More On Union Anger At Social Security Management

From a January 14, 2009 letter from Witold Skwierczynski, head of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) union local that represents much of Social Security's workforce, to then President-elect Obama:

Current service problems [at Social Security] include the 765,000 backlog of disability hearings appeals which are awaiting hearings and decisions, the more than 500 day average processing time for disability hearings appeals, the current 20% busy rate on the SSA 800 number service, the fact that 45% of callers to an SSA field office either can’t reach an SSA employee or are told to call back due to lack of staff to handle the call, the inability of the Agency to process and complete 50% (i.e., 1.3 million per year) of scheduled SSI redeterminations, the inability of the Agency to process 67% (i.e., 465,000 per year) of scheduled medical Continuing Disability Reviews (CDRs), and significantly increased waiting times for visitors in SSA field offices. ...

AFGE believes that the stimulus package should include $1.71 billion to restore SSA staff and enable the Agency to process the workloads assigned to it by Congress and service the pension benefit requirements for the nation’s aged, disabled and poor. ...

The union has not joined its allies in the disability community and other SSA interest groups in requesting that the economic recovery legislation contain a provision for $750 million requested by SSA to construct a new National Computer Center (NCC). AFGE represents all bargaining unit employees who work at the NCC in Baltimore MD. Neither Commissioner Astrue nor any of his leadership team have to date communicated with the union regarding any desire or plans to replace the current NCC. Thus, SSA has made no attempt to justify to AFGE the enormous $750 million estimated cost for this project. In addition, SSA has made no effort to inform either the union or NCC employees regarding the proposed location of this facility. ... [A] relocation of the NCC would result in significant economic and personal disruption for employees who work in the NCC and the Woodlawn community where the current facility is located. ...

In closing, although Congress and the current administration underfunded SSA, Agency leadership is also responsible to a significant degree for the current unacceptable situation in SSA. Commissioner Astrue, Deputy Commissioner for Operations McMahon, and Deputy Commissioner for ODAR Foster are responsible for not seeking sufficient resources from Congress and for designing solutions to SSA workload problems which will eliminate SSA’s traditional role in assisting the public to obtain the most advantageous benefit possibilities. AFGE also believes that Deputy Commissioner Wells and Office of Labor and Employee Relations Assistant Deputy Commissioner Beever are directly responsible for terminating Agency communications with the union and SSA employees. AFGE urges you to ask for the Commissioner’s resignation and the reassignment of Ms. McMahon, Mr. Foster, Mr. Wells and Mr. Beever to positions outside of direct supervision of Agency operations and labor relations due to their malfeasance and gross mismanagement. If these leaders are not terminated or reassigned, you will be unable to influence the direction of one of the key Agencies in government – the Social Security Administration.