ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Cuts to federal agencies hit home for local workers who lost their jobs.
Two NOAA employees who were let go at the end of February attended a march Thursday in Ann Arbor, drawing attention to the impact of the cuts.
Brie Farina was a writer and editor at the NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory in Ann Arbor.
“We got about an 80-minute notice that we were terminated, and we had to leave by the end of the day, and that was that,” Farina said.
Farina attended the march Thursday to raise awareness about what’s been happening.
“It feels really terrible, and it feels even worse to know more cuts are coming,” she said. “This is just the beginning, and we would like people to be aware of that before it actually happens. They’re trying to cut a lot more people than just us.”
Katy Frank, a computer scientist at NOAA, was also let go.
“I came from the private sector; I used to be a software developer, and this is work I’m really passionate about, so I was very disappointed to lose my job this way.”
Despite all the national headlines, Frank said it still felt sudden to be laid off.
“I think you like to hope that it won’t happen to you until it does, so yeah, I was pretty surprised,” Frank said.
The march was put on by the members of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE).
AFGE member and EPA employee Brian Kelly said their agency has seen cuts as well.
“Region 5, which is the Great Lakes region, we’ve lost dozens of employees,” Kelly said. “We’ve asked management how many people we’ve lost, they won’t tell us. But we’ve lost dozens of people.”
Kelly said he was on a work trip when he learned some of his colleagues had been let go.
“I was just working in Southern California on the wildfires collecting hazardous waste from the burned areas and back home people are getting fired,” Kelly said. “It cripples the moral. It makes you concerned. I’m thousands of miles away from my family, and I’m worried about my job; it’s heartbreaking.”