Fewer furlough days for defense workers

About 20,000 civilian defense workers in Hawaii are expected to get a reprieve from the 22 furlough days that were expected through September under sequestration.

The Pentagon will trim the number of unpaid furlough days to 14, a step that will reduce the impact of automatic budget cuts on as many as 700,000 workers nationwide, The Associated Press reported Wednesday.

"This is down by a third. That’s a big deal. Most people seem to be pretty stoked about it," said Robert Lillis, president of Machinists Union Local 1998, which represents about 300 workers at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard.

A total of 4,447 civilian workers and 544 military members work at the shipyard, officials said.

Lillis said word of the furlough reduction had spread to most of the workforce Wednesday — although the Pentagon had yet to officially announce it.

Under the new plan, the furloughs would not begin until mid-June, with notices going out before that, the AP said.

Military service chiefs and defense leaders were working through the details Wednesday, trying to prioritize how they will allocate the $10.4 billion that Congress, in an attempt to take some of the sting out of the across-the-board budget cuts, shifted to operations and maintenance accounts on March 20, the news agency said.

According to the report, while some of the military services considered eliminating the furloughs altogether, senior leaders argued that because not all the services could do that, it would be better to treat all civilians across the Defense Department equally.

The Pentagon did say Wednesday that officials were looking at the recently signed continuing resolution — which funds the government for the remainder of the fiscal year — to see how the legislation affects personnel and programs.

"The (new continuing resolution) doesn’t solve all of our problems to be sure, but furloughs are a consideration," Pentagon Press Secretary George Little said.

The funding measure creates some breathing room for programs that defense officials said were underfunded this year, but leaves in place the across-the-board budget cuts known as sequestration.

Under sequestration, the Pentagon still needs to trim $500 billion from its planned spending over nine years.

Many of the precautionary budget cutbacks that were enacted are still in place, or are still being enacted.

Pacific Air Forces, based at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, announced Wednesday that as a result of budgetary considerations, the exercise Red Flag-Alaska 13-2, scheduled for April, has been canceled.

"PACAF is working hard to mitigate the effects of sequestration on the remaining scheduled Asia-Pacific exercises and aerial events, as they are the key component of peacetime operations," the command said.

The Pearl Harbor destroyer USS Chung-Hoon, meanwhile, has seen its scheduled Feb. 28 deployment pushed back at least twice because of money shortfalls, the Navy said.

The guided-missile destroyer and its crew of more than 280 initially had its departure delayed until no earlier than March 15. It now will leave Pearl Harbor no sooner than Tuesday, Navy Region Hawaii said.

The starts and stops make it hard on families who keep expecting to say goodbye to loved ones for six months or more.

"Without question, due to no fault of their own, the unexpected delay of the deployment will have negative impact on our sailors and their families," said Bill Doughty, deputy director of public affairs for Navy Region Hawaii and Naval Surface Group Middle Pacific.

"Our Military Family Support Center works very closely with the deploying units’ ombudsmen and family readiness groups" to provide programs and resources to help the Navy families, Doughty said.

The Navy previously said it would cancel a $35 million repair job on the Pearl Harbor destroyer USS Chafee if there was no budget relief. Where the project now stands is unclear.

Don Bongo, president of the Metal Trades Council, which represents about 4,000 Pearl Harbor shipyard workers, said a reduction in the total number of furlough days is good, but 14 unpaid days off still represents a financial hardship for many.

The union has been negotiating with shipyard officials on a plan to have workers take Friday through Monday off, followed by a regular Saturday and Sunday off, followed by the four-day weekend again to fulfill the furlough requirement, officials said.

"To be honest, the furlough is not going to save taxpayer money," because work deferred due to fewer work days will be pushed down the road to be made up later, Bongo said.

Union officials say they also are unhappy with a shipyard "exceptions list" of 451 employees who would be exempted from the furloughs to ostensibly ensure nuclear safety.

The shipyard already has the ability to recall workers to react to any situation that may occur, Bongo said. Having one group immune from furlough cuts experienced by others would create dissension in the workforce, he said.

"We believe we shouldn’t have an exceptions list because they’ve got the ability to recall people anyway," Bongo said.

A shipyard representative said Wednesday it needed additional time to provide a response.