Trump Order Leads To Union Grievance At Social Security

     From the Washington Post (I've avoided parts of the article that are obviously slanted against the employee unions):

Federal agencies on Monday begin implementing executive orders from President Trump on how to confront employee unions, following strict guidelines likely to escalate tensions that have been building since the president took office. ...

The administration wants agencies to reopen collective bargaining agreements to reduce the on-duty time union representatives spend representing employees. Managers are directed to “monitor and carefully report” on the time and make the information publicly available. And agencies are directed to move swiftly to fire poor performers, renegotiating any contracts that allow for progressive discipline.

The conflict appears headed for a showdown, either in federal court, where the unions have filed numerous lawsuits challenging the orders, or in Congress. The administration and the unions have courted Capitol Hill allies, with Republicans supporting Trump’s tactics and Democrats backing the unions, a key constituency. ...

     See below for the grievance that has been filed by the union representing most Social Security employees in response to this.  Click on each page to view full size.

     I'm a neutral non-combatant in this battle. However, the Trump order is clearly a declaration of war.  The Supreme Court's obvious hostility to employee unions may help Trump but he may also need continued GOP control of both houses of Congress to win this war.

     The Washington Post piece is not worthy of a great newspaper. It's filled with pejorative references to federal employees and their unions. I don't think that even Rupert Murdock's Wall Street Journal would have written a piece like that. Joe Davidson, who normally covers federal employee matters for the Post, wrote a much more even-handed piece.

Assaults At Social Security Office Leave One Dead And Two In Critical Condition

     From WJTV in Mississippi:

A Mississippi sheriff says a man stabbed a relative in a federal government office and then was shot by a security guard.

Pike County Sheriff Kenny Cotton tells The Enterprise-Journal of McComb that the attacker entered a U.S. Social Security Administration office in the southwest Mississippi city Monday morning.

Cotton says the attacker confronted and stabbed a relative who worked at the office, and may have stabbed a second person.

According to a spokesperson with the Southwest Regional Medical Center in McComb, the suspect in this morning's attack is dead and two stabbing victims are in critical but stable condition.

The suspect has been identified as 21-year-old Branen Carter of Foxworth. According to authorities, Carter was shot in the abdomen and died in the emergency room just before noon at Southwest Regional Medical Center.

Investigators say Carter is responsible for stabbing his mother and grandmother, both of whom are also from Foxworth. ...

The incident apparently started out as a family squabble, according to sources close to the investigation the suspect reportedly stabbed both his mother and grandmother before a security guard shot him.

Still True

This Year's COLA May Hit Ten Year High

     From the Motley Fool:

... While nothing is set in stone, given that we don't even have data from the three months that actually count (July-September), as an early glimpse I'd suggest that there's a good chance [Social Security's Cost Of Living Adjustment or COLA] could be the biggest raise since 2012, with a slim possibility of it being the largest raise in a decade. ... 

According to the May inflation data release from the BLS [Bureau of Labor Statistics], which primarily tracks the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U), the CPI-W has increased exactly 3% on a trailing-12-month basis. ...

The CPI-U inflation data, which is similar to the CPI-W, shows that energy has been the primary driver of higher prices. On an unadjusted 12-month basis, aggregate energy prices have risen by 11.7% as of May 2018, with gasoline and fuel oil costs up by 21.8% and 25.3%, respectively. Shelter and transportation services also saw increases of 3.5% and 3.8%, respectively. Meanwhile, new and used vehicles are the only line items to have observed year-on-year deflation over the past 12 months. 

With the summer driving season kicking into full swing, and prices at the pump soaring in the wake of four-year highs for crude oil prices, energy commodities have a really good shot (at least right now) of carrying Social Security's 2019 COLA above the 3% mark. Keep in mind that hurricanes Harvey and Irma, which disrupted production and refining capacity throughout the Gulf of Mexico and the southeastern U.S. last year, played a critical role in lifting COLA by 2% for 2018. If this hurricane season is anything like last year's, any extended disruption in the domestic refining industry could give Social Security's COLA an outside chance of eclipsing 3.6%, as it did in 2012, ultimately pushing it to a 10-year high. ...

OMB Asked To Approve Final Regs On Attorney Advisor Program

     The Social Security Administration has asked the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to approve final regulations to make the attorney advisor program permanent.

Is It Any Different In The U.S.?

     From The Local Europe Italy AB:

Italy needs more migrants in order to pay for the population's pensions, the country's social security chief said Wednesday, drawing the ire of anti-immigration interior minister Matteo Salvini. 

If we halved migratory flows "in five years we would lose population equivalent to that of Turin", Boeri said referring to the country's important northern industrial hub.

If immigration were reduced to zero we would lose "700,000 people under 34 years of age in the space of one parliamentary mandate", he told the lower house of parliament.

Italy is suffering a demographic decline with one of the lowest birthrates in Europe. Boeri said he was concerned that "no one seems to care" about this decline in Italy and recommended maintaining a flow of legal migration, which alone, he said, could ensure the balance of Italy's pension fund. ...

Social Security Administration Fairness Act

     Senator Bernie Sanders has introduced the "Social Security Administration Fairness Act." Here are the chief provisions of Sanders' proposed Act:

• Automatic appropriation to the Social Security Administration of an amount equal to 1.5 percent of expected annual benefits and payments administered by SSA to pay for all administrative costs incurred by SSA in fiscal years 2019 and thereafter. 
• Eliminate the 5-month waiting period for Social Security disabled worker benefits and disabled surviving spouse benefits.
• Eliminate the 24-month waiting period for Medicare coverage for individuals who have become entitled for Social Security disability benefits. 
• Create a temporary moratorium on the consolidation of SSA field offices and hearings offices.

      Sanders asked the Office of the Chief Actuary at Social Security to determine what effects the proposed Act would have on the Social Security Trust Funds if enacted. The actuaries found that the proposal would not change the exhaustion date of the combined Trust Funds. That date would stay at 2034.

     This can't get passed until there's a Democratic majority in both Houses of Congress. That's unlikely to be the case next year but it's not out of the question. Whenever Democrats get the majority on both Houses of Congress, I predict there will be Social Security legislation. Sanders' proposal could easily be part of it. It's not that costly.
     While we're talking about Senator Sanders, he was able to get new staffers for Social Security field offices in Vermont.

Happy Independence Day!