Latest news with #Trammel
Yahoo
05-05-2025
- Yahoo
10-Year-Old Missing After Being Swept Away While Playing in River, Officials Fear She May Have Gone Over Dam
Authorities said a group of children were playing in the Susquehanna River on May 4 when one of them, a 10-year-old girl, was pulled away by a current The other two other children were able to emerge from the water, said the South Williamsport Fire Department A South Williamsport school official confirmed that the missing girl is a third-grade student Pennsylvania authorities are searching for a missing 10-year-old girl who was last seen playing in the Susquehanna River over the weekend. In a Facebook post shared on Sunday, May 4, the South Williamsport Fire Department said they responded to a water rescue that morning after a passerby noticed children playing in the river and felt it was unsafe. '2 children were able to be coached out of the water, 1 adult went over the dam and was rescued by shore personnel (SWPD), and 1 child was unaccounted for,' the fire department wrote. Related: Missing Woman Drowned in River After Leaving Home with Drawers and Cabinets Open The fire department added that the search, which also involved resources from other counties, continued until dark. 'Please keep the family in your thoughts and prayers as well as the responders,' the statement concluded. PEOPLE contacted the South Williamsport Fire Department and the South Williamsport Police Department for additional information. Never miss a story — sign up for to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. Officials believe the girl may have gone over Hepburn Street Dam after being swept away, the Williamsport Sun-Gazette and ABC affiliate WNEP reported. Based on the information available, Fire Chief Jeff Trammell told the Williamsport was with two other children, 10 and 13, when a current pulled the girl away as she was floating. "They went over the dam, and the adult that was not in the water tried to make a rescue, and she went over the dam as well,' added Trammel, WNEP reported. The outlet reported that officials say the woman was able to get back to shore safely. Related: Father Drowns While Saving His 3 Kids from New Jersey River, Police Say Water rescue units spent over six hours Sunday searching the Susquehanna along the borough side, with authorities employing sonar, underwater cameras and drones, reported Penn Live. The search for the victim was expected to continue on Monday with the arrival of a state police marine unit, the outlet added. In a Facebook post shared on Sunday, Dr. Eric Briggs, superintendent of schools for the South Williamsport Area School District, confirmed with 'extreme sadness' that the missing girl is a third-grade student, 'Recognizing that this news will evoke a wide range of emotions from the student's classmates and even our own faculty, we have been working closely with our community to provide support to our students and staff,' Briggs wrote. Related: Father and Son Fishermen Rescue N.Y.C. Man Who Spent Night Treading Water Off N.J. Coastline 'The district will have school counselors, counseling staff from community agencies, and county officials to provide emotional support services as needed throughout the day tomorrow and in the upcoming weeks for our students and staff,' his statement continued. 'Our sincere sympathies and prayers go out to the family and friends of our student and everyone impacted by this event,' Briggs concluded. Read the original article on People
New York Times
20-04-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Inside a Union's Fight Against Trump's Federal Job Cuts
On a warm, still evening this month, Corey Trammel, a counselor at the Oakdale Federal Correctional Institution in central Louisiana, was at his 11-year-old son's baseball game when the calls and emails started pouring in from dozens of his colleagues, worried about the latest threat to their union. Mr. Trammel is the president of Local 3957 of the American Federation of Government Employees, the country's largest union of federal workers. Until recently, Local 3957 had nearly 200 dues-paying members, all at Oakdale, including officers, teachers, case managers and food service workers. Many, if not most, supported President Trump in the 2024 election, said Mr. Trammel, a registered Republican. And many were 'in denial,' he said, as the new administration, with tacit support from a Republican Congress, moved quickly to slash and reshape the federal government. The union, which represents some 800,000 workers across more than a dozen federal agencies, has been at the forefront of resistance to that effort. At a moment of peril for the civil service, the union has tried to assert itself as a countervailing force. In doing so, it has also become a target. With his son on the pitcher's mound, Mr. Trammel was figuring out how to deal with the Trump administration's latest challenge: The Bureau of Prisons would no longer allow union dues to be deducted from paychecks. Within days, Local 3957 shrank to fewer than 50 paying members, who had signed up to use an online portal to pay their dues — $19.40 every two weeks. 'They keep kicking us when we are down,' Mr. Trammel said. In interviews, more than a dozen union leaders and lawyers across the country described their current work as galvanizing, but also alarming and relentless. Some said the crisis had laid bare the challenges of a union that is, by its nature, decentralized and diverse. It is really a federation of many unions, including Border Patrol agents in heavily Republican states, environmental researchers in liberal ones and an array of political inclinations in between. Some described tensions within the union — in particular, disagreements with how the national leadership has played its hand. Some want a more rousing call to arms, reflecting the appetite for confrontation among local members, while others say the union should stake out a moderate ground to appeal to a broader base of workers. Backed by a slew of fellow unions and sympathetic nonprofits, the American Federation of Government Employees has filed a series of federal lawsuits against the Trump administration, some successful in at least staying the damage. Every Monday, the union's national leadership has a strategy call to discuss the latest measures from the Trump administration aimed at federal workers — from the 'What did you do last week?' emails to the 'fork in the road' enticements to resign to the abrupt move to end collective bargaining agreements. (In March, the White House said the agreements enabled 'hostile federal unions to obstruct agency management.') 'I can't compare this to any other time in my career,' the union's national president, Everett Kelley, said in an interview. 'We've seen some tough fights, but never have we seen any president' try to 'put the federal government into mission failure.' Mr. Kelley said he saw the administration's effort as a prelude to privatizing vast swaths of the federal work force. 'At the same time, I think not only are federal workers realizing the urgency of our mission, I think the American people are realizing it,' he said. The battle is perhaps most acute on the local level, where union leaders like Mr. Trammel — who also have day jobs in the federal government like cleaning toxic spills, scheduling surgery in veterans' hospitals and teaching in prisons — are trying to keep their small bargaining units afloat and boost their colleagues' morale. 'Everybody is scared to death,' Mr. Trammel said. 'I am sick at my stomach over this. Everything I worked for my whole life, basically — there's nothing I can do about it.' 'A Morale Killer' The government employees union has for decades drawn its authority from the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978, which established the right to collective bargaining for federal employees. The union is racially diverse — 47 percent of members are white, 28 percent Black, 12 percent Hispanic and 3 percent Asian — and more than half its members are women. Still, the union's power is limited. Federal employees cannot strike, eliminating a potential point of leverage. Federal unions cannot negotiate salaries, which are set by the Office of Personnel Management along with the president and Congress. Membership is voluntary — the union is an 'open shop,' and workers who do not pay union dues still benefit from many of the union's efforts. Even before Mr. Trump's return to the White House, just over 300,000 of the union's 800,000 members paid dues. Engagement in locals was varied. (That number grew to around 334,000 in the weeks after Mr. Trump's inauguration, although the union is now shedding dues-paying members as some government agencies, like the Bureau of Prisons, stop allowing dues to be collected from paychecks.) Despite the limits on federal collective bargaining, the union's benefits are still tangible, leaders said. It negotiated for better working conditions and safety, remote work, and procedures for disciplinary action. Empowerment and security appeal to workers, regardless of their politics. 'At its most basic, a union is just a group of workers deciding to join together and pool their individual talents and resources to try to improve their workplace,' said Andrew Huddleston, a spokesman for the American Federation of Government Employees. 'That basic pitch has probably never been more potent than right at this moment.' While some of the union's leaders expected a second Trump administration to be hostile to some groups of federal workers, many said the prevailing attitude among members, particularly those in jobs related to public safety, was: He won't come for us. But as soon as Mr. Trump was sworn in, he put the civil service in the cross hairs in the name of 'efficiency' and cost savings. The administration mandated a return to office for federal workers, fired thousands of probationary employees and moved to eliminate entire departments and he has taken aim at the unions. One effect was a surge of support for the union. But behind the rush was an acute sense of menace, compounded by uncertainty. The changes were unpredictable, and often fitful because of court challenges. 'The immediate impact, it's terror,' said Ruark Hotopp, a national vice president for the union whose district covers North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Minnesota and Iowa. 'People are terrified that they won't have their job in 10 minutes.' He called it 'a morale killer.' The abiding message from the White House, union leaders said, is one of contempt for the federal work force. (The White House did not respond to a request for comment.) The administration has also lamented union protections for workers facing disciplinary proceedings. 'It is insulting to say that we are low-productivity public workers, that we are corrupt, that we are the Deep State, that we are lazy,' said Brian Kelly, vice president of a local in Michigan that represents employees of the Environmental Protection Agency. Membership in his local has grown substantially, Mr. Kelly said, as has engagement. 'A lot of people have now woken up,' he said. At first, he spent a lot of time doing 'Basic Union 101' in Signal chats for new members. Recently, he has been pushing for the local to talk to Michigan lawmakers. Adding to many workers' pain, they said, is the apparent lack of familiarity among the Trump administration leadership with what the federal work force does. 'People have no clue how government operates,' said Philip Glover, a national vice president for the union, covering Pennsylvania and Delaware. 'They have no experience with it,' he added, referring to the people working at Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency. By day, Micah Niemeier-Walsh is an industrial hygienist for the firefighter health program within the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, a division of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But she is also the vice president of a union local that represents C.D.C. employees in Cincinnati. Until earlier this year, the role entailed a few hours of work each week. Now, she is regularly working 12- or 15-hour days. 'Jan. 20 rolls around, we realized very quickly that we needed to up our game if we wanted to survive,' Ms. Niemeier-Walsh said. 'Are we going to let them walk all over us?' she asked. 'Or are we going to fight back?' Political Frustration In interviews, union leaders expressed outrage at Mr. Trump's actions, but many reserved particular ire for Congress. Mr. Trammel, in Louisiana, said he used to have a pretty direct line of communication with Mike Johnson, the Louisiana congressman who is now the House speaker, and considered him a friend. 'I even put up signs for Mike Johnson,' Mr. Trammel said. But the line has gone cold. 'I have left him several messages,' Mr. Trammel said. He added, 'The Republicans that we have worked with, that we have dealt with, they don't care that we are struggling right now.' Mr. Johnson's office did not respond to a request for comment. Others in the union's leadership expressed frustration with Democratic leaders, particularly over the negotiations to keep the government funded. The deal that was approved, with backing from several key Democrats, gave Mr. Trump leeway to cut more agencies, Mr. Trammel said. Some union leaders described internal politics and disagreements about how to go after Mr. Trump's agenda — not only how to lobby lawmakers but how to use the courts and the public square to their advantage. Paula Chavez, a teacher and the president of Local 3809 — a Bureau of Prisons union in Big Spring, Texas — has been working extra time to get more union members to pay their dues online, rather than through payroll. She said the union's national leadership had been so confrontational with the White House, it had antagonized her more conservative colleagues. 'This is heavy Trump land,' Ms. Chavez said. 'You can do the job and not politicize it,' she said of the union's national leadership. But she added that, even among the strong Trump supporters in her unit, 'buyer's remorse is at 1,000 percent.'
