Federal Firings Strike Alaska Forest Service

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Category: News

Created on Tuesday, 18 February 2025 15:10

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EDITOR’S NOTE: The Sentinel

will report on federally-mandated

employee terminations in the Sitka

Ranger District as that information

becomes available.

By CORINNE SMITH

Alaska Beacon

At least 30 federal workers with the U.S. Forest Service in Alaska have been terminated immediately, as of Thursday, according to the National Federation of Federal Employees union.

“We got word yesterday that there were going to be 3,400 terminations of probationary employees within the U.S. Forest Service nationwide, and those terminations started at midnight,” said Matt Brossard, a national business representative with NFFE, speaking Friday at 10 a.m. 

“There were 30 employees terminated yesterday” in Alaska he said. “I don’t have any numbers of what has occurred today, but I would say that there’s been a significant increase in that number, just from what we’re seeing in other areas of the country.”

Brossard said the firings will have an immediate and severe impact nationwide. “This is going to severely handcuff the agency’s ability to perform the necessary work that we do,” he said. “Whether it’s wildland firefighting, recreation facilities, visitor centers, this mass termination is going to affect every function in the national forests.”

The union, which represents over 110,000 federal employees nationwide, joined a coalition of labor organizations in filing a lawsuit on Tuesday challenging the firings by President Donald Trump’s administration, and what they say is an attempt to gut the federal workforce. 

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, urges the court to intervene in the federal terminations, challenging the firing of probationary employees. The lawsuit also alleges that the federal administration has pressured employees to voluntarily resign, and the large-scale reduction in federal workforce violates the law.

“It’s going to be a waiting game to wait and see what the courts are willing to do to support federal employees,” such as putting a stay on the firings, Brossard said. He added that the union is looking at filing a temporary restraining order to prevent further firings. 

He said many employees had been notified verbally, and then received a letter of termination effective immediately. 

Many were in their one- or two-year probationary period, and Brossard and the union argue the termination wrongfully cites performance. “They’re being terminated, essentially for a performance issue, even though their performance appraisals have been fully successful,” he said. 

A copy of a termination letter sent to the Alaska Beacon dated Feb. 13 reads: “The Agency finds, based on your performance, that you have not demonstrated that your further employment with the Agency would be in the public interest. For this reason, the Agency informs you that the Agency is removing you from the position.”

Brossard said that’s inappropriate.

“So they’re just using this blanket authority of, ‘We can terminate you in your probationary period’ as a way to reduce the size of government employees,” he said. “And this is not just a Forest Service thing, this is across the board. Civilian Department of Defense positions, VA (Veterans Affairs), every single U.S. government branch in the executive branch is getting these termination orders.”

For now, for those federal workers, Brossard said there’s not much relief. “Right now, those employees are terminated. So depending on how a judgment were to come out from the courts, would determine if those employees get their position back, get any further compensation — any of that. We’re going to have to wait and see and let the legal process kind of work itself out,” he said.

“It’s going to put an incredible workload on the other employees in the agency, because a lot of that work has to be done,” he said. 

Alaska has an estimated 1,200 federal employees who have been in their jobs less than a year, Alaska Public Media reported. Brossard did not have any further information on firings at other Alaska agencies such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration or the National Weather Service, as of Friday morning. 

Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski issued a statement via Facebook late Friday addressing the firings. “Dozens of Alaskans – potentially over 100 in total – are being fired as part of the Trump administration’s reduction-in-force order for the federal government,” she said.

“I share the administration’s goal of reducing the size of the federal government, but this approach is bringing confusion, anxiety and now trauma to our civil servants … indiscriminate workforce cuts aren’t efficient and won’t fix the federal budget, but they will hurt good people,” Murkowski said.

Alaska State Sen. Cathy Giessel, R-Anchorage and majority leader of the Senate, said Friday that it’s concerning. “We have a lot of forest fires. We need those Forest Service employees here helping us protect the largest asset we have, in terms of land, those trees. Yeah, these are important things I’m not supportive of, of course. But it’s hard to push back.”

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https://alaskabeacon.com/corinne-smith

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