Social Security Workers in Bangor Celebrate SS’s 90th Birthday & Call on Elected Leaders to Protect Delivery of Benefits

Members of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 1164 who work for the Social Security Administration (SSA) and union supporters celebrated Social Security’s 90th birthday with a cake and called on our elected leaders to halt attacks on this critical independent agency on August 14 at the Federal Building in Bangor.

In recent months the current Presidential administration has carried out the largest staffing cut in SSA’s history, potentially jeopardizing the delivery of benefits to millions of retirees, people with disabilities, survivors and families in crisis in Maine. At the same time, it has radically reorganized regional offices and removed 1,000 employees from field offices to the national phone lines. This has dramatically increased wait times, rerouting of calls to other field offices without jurisdiction over callers’ cases and made it harder for people to get help.

“I’ve never seen anything like it. They’re literally, in my opinion, taking us down from the inside out,” Christine Lizotte, AFGE Local 1164 member and employee of the Auburn Social Security office. “So we need everybody to rally. It’s a birthday celebration. This is one of the best programs that the US government has ever put into place. It is a safety net. It is an insurance policy. So we have two different programs, but many people have paid into this. It is an insurance policy. We made a promise that you will pay these taxes over your lifetime, and we will be here for you. And that is shifting, that is changing, and we need to stop it now before it’s too late.”

Social Security lifts an estimated 22 million people out of poverty, including over 16 million older adults and almost 1 million children. According to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, changes in President Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" will slash $30 billion annually from the Social Security and Medicare trust funds, moving the program’s projected insolvency from early 2033 to late 2032. This could trigger across-the-board benefit cuts of roughly 24 percent for all beneficiaries. Last week, Senator Bernie Sanders submitted a billthat would reverse the Trump administration’s cuts to the Social Security Administration and expand the program.