Federal Labor Union Opposes Defense Department Workforce Cuts

The American Federation of Government Employees is sending out a loud warning in light of the House Appropriations Committee's proposal to reduce the Defense Department civilian workforce. The union strongly objects to this plan, arguing that it will just redistribute work without actually achieving any cost savings.

What’s going on:

The American Federation of Government Employees is sounding the warning bell after House Appropriations Committee (HAC) leadership proposed reducing the Defense Department civilian workforce, according to Federal News Network.

In a letter to the chairmen and ranking members of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees defense subcommittees, the union showed its opposition to the suggestions from HAC defense subcommittee chairman Ken Calvert to reduce the DoD civilian workforce through attrition.

Why it matters:

The union has strongly opposed Calvert’s repeated attempts over the past several years to introduce legislation that would cap future years’ DoD civilian employee headcount at 85% of current levels, which he reaffirmed his intention to pursue in the current Congress.

The union believes that such a plan is mismanagement, and only shifts the workload to others without actually achieving savings.

How it’ll impact the future:

John Anderson, the legislative representative of the union, agreed with the idea that the Pentagon’s manpower needs may need to be adjusted, but said that job cuts should only happen after studies to reveal what roles should be kept and which should be eliminated. He then criticized the practice of axing jobs in an indiscriminate manner each time a vacancy occurred.

“I’m not talking about firing a bunch of people, but over a period of time and bringing the historic ratio of civilian employees relative to uniformed force back to where it should be. If we did that one thing, it would save $125 billion over five years,” Calvert said.