Union and public officials will speak at a rally in downtown Cleveland Thursday to support thousands of Northeast Ohio federal workers who face job cuts under the Trump administration.
The Feb. 20 rally will be held at 11 a.m. at the Anthony J. Celebrezze Federal Building, 1240 E. 9th St., Cleveland.
Nearly 17,000 civil federal employees work in Greater Cleveland at places such as the federal building, the Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center and at local Social Security Administration offices. Many are represented by the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE). The union says that none of its members have yet to lose their jobs, though some have been put on notice that they will be terminated or have been placed on administrative leave.
The vacancies they create through these terminations are going to devastate services people rely on. A federal worker is someone who tends to a veteran at the VA or makes sure someone’s Social Security check gets sent out on time.”
Brian Pearson, who heads the North Shore AFL-CIO Federation of Labor, one of the rally’s organizers
More than 60 non-union VA employees in Ohio, Michigan and Indiana have lost their jobs, according to the union. The union did not have termination numbers for Greater Cleveland. Several Cuyahoga Valley National Park employees have lost their jobs.
Brian Pearson, who heads the North Shore AFL-CIO Federation of Labor, one of the rally’s organizers, said the event is being held to show support for federal workers. The leader of Northeast Ohio’s largest labor organization said the rally will also emphasize how gutting the federal workforce could hurt Northeast Ohio residents.
“The vacancies they create through these terminations are going to devastate services people rely on,” he said. “A federal worker is someone who tends to a veteran at the VA or makes sure someone’s Social Security check gets sent out on time.”
Unions and others say federal job cuts will hurt workers and Northeast Ohio residents
Darryll Bell, president of AFGE Local 31, whose members work for VA facilities In Northeast Ohio, disagrees with the rationale for decimating the federal workforce.
“It is impossible to balance the budget on the backs of employees,” he said. “We’re not opposed to selective cuts because there’s always room for improvement. But this wide approach, where you’re basically making federal employees the face of this deficit, is wrong. We don’t make enough money to have that kind of impact.”
In addition to the VA, employees have been terminated or put on notice at a host of other agencies and departments, including the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Federal Housing Administration and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). HHS has several agencies, including the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
AFGE and other unions representing federal employees have filed suit against the Trump administration for illegally terminating civil service workers. Civil service workers have protections, including being given due process before being terminated. These employees can’t be disciplined or fired arbitrarily, especially for political reasons.
Pearson said unions are lobbying members of Congress from Northeast Ohio and U.S. Republican senators John Husted and Bernie Moreno against gutting the federal workforce.
Congress Member Shontel Brown, a Democrat representing much of Cleveland and the East Side suburbs, is scheduled to speak at the rally.
“[T]his isn’t just an attack on our hardworking public servants, it is an attack on all my constituents across Northeast Ohio,” Brown wrote in an email to Signal Cleveland. “I look forward to standing with our local federal workers against this outrageous attack.”