Unions & Advocates Call on Joe Biden to Clean House at the Social Security Administration
This week, unions representing Social Security Administration (SSA) employees and advocates representing Social Security beneficiaries held a virtual press conference. At the event, they urged President-elect Joe Biden to quickly remove Donald Trump’s political appointees from SSA — starting with Commissioner Andrew Saul and Deputy Commissioner David Black.
Ralph de Juliis, President of American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) Council 220, discussed Saul and Black’s lack of “respect for employees who are working hard” and described their behavior as “routinely and completely anti-union.”
“We don’t think Social Security should be a political pawn,” said de Juliis. “This is a program that has lifted Americans since the Depression out of poverty, and provided…retirement, survivors, and disability benefits to millions of people. These are programs that are worth protecting, and [Saul] has failed to do his job as commissioner to protect Social Security.”
The Honorable Melissa McIntosh, President of the Association of Administrative Law Judges (ALJs), also spoke out against SSA management’s war on unions.
“Commissioner Saul and Deputy Commissioner Black have engaged in no-holds-barred union busting,” said McIntosh. “They pledged before Congress under oath that they would work with the unions and comply with labor laws. They have not.”
McIntosh also spoke out against the Trump Administration’s proposal to replace independent ALJs with political appointees. It is essential that the judges who determine people’s eligibility for disability benefits are independent and not vulnerable to political considerations or other outside pressures.
Matthew Biggs, Secretary-Treasurer of the International Federation of Professional & Technical Engineers (IFPTE), reiterated this point.
“The people before these administrative law judges are the most vulnerable citizens in our society,” said Biggs. “They’ve applied for disability benefits, and they’re deserving of their due process rights to be heard by an independent judge, not an employee of the agency who gets bonuses, who can be influenced, or whose performance ratings can be determined based on whether they give a certain determination in these cases.”
Biggs also discussed a series of executive orders issued by the Trump administration, aimed at busting federal government unions. He described SSA, under the leadership of Saul and Black, as the most “anti-worker, anti-union agency in the entire federal government.”
Alex Lawson, Executive Director of Social Security Works, explained what these attacks on Social Security’s workforce mean for beneficiaries.
“All of this union busting and workforce demoralization is an attempt to perpetrate a death by a thousand cuts attack on Social Security,” said Lawson. Commissioner Saul and Deputy Commissioner Black are the perpetrators. On their way out the door, like a wrecking crew, they’re implementing all of these poisonous assaults on our Social Security system. We will not work with them.”
“We need to clean house on day one,” added Lawson. “Then together we can work with the unions, with SSA, with the beneficiaries to implement President-elect Joe Biden’s vision for Social Security: A system that provides economic security for everyone in this country.”
