State mobilizes ‘rapid response event’ to address federal layoffs
The Montana Department of Labor and Industry has set up a “Rapid Response Event” to help the hundreds of Montanans who were recently fired in a mass federal workforce reduction find new jobs.
In a Friday morning press release, the agency said it set up the event, scheduled for Wednesday, March 12, to “guide affected workers back into the workforce.” Impacted workers who attend the event can also receive assistance filing unemployment insurance claims.
“Montanans — whether loggers, miners, store clerks or federal employees — deserve a strong partner to help them navigate the uncertainty of a layoff,” DLI Commissioner Sarah Swanson said in the statement.
During the event, in-person assistance will be available to those who go to any of the state’s 18 Job Services offices.
In Lincoln County, the Job Service center is located at 417 Mineral Ave., Suite 4 in Libby. They can be reached at 293-6282 or by email at LibbyJSC@mt.gov.
DLI employees will help interested attendees search for jobs, sharpen their resumes, improve their interview skills, and access education and skill-building resources. The event will also include access to online resources and an option for remote access to a virtual presentation.
Workers who received generic dismissal letters for their termination have expressed concern about their ability to draw unemployment benefits due to the performance-related reasoning cited in those letters.
In a follow-up phone interview, Swanson said the department will review each unemployment claim it receives on a “case-by-case basis.”
Swanson said she’d like more communication between DLI and the federal workers, the agencies they worked for and the unions that represent them. DLI is committed to handling claims quickly, Swanson said, adding that it typically takes a few weeks to process an unemployment application.
The department’s response to these layoffs has been more challenging than other mass layoffs it has mobilized to address due to limited information on the front end, Swanson said, giving the Sibanye Stillwater downsizing and the Pyramid Lumber Mill closure as examples of job losses that were easier to address.
Federal workforce shake-ups have generated multiple lawsuits. Last week Christopher Cooper, a federal judge in the District of Columbia, dealt a blow to a coalition of unions representing federal employees when he found that the fired employees should raise their claims with a federal labor board instead.
The unions argued that approach will be slow and resource-intensive due to the sheer number of employees who’ve been fired. Six federal employees who’ve made their case with the Merit Systems Protection Board have seen some preliminary relief.
In a separate lawsuit filed by federal worker unions and later joined by civic groups, a federal district court judge in San Francisco deemed the firings illegal and ordered the federal government to rescind the Office of Personnel Management memo outlining the workforce reduction.
According to reporting by NPR, the order does not cover every agency with employees who lost their positions — just those that intersect with the civic group plaintiffs, which include veterans groups and conservation groups such as Western Watersheds Project and Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks.
According to the lawsuit filed by the National Federation of Federal Employees in the Washington, D.C., district court, the employment of 220,000 “probationary employees” — those who are only a year or two into their current position — is vulnerable due to the workforce reduction initiative led by tech billionaire and Department of Government Efficiency head Elon Musk.