NIOSH Workers Demonstrate Outside Rep. Warren Davidson's Office
Soon to be unemployed government workers and their supporters gathered in Bridgetown Friday afternoon to protest dramatic cuts by the Trump administration.
Micah Niemeier-Walsh says she's one of the unionized employees who's been told she'll be let go from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health in Cincinnati. The end date could be as soon as May 1. She’s the vice president of the American Federation of Government Employees, Local 3840.
The cuts come from Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency.
“I’m sure if you ask any government worker they could give you some pointers on ways that things could be more efficient,” she says. “There’s always red tape and bureaucracy in very large institutions like the federal government. But they never asked us what the problems were. They never asked us where things could be streamlined and more efficient. Instead, they just took a sledgehammer to everything."
Niemeier-Walsh says NIOSH saves employers billions of dollars by finding ways to prevent illness and injury in the workplace. She says Congress needs to enforce the law it passed creating NIOSH in 1970.