We all have regrets in our lives, even Mitt Romney, who told a group of high-roller donors that he regrets federal workers are protected by union contracts, so that if he wins the election, he won’t be able to fire as many workers as he’d like to.

All efforts to privatize, outsource, reduce, undermine, politicize, underpay or undervalue the work performed on behalf of working families by our federal workforce should be vigorously opposed, wrote the AFL-CIO Executive Council yesterday. The council adopted a policy statement, "Federal Employees Already Have Given Enough," during its August meeting in Washington, D.C., this week. A total of 2.6 million civilian employees in the federal government do everything from making sure our veterans receive their benefits to processing Social Security payments, Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements, collection, processing, and delivery of mail and so much more. 

This is a cross-post from Last Word Productions Inc.

Congress is on fire to balance the federal budget, and they don't care who they take as prisoners in the process. There are at least two proposals to freeze federal salaries for yet another year (they have been frozen since 2011) and to continue to demonize federal workers as do-nothing folks who don't need raises.  Meanwhile, President Obama has asked for a minimal half percent a year increase, and many in the private sector are seeing wages rise. Of course, everyone is struggling with unemployment rates rising to 8.2 percent. Still, it is onerous that federal employees seem to be bearing the brunt of this budget crisis.

Thousands of hardworking Veterans Health Administration (VHA) employees—including many veterans—have seen their job classifications arbitrarily downgraded over the past two years. Tomorrow, VHA workers from health care facilities in 20 states will march from Veterans Affairs headquarters in Washington, D.C., to the White House.

In a nationwide advertising campaign getting underway this weekend, AFGE members are calling out Republican lawmakers for supporting a plan to pay for the payroll tax relief extension by slashing federal employee wages.