Working Families Demand Repeal of Sequestration at Noon Demos Today

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)Working families will gather at 12 noon today at two DC locations to call on Congress to repeal sequestration immediately and to protect Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare and laws which protect Americans in the workplace from benefit cuts. The local rallies are part of a National Day of Action with over 100 events. AFGE Local 12, the largest federal local in the Washington DC area, is hosting the 30-minute rally in front of the US Department of Labor (stairs of the Frances Perkins Building at 200 Constitution Avenue), with turnout expected from other AFGE and AFSCME locals as well as international unions, including the Laborers, who will have Federal worker members lobbying Capitol Hill on this issue at the same time. AFGE 1923 is also organizing an action at 2100 M St NW, also at noon. “This action is not against the administration but against the draconian cutbacks at DOL,” said Local 12 President Alex Bastani. Across the board cuts, known as sequestration, went into effect on March 1st and will cost 750,000 jobs nationwide and cut nearly $374 million in non-defense funding for critical programs in the District, Maryland and Virginia. Since November, working families across the Washington area and the country have been mobilizing to prevent Congress from making cuts to essential services working families depend on, or to Medicaid, Medicare or Social Security benefits, and to ensure that the wealthy and Wall Street pay their fair share.