Federal Workers Rally Against Plans for Cuts : Government: Santa Ana protesters oppose congressional efforts to slice payroll and benefits.

SANTA ANA — About 250 federal workers rallied at the steps of the Federal Building here Friday to protest the Republican Party’s “contract with America,” which demonstrators said threatens reductions in their pay, retirement benefits and jobs.

Carrying signs that read, “No Newt” and “Nuke the Newt,” the workers said it’s wrong for House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Georgia) and other congressional leaders to seek tax reductions by cutting an estimated $12 billion in their salaries and benefits over the next five years.

“For workers who make $40,000 a year, the cuts could mean a loss of $1,000 a year,” said Michael Willis, 43, a U.S. Customs agent at Terminal Island. “To members of Congress, that’s a brass faucet on their yacht or the bill for dinner in Paris. To us, it represents a vacation or whether my family can afford piano lessons for our kids.

“Congress wants to balance the budget on our backs,” Willis said.

Most of the workers are members of the National Treasury Employees Union, a group representing workers from the Internal Revenue Service, U.S. Customs Service, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., and Financial Management Systems, as well as from the Department of Health and Human Services. The union represents about 187,000 federal employees nationwide.

Donald W. Smith, an IRS agent and president of the NTEU chapter in Laguna Niguel, said federal workers are upset about several issues. Those concerns, he said, include legislation passed in 1990 that was supposed to offer pay to government workers comparable to private sector employees; proposed changes in retirement, and current congressional rhetoric to downsize government.

“Congress is now moving forward and talking about downsizing and cutting the national budget,” Smith said. “What this all means is loss of jobs and less pay for us federal workers.

“We have a contract for comparable pay, but Congress is not honoring it,” Smith contended.

Sylvia Martinez, 48, who has been a U.S. Customs officer for 15 years, is a single parent. Although her 28-year-old daughter already has a family of her own, Martinez said she is concerned about a younger daughter, now 18, who wants to go to college.

“Hey, I’ll tell you the truth. After 15 years with customs, I only make $37,000 a year,” Martinez said. “I’ve got a condo mortgage, basic expenses, and food. . . . I can’t even afford a box of cereal, everything’s so expensive. Now, they want to pay me less, and my benefit payments are going up.”

Peter Granucci, the 8-year-old son of IRS Agent Judy Granucci, walked with his mother and other demonstrators and proudly waved a sign: “I’m not allowed to break promises. Why are you?”

Peter’s mother has worked with the IRS for 23 years, and her husband, Stephen, has been with the IRS for 26 years.

“We have five children and over the last three years, we’ve gotten very little in the way of pay raises,” Judy Granucci said. “We finally were able to buy a home, but it’s been a struggle. We were relying on this contract to pay us equivalent to private sector pay. And now Congress doesn’t want to honor that.”