1 week Ago By Kate Giammarise
A group of local federal workers rallied in Downtown Pittsburgh Wednesday, decrying job cuts and a recent federal executive order by President Donald Trump that would take away union rights for many federal employees. “These are union jobs that have value to them,” said Elizabeth McPeak, an IRS employee and first vice president of the National Treasury Employees Union Chapter 34. She spoke while pro-union songs played.
“Federal workers are vilified, but we have 300 people in this building right behind me who are taking a million taxpayer calls every single day. If those people aren't there, those calls aren't going to get answered,” she said. Those in attendance carried “You’re in Union County,” “We Serve America,” and American flag signs.
The NTEU local union represents over 600 IRS employees in Western Pennsylvania. Also in attendance were American Federation of Government Employees union members who work for the U.S.
Department of Veterans Affairs. VA workers “help veterans get education, compensation, burial benefits. If they lose their jobs, those veterans aren't going to get service.
I want people to understand that here, these jobs matter,” McPeak said. “And we're not afraid of efficiency. We support efficiency.
But it's not efficient to take a hammer to the federal workforce,” McPeak added, referring to efforts by Trump ally Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, which have slashed the federal workforce. The local IRS office recently saw job cuts of probationary employees as part of a national mass firing of probationary employees who had been recently hired, said National Treasury Employees Union Chapter 34 President Charleen Cline Stephansky. It’s unclear if they will be able to return; the firing is the subject of a court case.
“The IRS has been starved for staff for many, many, many years,” Stephansky said, though she said the trend was starting to reverse in the past two or so years because of the investments under President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act. She said the workers in the office provide critical assistance for taxpayers, helping people get their refunds. “We are here to help," she said.
“We have been here for almost a century helping people with their tax issues.” The 30-minute lunchtime rally took place outside of the William S. Moorhead Federal Building on Liberty Avenue, Downtown.
“Twenty-five years, I've served this country with the IRS, and in one [pen stroke] he's trying to take my livelihood away,” said Kelly Campbell, a quality assurance representative with the IRS, of the president’s executive order. The executive order, which seeks to end collective bargaining for a number of federal agencies, cites national security concerns. The National Treasury Employees Union has filed suit to stop the executive order.
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