DEFENSE SUPPLY CENTER WORKERS HIT WITH FURLOUGH: About 7,800 civilian employees at the Defense Supply Center Columbus will begin taking 14 days of unpaid furlough in mid-June and will be encouraged to take those days on either Mondays or Fridays. AFGE Local 1148 President Patty Viers told The Columbus Dispatch that civilian DoD employees have become “sacrificial lambs” for the rest of the department.

DEPOT WORKLOAD TO DIMINISH: Workload at Anniston Army Depot will diminish slowly in coming years as the military draws down from the war in Afghanistan, U.S. Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno said during a visit to the depot on April 2. 

DOD SECRETARY TO GIVE UP SALARY: Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel will take a voluntary pay cut as a show of solidarity with Pentagon employees who will have to take unpaid time off over the coming months, a Pentagon spokesman announced April 2. Hagel will give back the equivalent of 14 days' pay to the government, matching the 14 days most civilian employees will be furloughed. That would come to about $10,750, based on Hagel's salary of $199,700.

AFGE PRESIDENT CALLS FOR END TO DEFENSE FURLOUGHS: The Department of Defense's announcement that it will reduce the number of planned furlough days from 22 to 14 is a good first step, but the Pentagon now needs to cancel the furloughs altogether, AFGE National President J. David Cox Sr. said in a March 28 statement.