The National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE-IAM) criticized the Trump administration’s plan, announced on April 7, to relocate the U.S. Forest Service headquarters to Salt Lake City, Utah, and eliminate all regional offices. The union said this move would disrupt the workforce responsible for managing national forests, fighting wildfires, and serving the public.
According to NFFE-IAM National President Randy Erwin, “The Trump administration cannot dress up a mass workforce disruption as common-sense management. Our members are in our nation’s forests every single day, helping manage watersheds, wildfires, and the lands that millions of Americans count on. Uprooting their careers and blowing up the structure they work within is not a reform. It is chaos, and the American public and our public lands will pay the price.”
The restructuring comes shortly after 174 workers at Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest in Nevada and eastern California voted to join NFFE-IAM. The union said this organizing victory reflects a growing desire among Forest Service employees for job security through union representation amid what it describes as escalating attacks on federal workers by President Trump’s administration.
NFFE-IAM represents tens of thousands of U.S. Forest Service employees who are covered by a Master Agreement providing workplace protections. The union emphasized that before any worker is required to relocate or faces reassignment or separation due to restructuring, the agency must fulfill its legal obligation to bargain over these changes with employee representatives.
NFFE-IAM describes itself as representing approximately 110,000 blue- and white-collar government workers across the United States.
