I am a LPN at a VA hospital and have been for the past 16 yrs. I don’t know how many of you remember 1994. We had a furlough in KY; no pay for 2 pay periods… we got pink slips to take to our creditors. I also have been in the government system when people took early retirements because we went through a reduction in workforce. From what I understand a freeze you will still get your regular pay every pay period, and you continue to get your within grade increases when they are due, I’ll take that any day.
I am a GS 7 and don’t make a lot of money either, but the yearly COLA is money that we never had. We can’t miss what we never had. My COLA is on average 10-35 dollars a pay period, if that causes me a hardship I need to make some adjustment in my way of living to adjust. I see people daily who wish they had a job to get a paycheck. Let’s be thankful for the government job that we have, we have a benefit package that a lot of people in the private sector don’t have. Yes I am a union member, so I’m not knocking the work they are trying to do either.
Maybe I’m just too humble.
Samone Cone
LPN – Department of Veterans Affairs
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Humble? I don’t think the word you’re looking for is humble exactly. This is a matter of principle. Yes, I’m grateful to have a job and yes, enduring a pay freeze is better than not being paid at all. Are those our options then? We have to reflect and think that things could be worse so we shouldn’t fight for what’s right? I don’t buy it. COLA increases are granted because the cost of living increases every year. Is someone going to “freeze” the cost of just living in society? No. I am a GS 11 and am grateful for what I make and work very, very hard to earn it; while I have it better than many, that doesn’t make it right to impose this freeze. As another poster wrote, why was this the method that was chosen? Why are we singled out (without the miltary and the postal service being included, might I add)? I don’t think the military and/or USPS should be “frozen”, but why one portion of the group and not the other? None of this makes sense, and being humble has nothing to do with it.