June 10: Social Security Worker Visibility Day

From: Jessica LaPointe

Brothers, Sisters, Siblings, I want to make sure every member of our union and allies reads this piece. This week, The New Yorker published a deeply reported article titled, "The Real Cost of Downsizing Social Security." The story follows a Midwest field office manager and a claims specialist in Duluth, Minnesota. When you read it, you will recognize them immediately — because their story is your story. The exhaustion, the impossible workloads, the constant policy reversals, the deep commitment to the public you serve despite it all. You didn't read about this in a magazine. You lived it.

None of this is new to us. We have been documenting it, grieving it, bargaining over it, and fighting it for years. The article puts into stark relief what we have been working to expose for a decade and more acutely since January 2025: the hollowing out of an agency now running on a skeleton crew — while 75 million Americans depend on it.

A few things stood out:

• Overall SSA staffing is now at its lowest level since the late 1960s — when the agency served roughly 50 million fewer beneficiaries.

• The consolidation of the Midwest region reduced a headquarters staff of roughly 500 policy experts down to just 16.

• The agency has lurched from one reversal to the next — on walk-in service, overpayment clawbacks, phone

• policy, field office closures — with too few resources to manage the impact on staff or the public.

• The inspector general documented that the agency was counting callback wait times as zero to make phone metrics look better than they are.

• Employee satisfaction scores plummeted from 54 out of 100 in 2024 to 15 in 2025.

• Our colleagues were forced to work through a 43-day government shutdown without pay.

You knew all of this already. This article allows the country to continue to get exposed to the reality of their Social Security program.

Please share this article widely — with your members, with your community, with anyone who uses or cares about Social Security. We will publish it on our website. The public needs to continue to understand that the service failures they are experiencing are the direct result of policy choices and lack of meaningful congressional action, not the failure of the dedicated workers serving them. That has always been our message, and it has never been more important.

And here is more of what we are doing about it:

• June 10 — Social Security Worker Visibility Day: We are asking Social Security workers across the country to make themselves visible — to their communities, to the public, to each other, and to their elected officials.

This is our opportunity to put a human face on the stories being reported, and remind the country who has been holding this agency together. These are nonpartisan actions. They are about the people we serve and the workers who show up for them every single day. June 10 is our chance to be heard again.

IMPORTANT: All media inquiries should be directed to local and council leadership first. We want to make sure our members are protected and that our message stays clear and consistent.

Thank you for everything you do every single day.

In Solidarity, Jessica LaPointe, President, AFGE (American Federation of Government Employees) Council 220