Taking Action Against the Quiet Crisis
AFT Public Employees, AFL-CIO Sandra Feldman, President Edward J. McElroy, Secretary-Treasurer Nat Lacour, Executive Vice President The AFT Public Employees Recruitment and Retention Task Force: Jill Bradfield, Professionals Guild of Ohio, OFT, AFT, AFL-CIO Art Foeste, Wisconsin Professional Employees Council, WFT, AFT, AFL-CIO Toni Joyce, Kentucky Association of State Employees, AFT, AFL-CIO John Little, Illinois Federation of Public Employees, IFT, AFT, AFL-CIO Colin O’Neill, Judicial Professional Employees, Connecticut, CFEPE, AFT, AFL-CIO Jo Romero, Colorado Federation of Public Employees, AFT, AFL-CIO Dave Rudebock, Professionals Guild of Ohio, AFT, AFL-CIO Chris Runge, North Dakota Public Employees Association, AFT, AFL-CIO David Stallone, New York State Public Employees Federation, AFT, AFL-CIO Betty Vines, Kansas Association of Public Employees, AFT, AFL-CIO Bill Walling, Maryland Professional Employees Council, AFT, AFL-CIO AFT Public Employees Staff: Steve Porter, Director Jennifer Shaw, Senior Associate Karen Schiffhauer, Administrative Secretary Jewell Gould, Research Director Charlie Glendinning, Director of Art Mary Boyd, Copy Editor http://www.aft.org Special assistance from Lorel Wisniewski, Workplace Economics Cover art by Todd Dawes Executive Summary Quality government services face attack from many fronts. Tax giveaways, raids on public reserves and a major drop in the economy have all combined to drain vital resources away from government programs. This, in addition to widespread early retirement incentives and a massive wave of Baby Boom retirements, will take the most skilled and expert employees out of public service. Public service no longer is viewed as an employer of choice; we are seeing unprecedented voluntary separations in many states as well.
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