FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Contact: Matt Dorsey
(202) 550-6987
October 31, 2024
Washington, D.C. – Yesterday, Randy Erwin, National President of the National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE) issued the following statement:
“Our union represents thousands of federal wildland firefighters across the country, including a significant number of Montanans who will be voting in a tightly contested race between incumbent Senator Jon Tester and Tim Sheehy.
“On more than one occasion, candidate Sheehy has baselessly accused wildland firefighters of ‘milking’ fires due to ‘laziness, greed, self-interest, and corruption,’ insisting that the public servants on the front lines of the wildfire crisis simply, ‘don’t want to put the fire out.’
“Sheehy’s comments are not only unfounded and disrespectful of wildland firefighters across the country, but they also show a severe lack of understanding of the essential and dangerous work these brave men and women do to defend our country from devastating fires – especially communities in Montana.
“Wildland firefighters have been doing more with less for decades, and the current shortage of firefighters places them and other first responders at greater risk while they work longer deployments fighting hotter and bigger fires each year. Sheehy and his arial company have profited heavily from taxpayer-funded contracts to fight wildfires while many wildland firefighters struggle to pay the rent because of low pay.
“Sheehy’s disdain for firefighters is out of step with true Montanans and the rest of America. It is elitist and self-serving. Federal wildland firefighters and other first responders deserve better, as do all the residents of Montana.”