demonstrations of state workers whose salaries and benefits are being cut or at least kept from increasing. Through talk radio, many workers try to say that they have already suffered from quality of life issues, but I noticed a real disconnect. I don't think that government workers realize that the tax payers they are appealing to make about half as much salary, suffered from a lack of raises in direct income for at least six straight years, not to mention having seriously reduced benefits.

As the rest of the world becomes more keenly competitive,America's 87,000 state and local governments lag years behind the times in how they motivate, hire, promote and fire their 15.5 million employees.For the safety of our drinking water, education of our children, policing of our communities, public health, highways and much more, we all depend intimately on state and local government workers. Yet the national future could be threatened if states and bTC localities keep postponing dramatic personnel reform.

*TC COLLEGE PARK -- Members of the Maryland Legislative Black Caucus heard more complaints of racism yesterday from dozens of state government workers who testified at a hearing at the University of Maryland here.The workers took part in the second caucus hearing on racism in state government.Such was the nature of the complaints from University of Maryland workers that the senator running the hearing said outside of the room that the caucus should consider creative ways of applying pressure to stop racist activity.

Pummeled by cost-cutting politicians and a wave of anti-government sentiment, unions representing rank-and-file state, county and city workers are facing one of their darkest hours.But Maryland's public employee unions lack the political and legal muscle to fight back -- members can't strike, their leaders feud among themselves, and they rarely lavish campaign contributions that grab political attention."It is quite chic to beat up on government employees right now," said Donna Edwards, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Council 92, which represents 8,450 state workers.

A decision this year by Aberdeen Proving Ground to allow a private company to cut government jobs and hire its own work force -- which would could have led to the loss of 558 jobs at the Harford County base -- has been overturned on appeal. An Army-wide effort to save costs by privatizing services had prompted the Aberdeen Proving Ground to award a contract in May to a private company, Aberdeen Technical Services, which had outbid the Army for building and grounds maintenance, environmental and safety operations, child care and recreational activities, such as movie theaters and sports programs.

LONDON - Hundreds of thousands of local government workers went on strike across much of Britain yesterday, shutting schools, leaving garbage uncollected and closing libraries, museums and recreation centers in a bitter dispute over pay. The strike, which union leaders estimated was joined by about 750,000 people, was the first such national action since the so-called Winter of Discontent in 1979, when a series of strikes paralyzed the country. Yesterday's strike affected different parts of the country differently, but had the most impact on Northern Ireland, Wales and places such as Newcastle, Manchester and Leeds in England's north.

The president is voluntarily giving 5 percent of his yearly salary back to the U.S. Treasury in order to show solidarity with government workers forced to take unpaid leaves due to what he calls the catastrophic effects of the sequestration ("President's pay cut," April 4.) Through this meaningless symbolic gesture he wants us to know that he shares our pain. I wonder if the president will apply for food stamps next, or a Section 8 housing voucher. He reminds me of an old Latin saying: Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus - "the mountain groaned loudly in great labor, then bore a tiny mouse.

The editorial in the Catonsville Times, published March 6, "Sequestration — a political game with real pain") contains these misleading statements: • "Federal government workers and contractors wait nervously to see what these automatic spending cuts will mean in job furloughs and program trims. " • "Spending cuts of $85 billion are the stakes in this cynical game. " • "The cuts are expected to lead to long lines at airports, furloughs of federal workers, reduced access to Head Start programs for young students and reductions in food inspection and border security.

After bumping our heads on the debt ceiling, then teetering on the fiscal cliff, we are now threatened with something called sequestration. Had anyone even heard that word before a few months ago? Can anyone define it? Around these parts, it's all too real. Federal government workers and contractors wait nervously to see what these automatic spending cuts will mean in job furloughs and program trims. In Howard and Baltimore counties alone, tens of thousands of families owe their paycheck to the government.

Even as Congress and the White House appeared to be at a standoff over the fiscal cliff last month, lawmakers and the president were able to agree on at least one thing: an update of the Hatch Act. The 1939 law prohibits federal employees and certain state and local workers from engaging in partisan political activity on the taxpayer's dime. Violators typically have faced two types of penalties - both severe. Congress passed bipartisan legislation in December that broadened the range of penalties and loosened the rules so that most state and local government workers - including those in the District of Columbia - can run for partisan elective office.

R. Dean Kenderdine's attempt ("Pension chief: Mossburg ignores reforms," Dec. 10) to argue the facts in Marta Mossburg's excellent Dec. 5 column, "Maryland's Debt Bomb," is ludicrous on the face of it. Ms. Mossburg cited the State Budget Solutions' national State Debt Study which, using two-year-old data, actually understated the pension debt. Extrapolating from the latest full-year data for 2011 from the U.S. Census survey of public pensions, I put Maryland's unfunded pension debt at $78 billion as of this year.

Your article states that Social Security worker Celisa Ford is "losing sleep and is stressed," fearful that she will have to pull her daughter out of college, because she has had a two-year pay freeze ("On the brink of the fiscal cliff," Dec. 6). I work in the private sector and have not had a pay raise in five years. I have a daughter who just left college and got married, a second in college, and one about to go next year. I am stressed too. Unlike Ms. Ford, I don't have time to take off work and whine in a picket line on North Greene Street.

Thanks to the generosity of government workers, the United Way of Central Maryland raised a record $39 million in its 1991 campaign.The donations from government workers more than made up for a shortfall in the private sector blamed on the recession, the United Way said yesterday.Donations from the private-sector categories, many from companies hard hit by the recession, fell about $1.8 million below their $33.2 million goal, campaign officials said.The top 50 companies that have in the past raised more than $100,000 each for the United Way had 14,000 fewer employees in 1991 because of layoffs and hiring freezes, United Way spokesman Mel Tansill said.

As a taxpayer and a private-sector employee all my life, why should I feel sorry for the federal employees who, on average, make more money than me, have a better pension than I do, have more vacation time to be with their families, and work fewer hours ("Federal workers rally, underscore their sacrifices," Dec. 6)? The Wall Street Journal just published the results of the American Time Use Survey, which the Bureau of Labor Statistics administers to a large and representative sample of American households each year.

Travelers gripe about having to remove shoes while going through airport security or undergoing full-body pat-downs. But imagine being the Transportation Security Administration screener who has to deal with thousands of grumpy passengers daily or must rummage through strangers' dirty underwear to look for items that could blow up a plane. It is not surprising that TSA employees rank among the federal workers who are least content with their jobs. Some of the most satisfied employees year-in, year-out work at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, according to the Partnership for Public Service, a nonprofit that encourages careers in government.