r/Firefighting • u/Quick_Connection6818 • May 04 '25

News Further cuts at NIOSH including firefighters cancer registry

Among the newly terminated are those employees who worked for the National Firefighter Registry for Cancer. After CBS reported on those firings on Friday night, HHS pushed back, claiming that no CDC employee had been laid off and that the firefighter health and safety programs would remain “top priority” for the agency.

A source who worked for the firefighter registry disputed each of HHS’s claims, confirming that they’d been fired on Friday evening and noting that the National Firefighter Registry for Cancer had already been closed to new applicants. The agency’s website affirmed that the program was taken offline.

https://www.progressreport.news/p/rfk-jr-massacre-paves-way-to-give

223 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

85 comments sorted by

View all comments

165

u/SquirrelyStu May 04 '25

Fuck Ed Kelly and Fuck the IAFF for not taking a stand against Trump prior to the election. Not everybody loved Harris, but nobody can deny Trump and the GOPs history of attacks on organized labor.

67

u/PhaedrusZenn May 04 '25 edited May 04 '25

You gotta look at the body, more than the leadership. It's our brothers and sisters who would have thrown a fit and threatened, or followed through, to leaving the IAFF and their locals, had the IAFF endorsed Harris. These are the same people who unironically come to the fire station with "Better to be a Russian than a Democrat" t-shirts at shift change.

Sometimes FAFO is the only hope of them "getting it"...

38

u/BreakImaginary1661 May 04 '25

Problem with all of the ones I work with odd that they still refuse to find out. They have simply pulled the wool over their eyes and continue with the “deep state” bullshit and talk about how you just have to wait because there’s “more to it”…. Which I have no fucking clue what they’re referring to and they are unable to elaborate either. It’s incredibly frustrating.

17

u/schrutesanjunabeets Professional Asshole May 04 '25

"we just gotta wait and see" is an everyday phrase at the chow table right now.

19

u/PhaedrusZenn May 04 '25

I will say, that while it is paramount to me to keep things civil, I absolutely no longer let my coworkers get away with making false claims about trump or his presidency anymore. 

I don't bring it up, but if they do, I give them a full breakdown of all the legitimate damage I see trump and MAGA causing to the US, the economy, world relations, societal norms (including common respect and decency) and now firefighter safety. 

It's always been absurd as to how many of our brothers and sisters will vilifiy anything that even smells of "communist" socialism, or government, all while working for a government (of one type or another)  in a 100% socialist community program to provide services to everyone, regardless of whether they could personally afford to pay for multiple apparatus and firefighters/EMS workers to show up to their house 24/7. 

Make it make sense. 

6

u/Mindless_Air8339 May 04 '25

It’s so sad. A bunch of union workers who vote for and believe the most anti-union administration of our generation. The point was to divide us. They knew they could succeed with so many feeble minded among us.

11

u/an_angry_Moose Career FF May 04 '25

Ain’t that the truth.

3

u/SMC99 May 05 '25

They are the same ones who seek jobs in Liberal cities because the pay and benefits are better but complain the whole time about Liberal policies. 

6

u/plug_ugly14 IAFF May 04 '25

The email I recently got from Kelly and IAFF makes me believe they won’t take a stand after the election either. Kinda read like, “It was all a misunderstanding. The cheeto-in-chief will make it all better.”

2

u/PerrinAyybara All Hazards Capt Obvious May 04 '25

I think that's the important take away from this article as it contradicts Kelly's statements

1

u/OhSnapBruddah May 04 '25

I don't know about your local, but guys in my department wanted our local union to donate a bunch of money to Trump, even though he's anti-union. Those guys holding "union firefighters for Trump" signs weren't real firefighters, they were just campaign staff, and a bunch of jackasses fell for that crook a third time. Now we're seeing a collapsing economy. When the taxes go, you'll see departments turning to layoffs.