Internal NFFE News
April 6, 2026
The National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE-IAM) is celebrating another organizing victory as over 50 workers on the Wayne National Forest have voted to unionize with NFFE.
Wayne National Forest, located in Perry County, Ohio, is the state’s only national forest and spans over 244,000 acres of Appalachian foothills. It is described as a “patchwork of public land” that offers hiking, camping and stunning views.
Kelly Broadbear, a forestry technician at Wayne National Forest, was one of the instrumental forest service members who pushed for unionization.
In Dec. 2024, Broadbear and co-workers began having preliminary conversations regarding their concerns about the incoming Trump administration not prioritizing environmental stewardship and public land management.
“Many federal employees – and many of us here – were, frankly, worried about how we would be treated and about the security of our positions within the agency,” she said.
After these initial conversations and efforts to organize, Broadbear and her co-workers regrouped once the holidays concluded to take more intentional steps towards unionization.
She described “ramping up” efforts by following NFFE on social media and joining its mailing list to grow more familiar with what the union was doing to advocate for and protect federal employees. Once Broadbear saw the work NFFE and the Forest Service council was doing, and learned that many forests in the region were unionized, her team decided they didn’t want to “miss out” on the employee protections.
“We just really wanted to find a way to help out our fellow employees during these challenging times that we saw ourselves in,” Broadbear said.
As conversations about reductions in forest service grew louder, Broadbear and her co-workers knew it was time to act.
Benefits such as incident response premium pay, protections against wrongful termination and strides towards a better work-life balance for firefighters were not only attractive to these employees, but also necessary.
“With our new membership, hopefully it just gives NFFE another boost to keep advocating for even those incremental things that really end up benefiting people’s lives,” Broadbear said.
“NFFE is proud to welcome all of the dedicated Forest Service workers on the Wayne National Forest,” said NFFE National President Randy Erwin. “These men and women play a critical role in stewarding one of Ohio’s premier recreation sites and they deserve a seat at the table when it comes to their working conditions and job protections. By voting to organize with NFFE, they’ve taken an important step toward securing the respect, fairness, and protections every worker deserves.”