CLEVELAND — Thousands of Northeast Ohio federal workers have lost their jobs under President Donald Trump's new administration.
“I received a letter on Saturday in my email that my position was being terminated,” said Health Education Specialist Danielle Augustin.
Augustin worked for the US Department of Health and Human Services as a health education specialist for the last two years.
“I was working on projects that were focused on providing resources and access to postpartum women who would be struggling with depression. It’s unfortunate that so many needed resources are being taken away from individuals. And contracts and grants that do this amazing work to serve people,” Augustin said.
In October, Augustin received a promotion, which came with a new probationary period. And during this flurry of federal layoffs, departments were directed to fire mostly probationary employees.
"Folks who have been with the federal government for years and have no performance issues have been terminated. But because they switched positions in the past year or two, they're deemed probationary and they were terminated. So, no performance, no tenure has been taken into consideration,” Augustin said.
Trump said his goal is to downsize the government and "run it better.” He said the Department of Government Efficiency, led by Elon Musk, had discovered fraud.
“They’re finding levels of fraud, waste and abuse, I think nobody ever thought possible,” Trump said.
Some Republican lawmakers are fully backing him in his push.
“What we're doing is we're tightening the belt, just like we do in our own lives. Whether at home or at work and we must get the government size (down) so that we can afford to live under a tax system that doesn't overburden Americans,” said Ohio Senator Bernie Moreno.
But unions and democrats counter the vacancies created through these terminations. They said the cutbacks threaten public health.
“We have to defend the people that take care of our veterans, that take care of our services that provide these services for every community within Northeast Ohio,“ said American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) Local 31 President Darryll Bell.
Despite the cold and snow, people showed up to downtown Cleveland on Thursday to rally and listen to union members and Congresswoman Shontel Brown demand protections for civil service employees.
“I am putting forth legislation right now to try to put the guardrail back on this maniacal behavior,” Brown said.
She also called for the president to go through Congress.
“He's been claiming he's got a mandate and if you've got a mandate then use the proper channels. Let's use the Congress and go through the proper procedures to turn these things into law, instead he's using the power of the pen,” said Brown.
Brown wants to put the stories of those impacted out there and spread the word about how these cutbacks are impacting people.
“We are fighting and standing in the gap for them, and if they give us the information, we will put the stories and the information out there. We protect their identity, and we have a mechanism in place to do that,” Brown said.
AFGE and other unions representing federal employees have filed suit against the Trump administration for illegally terminating civil service workers.
