After the Department of the Treasury laid off 1,446 employees Oct. 10, union leaders in northern Utah don’t know how many Ogden-based employees are among those ranks. Meanwhile, others continue on furlough or work without pay.
Rob Lawrence, president of the National Treasury Employees Union Chapter 67, said some at the union’s Oct. 11 town hall had received the government’s Reduction in Force notices.
“My stomach is churning trying to figure out what I'm going to do come next pay period, when it's looking like I'm going to go without a paycheck,” said Lawrence, who has been furloughed. “So I can't even imagine how they're feeling knowing that they aren't going to have a job in a few months.”
The layoffs are set to take effect in December.
Treasury employs between 7,000 and 9,999 people in Weber County as of the latest data from 2023. The majority are with the Internal Revenue Service, according to Lawrence.
For those who have continued to work with the expectation of pay, things are not business as usual inside the government offices. A main concern among union members is whether they can take time off during the shutdown without being furloughed, Lawrence said.
Jaime Doxey, a 15-year IRS veteran and second vice president of the local union, has her daughter’s wedding coming up in Nevada. She’s worried about whether she’ll have a job when she gets back.
“We were advised that if we use more than eight hours or 10 hours of our leave, whatever our shift is, once we hit that mark, then they are going to furlough us,” she said.
After that, she said, the agency could bring them back in the next pay period or keep them furloughed until the end of the shutdown.
Still, her daughter’s wedding is non-negotiable.
“I'm going to watch her walk down the aisle with my husband and get married, and if they're going to furlough me for having a family and already having the leave pre-approved, then so be it,” she said.
Doxey is frustrated because she’s worked so hard for the IRS for so long. But if she needs to, she’ll look for a new job “and just keep on trucking with life.”
Krystle Kirkpatrick, who manages communications for the union chapter, said she’s canceled doctors’ appointments due to the risk of being furloughed.
“I can't pay my bills with uncertainty,” she said.
When the shutdown began, she was scheduled to care for her 8-month-old niece while the infant’s parents were on vacation. After hearing the new policy, her managers helped her work out a flexible schedule to get her hours in. Others haven’t been as lucky. One coworker canceled a doctor’s appointment scheduled three hours away for fear of being furloughed, she said.
“A lot of chaos happens when they disseminate information inconsistently,” Kirkpatrick said.
The policy on leave time was communicated in meetings, not in writing, Lawrence said, and it contradicts letters to shutdown-exempt employees that things would continue as normal. To him, this shutdown feels more malicious than the last one in 2018-2019.
“They're hiding a lot of stuff, and they're surprising us with a lot of stuff, and they're not giving us any heads up.”
Lawrence has also fielded questions about whether workers will receive back pay after President Donald Trump suggested some may not. While he trusts workers will eventually get paid due to the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019, he is anxious for the shutdown to end.
“This is me, as an American, demanding that we get our act together as a country and get back to work doing the business for the American taxpayer,” he said.
Read more from NPR: 'It feels terrible.' Federal worker's family tightens their belts as shutdown drags on
Macy Lipkin is a Report for America corps member who reports for KUER in northern Utah.
