By April Ryan
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore is bracing for the upcoming unemployment numbers. The expectation is that the new figures will be significant for federal job losses. Maryland is one of two states that neighbors the District line which houses the federal epicenter of Washington D.C.
Maryland is also home to large swaths of federal government employees and headquarters to the National Security Agency as well as the Social Security Administration and other federal departments. Maryland has the second highest concentration of federal workers only behind Washington D.C. The state is offering help for those workers who are without jobs. Gov. Moore launches Resource Website for Maryland Workers.
Black Republican Armstrong Williams, who has the ear of Donald Trump, says of the daily federal job cuts upheaval is that “everyone will feel the hurt, as there is an effort to make the government leaner and more efficient if Trump’s plan is executed properly.”
This reporter has spoken to many fired or soon-to-be-fired federal workers and federal contractors who are terrified over retribution. They have acknowledged Elon Musk has told departments that he does not like federal contractors. There is a strong contradiction there, as he is a federal contractor too. According to reports Musk has about 100 contracts with the federal government totaling 3.1 Billion dollars. Those Musk’s contracts involve his products like Tesla and Space X. There is also the rumor that Musk makes $8M per day from the U.S.
Meanwhile, as Elon Musk and DOGE go from federal department to federal department, Human Resources is not necessarily the unit utilized to find what President Trump calls “waste, fraud and abuse.” There are reports of whisper campaigns among employees who are telling each other to sift out who they feel is abusing work privileges or not doing work etc. Those facts have been confirmed by a Republican close to the process and the employees I have spoken with.
Let’s dig in the weeds a bit more on the probationary firings: The “probationary period” extends to people who could be 22-year federal government employees and transferred to another position in less than a year. They too can be fired as they are in the one-year probationary period for that new position.
In attempts to dismantle anything that is against the priorities of anti-DEI, anti-woke and anti-family a gay male contractor who has received a termination letter from the federal government says their department had to end their pride employee affinity group that was on the work site. The worker says the group continues its activities and meetings now, but away from the job site.
With the tremendous fear of speaking out, employees are finding solace in their ranks through private chat networks to support one another.
For this report, I spoke with fired contractors who are Black, women, gay and White. As most of those are on the verge of being fired or have already been terminated. The names, positions, locations and departments will not be revealed to prevent retribution from the Trump administration, Elon Musk or DOGE.
This article was originally published by NNPA Newswire.
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