Government Employees Protest Against Extensive Layoffs
Government employees soon to be out of work, alongside their supporters, assembled in Bridgetown on Friday to voice their opposition towards drastic retrenchments. Among the crowd was Micah Niemeier-Walsh, a unionized employee at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health located in Cincinnati, who affirms being notified of her impending dismissal. The projected termination date might be as early as the first day of May. In addition to her work at NIOSH, Niemeier-Walsh also holds the position of vice president in the American Federation of Government Employees, Local 3840.
These extensive layoffs are set in motion by the Department of Government Efficiency, with a clear motive of trimming down operations. Niemeier-Walsh presents a perspective where workers were not included in the process, ‘I advocate that every individual working in government sector could provide substantial input on improving efficiency,’ she comments.
Continuing her thoughts, she mentions, ‘Large institutions like our federal government are riddled with bureaucratic complexities and inevitable red tape. However, they overlooked in asking our insights into which areas are problematic or could be simplified for increased efficiency.’ She emphasized that instead of a thoughtful, calculated approach, the authorities ‘just wielded a sledgehammer at everything,’ as she metaphorically explained.
Niemeier-Walsh stressed on the vital role of NIOSH, illustrating how the organization actively finds methods to keep illnesses and accidents at bay in various workplaces, thereby saving corporations across the nation billions of dollars. She calls upon Congress to acknowledge and enforce the law it enacted that authorized the establishment of NIOSH back in 1970.
On Friday afternoon, NIOSH employees, union members, and various supporters made their stance known as they held their gathering outside the office of Representative Warren Davidson in Hamilton County. Sharing her own plight, Hannah Echt, who stands to be among the hundreds of workers facing retrenchment, spoke up.
She asserts the gravity of the situation, saying, ‘It appears their plan is to dismantle our institute. This translates to about 90% of our workforce across the country facing job loss.’ Echt shares the collective sentiment, ‘Many of us believe that our roles are too significant to undergo such careless disposal.’
Cincinnati, currently home to two NIOSH facilities, was to see them merge into a unified campus proposed at a local near Martin Luther King Jr. Drive and Reading Road, situated in Uptown. Preliminary funding for the ambitious $110 million-project had been allocated, but the uncertainty in the backdrop leaves the project’s future hanging in balance.
Commenting on this, Niemeier-Walsh conjectured, ‘It stands to reason that, in the absence of NIOSH employees, the plan for a state-of-the-art NIOSH building would, sadly, be obsolete.’ The entire situation is fraught with turmoil as the impending mass job cuts loom large over each employee, while the ambitious plans for future growth of NIOSH are held in suspended animation.