Federal Workers Protest Social Security Cutbacks - Privatization

SAN FRANCISCO (08-14) – In recognition of the 90th birthday of the Social Security Act, on August 14, workers who administrate benefits that 70 million Americans receive through the Act, gathered at the US Federal Building to protest the DOGE staff cuts and Trump administration’s move towards privatization. The workers said that staff cuts have resulted in their having to serve more people than ever while “experiencing one of the lowest staffing levels in 60 years.” In addition, beneficiaries are experiencing degraded services “combined with chaotic and confusing policy changes.”

Organizers reflected that the DOGE cuts have resulted in “deteriorating working conditions, longer wait times, slower service, and more barriers for the benefits Americans need to survive. Fewer workers mean less service, less benefits, and an impoverished system and we won’t stand for it.”

Sylvia Norman, President of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 3172, spoke of the urgent need to replace staff terminated by Elon Musk and his DOGE firings, so that workers are better able to service those who receive benefits that they have paid for.

One speaker spoke about his 91-year-old parents, saying “Part of the reason they are both still here is because of Social Security. For my mother it has been a lifeline.” He went on to describe Social Security as “the most successful anti-poverty program in the history of the country, a model of social welfare and how we should meet human needs in this country. It has benefitted every family in this country and when a rightwing administration takes it on, we see what their agenda is, to privatize it to take over for the profit for Wall Street and we cannot allow that.”

Jacquelin Hopkins representing Social Security workers in San Francisco warned that “We are here to sound the alarm. Social Security is under threat. Now is the time to head off this horrific takeover. The attack on Social Security and privatization could mean an unfair, unregulated system built on the profit of others.”

Presently the Social Security Trust Funds have $2.72 trillion making it a plum target for those looking to privatization for profit and investment opportunities. Some projections estimate, however, that the Fund will be bankrupt by 2033-2034 if changes are not made. The root cause of a shortfall in funding is multifaceted and includes such things as an elderly population that is living longer and lower birth rate that sees fewer people entering the workforce and paying into the Fund causing it to operate at a deficit. If reserve funds are depleted, it would only be able to pay an estimated “76 to 83 percent” of its promised benefits obligations.

Social Security grew out of the Great Depression as part of President Franklin Roosevelt’s “New Deal” and the urgent need to provide an economic social safety net for the elderly. Public pressure helped push Congress into passing the Act that Roosevelt signed into law in 1935.

Entirely funded by all wage earners, the program receives a dedicated payroll tax of 6.2 percent based on a worker’s monthly income to Fund future benefits. The Fund is not paid for by the government and despite the seeming equity of everyone paying that rate, within the system of funding, great economic disparity exists.

In April of this year when speaking on the economic unfairness of the system based on workers’ contributions, which favor the wealthy, former Social Security Commissioner and two-term Maryland Governor, Martin O’Malley, reflected that the average worker pays Social Security all through the calendar year on earnings up to the first $176,100 of income. “Which means that Elon Musk and Warren Buffet stop paying two seconds after the ball drops on Times Square. So, most Americans think it would be fair to have those high earners kick in more of their income.”

The federal workers at today’s action are demanding that The Social Security Administration be fully staffed to reduce wait times and ensure high quality service delivered by professionals and not machines. They are also demanding that the rich pay their share to expand and keep Social Security strong for many more generations.


Report and photos by Phil Pasquini

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