Pennsylvania will need to fill in gaps from federal cuts or be left without services, says union rep

The reach of layoffs in the federal government will go beyond the jobless, state politicians and a labor leader said Wednesday, expressing worries about the implications for widely used services from the Department of Veterans Affairs and Social Security Administration.

At a policy hearing of the Pennsylvania House majority Wednesday, the public officials also discussed potentially grave implications for the Pennsylvania economy.

In recent months, federal workers have been offered the opportunity to resign with a buyout, and they have been asked to share their accomplishments via email. Federal workers have also been laid off in Philadelphia and across the country, though some have since been reinstated.

President Donald Trump signed several executive orders on his first day in office that ordered a hiring freeze, an end to DEI initiatives, and a return to fully in-person work in the federal workforce. His administration has vowed to shrink the federal workforce amid efforts to cut government spending.

“What we’re seeing right now, in the last 72 days, is an unprecedented assault on organized labor, on working people, on working families and on Pennsylvanians of all different political stripes, from every single corner of our commonwealth,” said state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta (D., Philadelphia).

“It is an attack on their ability to have access to the necessary government services that they depend on every single day,” Kenyatta said.

» READ MORE: Federal layoffs hit Philadelphia. Here’s what happened next for workers.

State Rep. Morgan Cephas (D., Philadelphia) noted that federal funding cuts and impacts on the federal workforce don’t stop in blue districts and could have larger economic impacts on the region. Philadelphia receives over $2 billion worth of federal grants, and the city collects over a billion dollars in wage and sales taxes from the federal workforce, she noted.

“This is potentially crippling economies. ... We know this is gonna have a detrimental impact to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,” she said.

Some federal workers have been applying to state jobs in recent weeks. Since a March 5 executive order from Gov. Josh Shapiro paved the way for more hiring, at least 700 federal employees have applied for positions with the state, according to Philip Glover, national vice president of the AFGE District 3, which represents government workers.

Among Pennsylvania government jobs, 6.8% of salaried positions are currently vacant, including hard-to-fill roles as nurses, financial professionals, IT positions, and engineers, said Miranda Martin, director of talent management at the state’s office of administration.

Glover noted that the state will have to step up to fill in the gaps that federal layoffs will leave, noting that VA employees are among those losing their jobs.

“Pennsylvania state, in my mind, is either going to have to pick up these services in some way — which is going to affect your budgets — or those services are just gonna not be there,” Glover said.

Federal employees are feeling “horrified,” and people are “stunned” because of the recent shake-ups in their workplaces, Glover said.

While those who remain employed will attempt to do the work of a once-larger staff, grant programs are also being cut, Glover noted.

“Our people are in chaos,” he said, adding that morale among members has dropped. “I’ve talked to so many employees that come to work, and frankly, they don’t know if they’re going to be there tomorrow.”

More cuts are expected, too. Agencies have been ordered to submit reduction in force plans, and some details of those plans have begun to emerge.

The AFGE union represents members at nine VA hospitals and benefits offices, and Glover estimates that 4,000 to 5,000 Pennsylvania employees will be cut from the VA, given the over 80,000 cuts that are expected at the agency across the country, he said Wednesday.

The Social Security Administration announced in February that it aimed to cut 7,000 workers across the country. In Northeast Pennsylvania, the agency’s documents center has roughly 1,000 workers and a payment center in Philadelphia has roughly 1,500 workers, as well as other disability and field offices across the state that employ others, said Glover.

The unemployment system will be “stressed” as more cuts are made, he noted.

Glover, who has been a union representative since 1991, said the recent moves are unprecedented.

“I have never, ever seen [such an] onslaught against workers, against the union and, frankly, against the services that we provide to the American public,” he said.

While the union is fighting back in court and has let members know that they are doing everything that they can legally, it’s an uphill battle, Glover said.

“I think everybody recognizes that the power of the presidency of the United States and the House and Senate under Republican control makes it very difficult to fight back,” he said. “AFGE and the other federal unions are fighting the biggest, most equipped employer in the country.”