Picketing At Social Security Office Scheduled For December 5

     From Federal Daily News:

A coalition of labor groups and public interest organizations plans to conduct informational pickets this week outside Social Security Administration offices in 22 states.

According to media alert from the American Federation of Government Employees, the effort will involve “thousands of Social Security employees at more than 100 Social Security offices across the country and representatives from a 200-plus member organization coalition…”

The event, labeled “an effort to save Social Security and Medicare from extinction,” is slated to occur Dec. 5 from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. ...

“Cutting Social Security’s budget or making modifications to Medicare and Medicaid should not be part of a grand bargain to reduce the deficit,” Witold Skwierczynski, president of AFGE’s National Council of Social Security Field Operations Locals (NCSSFOL), said in a statement.

AGFE said that an NCSSFOL study determined that sequestration, if implemented, would require SSA to reduce its budget by 5.5 percent, leading to a hiring freeze across most of the agency, and the loss of more than 3,500 SSA and Disability Determination Service state employees. ...

Members of the coalition include the Alliance for Retired Americans, Social Security Works, MoveOn.org, Common Cause, Gray Panthers, American Federation of Teachers, National Council of Negro Women, NAACP, National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare and other unions and groups. 

According to AFGE, the picketing will take place at SSA offices in Alaska, Alabama, California, Florida, Iowa, Indiana, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, North Carolina, Nebraska, New Mexico, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.