This week Grassroots President Luke Mayfield sent a letter to USDA leadership and key Congressional members concerning the lack of movement on the Wildland Firefighter Pay Protection Act — here’s an excerpt from the letter.
“The debate over the remaining funds from the Bipartisan lnfrastructure Law is a distraction to conjure false narratives; one is administrative mismanagement and the other that the federal wildland workforce is not facing a fiscal cliff. Rather than action to address the crisis at hand, these arguments try to avoid accountability for the lack of leadership, which could bring thousands of wildland firefighters to the brink of a pay cliff.”
The federal wildland firefighter workforce can no longer be sacrificed without long-term and catastrophic consequences. Workforce and systemic reforms must become congressional and administrative priorities.
The purpose of the letter is to clearly outline and document our intent for agency leadership and Congressional decision-makers.
To read the entire letter for perspective on what’s going on in the Capitol, click [HERE]. Our organization wants to make sure stakeholders are not misguided by rumors or false narratives from named or unnamed sources.
Thank you,
Grassroots Wildland Firefighters
PO BOX 51253
Sparks, Nevada 89435
Seems like the public we serve are seeing & hearing more about ALL other labor issues / strikes occurring in the world today while word of this issue has been stuck in the echo chamber until very very recently. I wish everyone understood – as our adults in congress surely must – that these wildlander’s are having to resign their appointments/commissions in order to find better working environments & pay. They – unlike other workers – have sworn to an oath of office which prevents them from striking against the gov’t. In order for them to make the same statement other “strikers” and labor unions are making they have to quit entirely and walk away from their trade. It feels like the adults in charge in D.C. are using this little fact as some sort of leverage otherwise why wouldn’t they ALL be sponsor’s to the legislation?