Let’s keep the pressure on! Tell Congress: Stop the War on America’s Workforce!
Last week, hundreds of AFGE members, government workers and union activists gathered in Washington, D.C. to tell members of Congress across the country, and across political party lines, to stop the war on America’s workforce. We rallied with our labor family and coalition partners to save our country and save the civil service.
Right now, federal employee’s pay, benefits, retirement and health care are on the chopping block as lawmakers work through the current budget process.
At a time when federal employees are already facing extreme stress and uncertainty, Congress should not make things worse by increasing the cost federal employees must pay to save for retirement and provide health care to their families.
FEEA’s annual scholarship competition is available for eligible students and open until March 13, 2025. The scholarship, which ranges from $1,000 to $5,000, can be used for tuition and fees at any accredited college or university.
Eligible students include: *Federal employees *Their children, step-children, and legal dependents (under age 25) *Their spouses *Some associations and unions partner with FEEA and include scholarships for members, members’ children, grandchildren, spouses, or retiree members’ children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren.
Details are included on the website. AFGE families who apply to FEEA’s program are also eligible for special AFGE-sponsored awards, using the same application as the regular FEEA scholarship.
Eligible students for the AFGE-sponsored scholarships include: *Current AFGE members who are active federal employees and their dependents, spouses, and grandchildren. *Children, grandchildren, and spouses of current AFGE members who are retired federal employees *Dependents and grandchildren must be under the age of 25
The 2025 cost of living adjustment (COLA) was announced last week, and most federal workers will again receive a reduced COLA due to a flawed rule in the current law.
For 2025, Social Security beneficiaries and Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) retirees are expected to receive a 2.5% COLA, while Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) retirees, those hired in 1984 or later, will only get a 2% increase.
Under the current law, the COLAs for Social Security, CSRS, and FERS are all calculated based on the rate of inflation as measured by the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W). If CPI is 2% or less, the FERS COLA is the same as the CSRS and Social Security COLA. But if the CPI is between 2.01% and 3%, the FERS COLA is 2%. If the CPI is greater than 3%, then the COLA for FERS is 1% less than the CSRS COLA.
What does that mean for a FERS retiree? It means they will lose $128 a year just for 2025, assuming the same average pension. But for those who retired four years ago with the same average pension, their pension would have lost more than $1,000 to rising costs because the losses are compounded.
This unfair penalty places FERS retirees further away from keeping pace with the cost of living.
That’s why AFGE supports the Equal COLA Act (S. 3194 introduced by Sen. Alex Padilla and H.R. 866 introduced by Rep. Gerry Connolly) which would eliminate this unfair penalty for FERS Retirees. The legislation would also eliminate the arbitrary pension cost of living reduction federal employees face in high inflation years.
“Our nation’s public servants shouldn’t see their hard-earned retirement benefits eroded by a COLA set at the start to be arbitrarily lower the real inflation rate,” said AFGE Legislative Director Julie Tippens.
As summer vacations fade into memory, we turn our attention to the remaining months of the year and all that’s left to accomplish. The good news is, we have a lot to celebrate as we head into fall.
We are this close to finalizing the largest raise for federal employees in 40 years – on top of a major expansion of the locality pay system that will mean higher wages for tens of thousands of employees in both the General Schedule and Wage Grade pay systems. We’ve also blown past our organizing goal for 2023 – with nearly half the year remaining – and are making personal connections with new and potential members that will only serve to strengthen the federation for years to come.
We’re breaking it all down in this latest issue of the Government Standard.
