Sequestration Could Put Nearly One Million Defense Employees on Furlough

If you’re a civilian employee working for the Defense Department, you’ve been put on notice. The sequester is very real and it’s extremely likely you are going to feel the effects of it soon. About 800,000 employees received notification that a furlough could be on the way.  
J. David Cox  is the president of the American Federation of Government Employees, the largest union of federal employees.  Dave Gassett, a mechanic in Arkansas, has worked for the federal government for 38 years.
If you’re a civilian employee working for the Defense Department…you’ve been put on notice…the sequester is very real and it’s extremely likely you are gonna feel the effects of it soon.

800,000 of you received notification that you could be furloughed. This is was the Pentagon’s announcement, yesterday:

A FURLOUGH   PENTAGON ANNOUNCEMENT — 17s
Under Secretary of Defense and CFO Robert Hale, Press Conference 2/20/13

And unfortunately, along with this long list of items we will have to do if sequestration lasts all year, are furloughs, for civilian personnel. We feel we don’t have any choice, but to impose furloughs, even though we would much prefer not to do it.

That’s Undersecretary of Defense Robert Hale speaking at a press conference yesterday – describing the across the board cuts to the budget that the sequester will result in.

With us is J. David Cox, President of American Federation of Government Employees, the largest union of federal employees.