A federal workers union expects a total of at least 1,378 federal employees in Alaska with probationary status to be fired by the Trump administration.
David Owens, a national representative with the American Federation of Government Employees, said the union did not have current numbers of those already fired as of Thursday, Feb. 20, but expects the Trump administration to fire all probationary employees. Out of the 1,378 employees, 331 are veterans, he said.
He cited an Office of Personnel Management database in giving the following breakdown for Alaska: The Air Force has 294 employees, the Army has 191; the Department of Homeland Security, 31; Department of Transportation, 109; Department of Interior, including park employees and firefighters, 296; and Department of Agriculture (U.S. Forest Service), 138. That list includes workers represented by the AFGE; other probationary employees are not represented by the union.
The lost payroll if all probationary employees in Alaska are fired would total almost $100 million, Owens said.
Probationary employees include those who are new to federal employment, as well as some experienced workers who have changed jobs. The probationary period lasts one or two years, with many veterans having two-year probationary periods.
Alaska has 11,717 federal employees statewide, according to the federal Office of Personnel Management, as of August 2024.
Owens said his office is getting calls from members with termination letters incorrectly citing poor performance, which is used to fire employees who have no recourse.
“They get emails that your performance is substandard, which is not true, and this is nothing other than they’re just attacking the probationary employees because they don’t have any appeal rights … and they don’t have title protections, which would give them a right to fight this,” he said.
He said there is no official tally of fired employees in Alaska to date. “I don’t have the numbers that have actually been removed. The only people who know that are the administration or the agencies, and I guarantee you’re not going to get the agency to tell you. All I can go by is the data I have, which is the number of federal employees,” he said.
There are 200,000 federal employees with probationary status nationwide. “And they’re targeting, honestly, every last one of them,” Owens said.
“It’s been a nightmare,” he said. “I’ve had people call me all day long. I’ve had people call me last week with, ‘I’ve been working good.’ ‘I got a performance award.’ ‘I had no problem with my job.’ ‘What am I going to do?’”
He said the American Federation of Government Employees is coordinating with other unions nationwide to file a class action lawsuit.
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